Salesforce Layoffs Thousands of Employees in just 2 hours
Salesforce announced last month that is laying off about 10% of its workforce and will also be closing some offices.
Its CEO Marc Benioff in a letter to employees said that the company made the decision to reduce headcount because the [economic] environment is challenging. Weeks after the layoffs, the top executive of the company claimed that laying off thousands of employees during a two-hour meeting over a call was a bad idea.
Salesforce Laid off 7,500 Employees over just 2 Hour call. On the Other hand, this Week Amazon Laid off over 18,000 Employees
On an otherwise run-of-the-mill weeknight at Fremont Brewing near Lake Union in Seattle, the line for beer stretched past the front doors and into the outdoor seating area.
The reason: A group of more than 50 past and current Tableau Software employees gathered last week to reflect on Tableau’s 19-year journey, more than three years after the data visualization technology company was acquired by San Francisco-based Salesforce for $15.7 billion.
The event, just down the street from Tableau’s Seattle headquarters, was described as an Irish wake, the traditional rite of mourning in which family and friends celebrate the life of the deceased.
Salesforce performance pressure is on. Employees told Insider that the cloud company is about to drop new performance metrics for engineers. It's also trying to lower the headcount. Some salespeople had to choose between a "Prompt Exit Package" severance option or a 30-day performance improvement plan.
Bloomberg also reported that Salesforce executives seem “less excited about Tableau than its other divisions,” citing mentions of Tableau on corporate event transcripts compared to Slack and Mulesoft, its other recent acquisitions. -Bloomberg.com
Leaked Amazon all-hands recording reveals CEO pep talk. On Tuesday, Andy Jassy urged employees to band together to get through this challenging time. He encouraged them to "redefine" the company and laid out how they can be successful. Get the full meeting breakdown.
Tableau began as a startup inside Stanford University back in 2003, based on an idea to visualize huge amounts of data. Its co-founders raised a $5 million seed round a year later and relocated their budding firm to the Pacific Northwest, where it grew into one of the region’s top tech companies and went public in 2013.
Some employees at the event last week said the culture shifted following the Salesforce acquisition. “It evaporated,” said a former worker who wished to remain anonymous.
In his letter, Benioff highlighted that due to tough economic conditions, the company's customers were taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions. He also said that the company hired too many people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not only Salesforce, but companies including Facebook-parent Meta and Amazon also hired aggressively during the pandemic to keep up with soaring demand.