Zoom to lay off 15% of staff

VOICE AIR MEDIA News Update

After expanding its staff by three times in the span of 24 months during the pandemic, cloud-based videoconferencing service provider Zoom on Wednesday said that it was laying off 15% of its workforce, fearing uncertain macroeconomic conditions.

“We have made the tough but necessary decision to reduce our team by approximately 15% and say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues,” CEO Eric Yuan wrote in a blog post.

The chief executive chalked up the downsizing activity to the company’s failure to grow sustainably during the pandemic.

“We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities,” Yuan wrote.

Zoom experienced an unprecedented rise in demand during the pandemic, as most enterprises went into work-from-home mode, and this forced the company “to staff up rapidly to support the quick rise of users on its platform and their evolving needs,” Yuan wrote.

However, with the effects of the pandemic subsiding and global economic uncertainty affecting customer spending, the company decided to lay off 1,300 staffers, Yuan said.

US-based employees who have been let go, according to the company, are being offered salary and healthcare coverage up to 16 weeks, a fiscal year 2023 bonus based on company performance, stock option vesting for six months, and outplacement services.

Staffers outside the US are being offered similar benefits, the company added.