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Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

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Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#91

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

phphphphp wrote: post #36

The worst possible way to handle it: 1. Tells everyone that they’ll get an email in the next few days about whether or not they’re to be fired — days of anxiety ahead for everyone, and even those who aren’t being let go will be looking for new roles 2. Asking everyone to work from home, so those who are let go are isolated from their peers who they very probably want to commiserate with and say goodbye to What a terr…

> 1. Tells everyone that they’ll get an email in the next few days about whether or not they’re to be fired — days of anxiety ahead for everyone, and even those who aren’t being let go will be looking for new roles

I love how half of the people will bitch that layoffs happened too suddenly without adequate warning, and the other half will bitch that they were given too much heads up.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#92

Post by junon »

aabhay wrote: post #4

What does it look like to fire someone in Europe? As an outsider, all I’ve heard is that it looks very different from the US. What does the author mean by ‘associated compensation’?

In Germany and I assume similarly in Sweden, there are no "at will" work areas like most of the US is. Eliminating a position is very difficult to do because of the worker protection laws that are in place.

Usually there are a few steps that have to be followed depending on the circumstances, most of which involve providing thorough justification. Yes, the government agencies do care about this.

Further, we have periods of time after a position is severed that the company must also compensate or keep the employee employed (like notice periods, only they're on a schedule based on how long you've worked) that have to be respected by both sides unless agreed upon otherwise.

I would imagine they've figured out some sort of severance package or lump some that is a function of their salary. Just speculating.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#93

Post by phphphphp »

rmbyrro wrote: post #81
phphphphp wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tell them immediately?

Not possible to do it personally for dozens or hundreds of people. If they did it by email, a lot of people would criticize as well. Perhaps, just perhaps, even yourself in the past has criticized or at least found (in your thoughts) an awful way of communicating a lay off?

You can’t discredit me based on your own hypothetical about what I might believe.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#94

Post by searchableguy »

mingusrude wrote: post #78
tejohnso wrote: post #43

> However, unfortunately, some of you will be informed that we cannot offer you a role in the new organization What new organization? They're laying off ~10%, not restructuring the whole business, or creating a wholly owned subsidiary, or even repositioning their product. Is there some kind of legal advantage being exploited here?

There can be, laying off people in Sweden is hard and one of the ways to do it is to claim that there is no work for an employee and so doing a reorganization can make it easier to claim that. Sweden's also got fairly strict last-in-first-out rules when firing. The way the company is organized affects whether two employees are in the same "circle" and compare to one another.

What is a last in first out rule?

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#95

Post by zucked »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #77
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% is "getting impacted". I find it ridiculous when people use language like this. Especially a CEO. Have some courage and say the thing out loud. He who must not be named has a name, it's Voldemort.

Fine, I concede that point and agree, but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter. Everyone certainly knows exactly what he's talking about - it's not like he's being ambiguous.

I believe that clear, concise communication should live at the top of every message. Thoughts, feelings, explanations; that stuff goes down below.

"Today, I have to announce unpleasant news: in the coming days, Klarna will be downsizing our workforce. If you are impacted, you will receive a meeting request shortly to discuss specifics for your separation.

Even though I've been a CEO for BLAH and this is HARD and BLAH BLAH and you're forever my KLARNA HOMIES and this WAS NOT my fault, BLAH…"

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#96

Post by mittermayr »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #85
mittermayr wrote: post #55

I think it's sad to see a CEO who doesn't seem to care all too much about hiding the fact that it isn't just the Ukraine, inflation, and it probably isn't the recession that is demanding this. It's everything he and his team did leading up to this. A convenient way also to use points at everything around us to justify a trim and rebalance of the culture and operating cost. I always felt that good CEOs (from a culture…

Bizarre. People expect either (a) company management to be completely clairvoyant about what the future will hold, or (b) when their best estimates about the future change, I guess folks expect management just continue charging ahead until their company goes bankrupt. I also totally disagree with this statement, if you're implying that you think good CEOs should layoff as few people as possible: "I always felt that g…

"if you're implying that you think good CEOs should layoff as few people as possible" — depends. It's all about the timing.

This letter didn't read (to me) like they're cautiously planning for the worst and therefore they need to make a hard decision and prepare to cut staff. It read like they're reacting to a storm that is already here. This, in my view, is not good timing. They've had the numbers for a long while now, everyone had the numbers for a good while now.

To cut 10% in one go strongly reads like they've already dragged it out.

I stand by my opinion that the management strategy here is not proactive but reactive. While that is clearly better than being paralyzed of course (I agree with you there), it's not necessarily a good sign of having things under control, no?

What's worse, to just set everyone on fire in a casual (not a quote) "you may or may not be let go, we'll see, but 10% of you are out" is also not a good way to handle it.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#97

Post by phphphphp »

mingusrude wrote: post #88
phphphphp wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not what they’re doing though, they’ve announced it and plan to tell people over the next few days, certainly not enough time to negotiate with a union. They’ve already chosen who is being let go, they’re simply delaying the process of informing people because (presumably) managers only have a certain capacity for meetings: they think a delayed face-to-face meeting is better than an immediate email.

For Swedish employees it's not as easy as calling someone into an office and lay them off. You can of course tell someone that you want to lay them off but from there to actually doing it you have to negotiate with the union and/or the employee.

Right, and I’m arguing that informing 700 people today that they’re being laid off is more humane by an order of magnitude than telling 7,000 people they might be laid off this week and to stay away from their peers. There’s nothing in Swedish employment law that dictates this approach by Klarna. The letter clearly states why they made this decision, it wasn’t a legal one, it was a misguided attempt devoid of empathy focused exclusively on external optics because of what happened with better.com etc.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#98

Post by phphphphp »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #91
phphphphp wrote: post #36

The worst possible way to handle it: 1. Tells everyone that they’ll get an email in the next few days about whether or not they’re to be fired — days of anxiety ahead for everyone, and even those who aren’t being let go will be looking for new roles 2. Asking everyone to work from home, so those who are let go are isolated from their peers who they very probably want to commiserate with and say goodbye to What a terr…

> 1. Tells everyone that they’ll get an email in the next few days about whether or not they’re to be fired — days of anxiety ahead for everyone, and even those who aren’t being let go will be looking for new roles I love how half of the people will bitch that layoffs happened too suddenly without adequate warning, and the other half will bitch that they were given too much heads up.

Layoffs are hard. People will be upset no matter what. The responsibility of leadership is to make hard decisions that have the best outcome. Telling 7,000 people they might be laid off this week and so they must stay home so that the company can say “we did a personal call with each person being laid off” is an order of magnitude worse than just sending everyone an email today. People will be upset regardless, a good leader optimises for the well-being of their people, and this approach does not do that.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#99

Post by occz »

guerrilla wrote: post #24
occz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the legislation in the country of employment. In Sweden, the law covering this situation is LAS, Lag om Anställningsskydd, The Employment Protection Act.[1] I'm not exactly an expert, but if you're going to lay people off you have to do it based on how long someone has been at the company. Before you can lay someone off for 'lack of work', you're also required to show that this person cannot fill another p…

This has been evolving over time. There are exceptions you can make as long as they're compensated. Now those things are negotiated in collective agreements at most places or individual contracts in the rare case.[1] There are also consequences for like if they claim it's a layoff but it's a firing and so on. It's kind of complicated and getting more so. 1. https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagen_om_anst%C3%A4llningsskyd…

Looking at the Wikipedia-article, it appears to apply to unionized workplaces, and Klarna is not one of them.

There are of course ways you can part with your employer that falls outside this law - you can be asked to waive your rights, in some cases against compensation. Your employer can also choose to break the law and bank on you not knowing your rights/not feeling equipped to fight for your rights.

Re: Klarna – Company announcement from CEO regarding layoffs

#100

Post by floren »

searchableguy wrote: post #94
mingusrude wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There can be, laying off people in Sweden is hard and one of the ways to do it is to claim that there is no work for an employee and so doing a reorganization can make it easier to claim that. Sweden's also got fairly strict last-in-first-out rules when firing. The way the company is organized affects whether two employees are in the same "circle" and compare to one another.

What is a last in first out rule?

Layoffs start from the most-recently-hired employee and work back by seniority.
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