- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky made the powerful choice to put off 1,900 workers throughout the pandemic.
- Chesky made an alumni listing for laid off Airbnb workers so recruiters might join with them.
- He mentioned in The Diary of a CEO podcast that the layoffs had been like “breaking apart with 2,500 individuals.”
Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky made the powerful choice to put off 1,900 workers throughout the pandemic and he took a private hand in serving to staff safe jobs after, he mentioned in The Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett.
Chesky, who cofounded Airbnb in 2008, advised Bartlett that the corporate was slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic as journey got here to a halt because of the lockdowns requiring individuals to remain of their properties. Because of this the corporate needed to lay off 25% of its workforce to chop prices.
Chesky defined to Bartlett that he needed individuals to go away with “dignity” and have the prospect to get good roles.
“We created an alumni listing the place if you happen to had been laid off, you would decide right into a public listing, we publish your data, and we level recruiters to your data,” he mentioned. “We ended up getting tons of of 1000’s of recruiters and folks visiting these profiles and a whole lot of these individuals bought rehired.”
He added: “That is how I wish to be remembered. I solely keep in mind that once I’m in peril, we’re in our darkest hour, I am not simply worrying about how we’ll survive, I am attempting to name CEOs of different firms to see if they will rent our individuals.”
When describing the layoffs, Chesky mentioned it was like “breaking apart with 2,500 individuals,” and mentioned that he had a “deep feeling of affection for all of them,” referring to his staff.
Throughout its pandemic layoffs, Airbnb’s severance packages had been substantial. Laid off workers obtained 14 weeks of base pay plus an extra week for annually they spent on the firm; a 12 months of medical insurance cowl; 4 months of psychological well being help, they usually had been additionally in a position to maintain their company-issued laptops.
Chesky advised Bartlett that after he despatched the e-mail in regards to the layoffs to workers, he obtained tons of of ‘thanks’ letters from individuals who had been let go, not simply due to the beneficiant advantages however as a result of he performed the layoffs with respect.
Chesky’s strategy stands in distinction to another, extra brutal tech latest layoffs, most notably the swift, typically chaotic layoffs at what was then Twitter after it was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk.
After Musk purchased X in October 2022, he laid off 3,700 workers with little discover, with many solely discovering out they’d misplaced their jobs after their entry to Slack and their work laptops had been lower off.
Software program big Salesforce is one other agency to obtain criticism for latest layoffs, with some workers complaining about what they noticed as poor communication in regards to the cuts, with some discovering out whereas on trip or by way of colleagues. “It is like checking the lacking bulletin board after a significant catastrophe,” one worker mentioned on the time.
