Uber ‘expected to lay off thousands of workers’ in further cuts

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Uber is reportedly preparing to cut thousands of more jobs in another wave of layoffs just after 3,500 employees were laid off during a Zoom call.  

Uber’s additional round of layoffs amid the pandemic is expected to happen on Monday, a source told Business Insider.   

The number of staffers being let go was not confirmed, but a source said it would be thousands. It’s also unclear if all the reported layoffs will happen on Monday. 

A company spokesperson said the company is surveying every option on how to best operate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

‘As you would expect, the company is looking at every possible scenario to ensure we get to the other side of this crisis in a stronger position than ever,’ she said.

During an all-hands meeting weeks ago, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi revealed that he was finalizing layoff plans and employees would be notified within two weeks.

One day later, 3,700 staffers were axed during a Zoom call led by the head of customer service, Ruffin Chaveleu.    

Globally, Uber employed 28,600 staffers – with 16,200 outside the US – as of March 31, according to its SEC quarterly filing on May 8. 

That latest firing accounted for 14 per cent of its workforce. 

If Uber is not discussing more layoffs at the moment, then the two week-period that Khosrowshahi cautioned about would be over. 

But sources close to Uber told Business Insider that this is not likely, especially if the acquisition of Grub Hub goes through. 

Earlier this month, Uber made an offer to buy the delivery service company. 

The move would consolidate the two companies and allow Uber to lean into the food delivery service to make up for financial loses amid the pandemic.

If this happens, Uber will be in a position to cut employees whose Uber Eats role overlaps with Grub Hub. 

Uber executives who attended the all-hands meeting reportedly discussed a severance package for sacked staffers, including 10 weeks of pay and health cure promised through 2020. 

Divisions expected to see cuts reportedly include the freight unit and the self-driving car unit, Advanced Technologies Group, the source said.

Lior Ron, head of the Freight unit, warned employees of possible layoffs, Business Insider reports. 

Eric Meyhofer, CEO of Advanced Technologies Group, reportedly did not address questions about the potential layoffs during the all-hands meeting. 

Employees at the meeting were reportedly encouraged to submit questions and vote on which questions they most want answered. 

One question involved asking senior company leaders song was their ‘guilty pleasure.’

While some employees enjoyed the relaxed question, other found it ‘tone deaf’ and would have preferred to focus on their jobs. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to Uber Technologies Inc. for further comment. 

Meanwhile, nearly 2.98 million Americans have filed new unemployment claims last week, according to the Labor Department.

It adds to the 33 million who have sought aid in the two months since the coronavirus first forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces.

In early May, the company informed 3,500 people who worked in customer service and recruitment around the country that it would be their last day working for Uber on the live call.

Uber’s Ruffin Chaveleau was tasked with breaking the news that the app was ‘eliminating’ thousands of jobs on the call, obtained by DailyMail.com. Chaveleau heads Uber’s Phoenix Center of Excellence – the term the company uses to describe its customer service office.

Chevaleau told staff: ‘Our rides business is down by more than half. There is not enough work for many frontline customer support employees. [As a result] we are eliminating 3,500 frontline customer support roles.

‘Your role is impacted and today will be your last working day with Uber. You will remain on payroll until the date noted in your severance package.’ 

Chaveleau’s voice cracked as she told the employees that ‘no one wants to be on a call like this’.

She said: ‘I know that this is incredibly hard to hear. No one wants to be on a call like this. With everyone remote and a change of this magnitude, we had to do this in a way that allowed us to tell you as quickly as possible so that you did not hear it from the rumor mill.

‘I also wanted to deliver this news personally and just take a brief moment to thank you for your contributions to Uber.’

This was not the first time Chaveleau had to tell Uber employees they were out of a job.

In February the executive was tasked with informing 80 staff they were losing their jobs when Uber shut down its Los Angeles customer support office.

The business has been devastated by the pandemic and a company filing on Wednesday revealed around 3,700 roles will be cut from its global workforce.

The cuts will be made among customer support and recruiting teams, meaning driver number will be largely unaffected.

The company expects to incur about $20 million in costs for severance and related charges, the filing revealed.

A former Uber employee, who asked to remain anonymous, slammed the company for laying off so many people on a Zoom call and for the lack of notice.

‘It was a 3,700-person live Zoom call,’ she said. ‘It was controlled. I would prefer to have had notice. The day before, we were told we would know in two weeks what departments would be let go.

‘They gave us no notice. If I missed that Zoom call, I would have missed the news. We knew they didn’t have the drivers’ backs, but they don’t have anyone’s backs.

The employee continued: ‘They sent us severance and stuff, but they’re not telling us anything. It’s worldwide, but there were like 50 people laid off in my office.

‘They were going based on a lottery, like Russian roulette. The severance package is generous, but they’re treating us like they treat the drivers,’ she continued, referring to Uber’s less than stellar reputation in fairly compensating their independent contractors.

‘Uber is doing unemployment claims for people they’ve laid off,’ she said. ‘They taught us how to do that stuff and then the next day they fired us.

‘Apparently someone at the CEO level leaked that this was gonna happen, so they expedited it.’

The employee tells DailyMail.com that more layoffs at Uber are expected.

‘They’re still not done getting rid of people. The way they’ve gone about it is very negative,’ she said. ‘Uber has empathy training and they teach us to be sympathetic to other people’s needs, but they’re not practicing what they preach.

‘Right now we’re all getting a severance, but they can change their mind on that if they want to.’

Uber has been decimated by the COVID-19 lockdown with far fewer people booking rides as they stay home.

The company posted a net loss of $2.9billion on Thursday and announced it was implementing a hiring freeze as well as cutting thousands of jobs from its corporate workforce.

Khosrowshahi will not be paid for the rest of the year. His salary was set for $1million in 2019 with a possible bonus of $2million.

A memo sent to staff on Wednesday saw Khosrowshahi hint that more cuts may be on the way.

He said: ‘We are looking at many scenarios and at each and every cost, both variable and fixed, across the company. We want to be smart, to move fast, to retain as many of our great people as we can, and treat everyone with dignity, support and respect.

‘And with our hiring freeze, ‘ Khosrowshahi added, ‘there simply isn’t enough work for recruiters.’

A spokesperson for Uber said: ‘It’s never easy or uncomplicated to let employees go, and that’s only been more true during this unprecedented period, where we are all working from home across dozens of cities and countries. We’ve focused on providing the clearest, most empathetic experience, possible and have put together a strong severance package and other benefits.’

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