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Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

indeed.com

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Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#41

Post by santoshalper »

Vespasian wrote: post #22
BrentOzar wrote: post #3

> I take sole accountability for where we are today. I am deeply and profoundly sorry. I will be taking a 25% cut in base pay. Additionally, more than 75% of my total compensation is directly tied to Indeed revenue growth, and is at risk given current trends. That’s how you tell people you’re accountable.

Maybe I'm imagining it but this letter seems a lot more direct than the other ones. "People loosing jobs" instead of "Puffys getting the opportunity to move on.". Also their yes/no mail has a clear title and they lay down policy that fired people get to use slack for a few days to "say goodbye to friends" etc. Not great obviously (it's still kicking them out) but at least they are not adding insult to injury.

Yes, this is among the best letters of this kind that I have read.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#42

Post by santoshalper »

imwithstoopid wrote: post #26
icedchai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably underestimate the marketing, sales, and support aspects. Also, there are no doubt a ton of spam/scam jobs being posted constantly. I'm not saying it adds up to 15K, just more than you or I would think...

sorry I'm with the parent poster on this one - Indeed was bloated

Well, obviously the CEO thought so too.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#43

Post by steve-atx-7600 »

paulpauper wrote: post #2

That is pretty ironic, I guess. Like firetruck catching fire or ambulance getting in an accident. 2,200 people go. This is roughly 15% of our team. Why does such a company need 15k employees to begin with? That seems like too many for a site that does not produce anything tangible. Coding, support, marketing, sales, etc. does it really add up to 15K?

A lot of empire building during the good times. Ridiculously heavy layers of prod and eng middle management.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#44

Post by jwilber »

BrentOzar wrote: post #3

> I take sole accountability for where we are today. I am deeply and profoundly sorry. I will be taking a 25% cut in base pay. Additionally, more than 75% of my total compensation is directly tied to Indeed revenue growth, and is at risk given current trends. That’s how you tell people you’re accountable.

Lol. A 25% cut and “my revenue is at risk” is meaningless when you make more in a year than most of your employees will even retire with.

It’s crazy we don’t hold CEO’s to the same rigorous standards as employees, despite their importance (as measured by salary) being x 100 that of the average employee. Low risk, high reward.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#45

Post by DangitBobby »

jwilber wrote: post #44
BrentOzar wrote: post #3

> I take sole accountability for where we are today. I am deeply and profoundly sorry. I will be taking a 25% cut in base pay. Additionally, more than 75% of my total compensation is directly tied to Indeed revenue growth, and is at risk given current trends. That’s how you tell people you’re accountable.

Lol. A 25% cut and “my revenue is at risk” is meaningless when you make more in a year than most of your employees will even retire with. It’s crazy we don’t hold CEO’s to the same rigorous standards as employees, despite their importance (as measured by salary) being x 100 that of the average employee. Low risk, high reward.

It's not completely meaningless.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#46

Post by s1artibartfast »

roflyear wrote: post #40
s1artibartfast wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

stock proce isnt revenue growth. IF comp is tied to revenue, it doesn't matter if the stock goes to the moon. The stock goes up because investors think that revenue will go up if they pay fewer salaries.

Higher stock value helps companies achieve things. See GME

For most companies stock value is meaningless in terms of achieving things. It doesn't put more money in their pocket to pursue development unless they do additional stock offering, which is very unusual for a mature company.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#47

Post by cleverwebble »

orf wrote: post #33
fzeroracer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were to solely take into account job market size then China alone would dwarf the entire list and require a massive team to maintain on its own for what I hope should be obvious reasons. And this ignores that the job market size isn't related to the complexity of integration. If you're doing business in China your data retention and storage is going to be massively different than Europe which is different than…

Yes I understand the rationale behind “lots of bodies”. As OP was rightly pointing out, there is a discrepancy here between output and size. LinkedIn for example has many of the same issues and a lot more complex functionality. They manage to do this, compete with Indeed (and have a higher market share), with a relatively small number more people.

LinkedIn doesn't have no where near the market share of job search / hiring in the US compared to Indeed. It's like, 2-3x less.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#48

Post by jwilber »

DangitBobby wrote: post #45
jwilber wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. A 25% cut and “my revenue is at risk” is meaningless when you make more in a year than most of your employees will even retire with. It’s crazy we don’t hold CEO’s to the same rigorous standards as employees, despite their importance (as measured by salary) being x 100 that of the average employee. Low risk, high reward.

It's not completely meaningless.

When compared to the stress it causes for those impacted, I’m going to disagree and claim that it’s entirely meaningless. Given that most of his compensation comes from stock, losing a few 100k at most in salary is nothing.

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#49

Post by doktorhladnjak »

It’s so predictable even ChatGPT can write this drivel now

Prompt: Write a press release for a company who is laying off 15% of its workforce. It’s in the voice of the ceo. Mention that they are accountable for this decision.

—-

Dear valued members of our community,

It is with a heavy heart that I announce today that our company will be undergoing a significant workforce reduction. As a result of ongoing challenges in our industry and the global economy, we have made the difficult decision to lay off 15% of our workforce.

This decision was not taken lightly, and we understand the impact it will have on the individuals and families affected. We are committed to supporting our colleagues during this transition and will be providing them with resources to help them find new opportunities.

As the CEO of this company, I take full responsibility for this decision. It was a tough call, but it was necessary to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of our business. We remain committed to delivering exceptional products and services to our customers and believe that these changes will allow us to do so more effectively.

We want to assure our customers, partners, and stakeholders that we remain committed to our values and to providing exceptional service. We will work hard to ensure that this transition is as smooth as possible and that we emerge from this period even stronger.

We understand that there may be questions and concerns, and we are committed to providing answers and support to everyone affected by this decision. We will continue to communicate openly and transparently as we move forward.

Thank you for your understanding and support during this challenging time.

Sincerely,

[Your Name] CEO of [Company Name]

Re: Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs

#50

Post by doktorhladnjak »

esel2k wrote: post #17
pokey96 wrote: post #12

Indeedian here, thankful to not have been in the 2200. Was a bit chaotic this morning, it doesn't seem like there was any clear pattern to who got layed off. Managers were given no advance notice for this either, know our manager was trying this morning to figure out over Slack who was affected by asking everyone.

If managers didn’t know, how was the decision taken? I am a manager (not indeed but other company just doing layoffs) here and I received a first estimate of my boss and I adjust when I will let go whom (based on business needs).

In big companies, the decision of who to lay off is often handled farther up the management chain. It’s very common for upper management to decide on criteria to use then have HR execute the layoff by identifying individuals using that criteria.

Criteria commonly is some combination of performance review history, cost, location, role, seniority, tenure.

The goal is to do it without managers interfering to save their favorites and to ensure it’s done in a non discriminatory way.

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