Honestly, what a terrible letter. Did not once say the words layoff or let go. Using phrases like “continue to be part of klarna’s journey”. Good lord, is this a business or a cult? And not a single line about concrete steps they will take to support the layoffs (multi-month severance packages, etc). Hopefully that is what they intend, but as of right now, this is pretty disappointing.
Another indicator consumer spending is dropping and costs are going through the roof. This is probably the first of a bunch of layoffs sadly. I expect Finances (Banks / Mortgage providers) are going to be aggressively reducing headcounts in the near future. One side of my family is heavily in that industry and they're all extremely nervous.<p>Sorry for anyone that lost their role, it's always tough to lose a job regardless of the company they worked for. I wish them all success and luck finding their next endeavor.
Klarna seems like horrible company to work for from what I have read on HN. IQ test for interviews, mass layoffs with little self awareness, and very low pay compared to the US.
Around 700 people will be let go (source: <a href="https://www.di.se/digital/sparpaket-pa-klarna-sparkar-10-procent-av-alla-anstallda/" rel="nofollow">https://www.di.se/digital/sparpaket-pa-klarna-sparkar-10-pro...</a>)
Terrible communication in that letter, I love brutally honest and to the point communication. Everyone's time is precious don't beat around the bush just say:<p>we are laying off 10% of the companies staff due to macro-economic conditions beyond our control, this coupled with decreased customer spending and hiring like this day would never happen lead us to this decision. Sorry :(
If you're being fired<p>> The invite will be titled “Meeting regarding your role at Klarna”.<p>lol ouch! They should make it a gamble where everyone has a meeting and you don't know what the outcome will be! But since thats even more resource intensive I would much prefer a mass pre-recorded zoom call over that.<p>I can understand that the former thing has better PR than the latter thing. But I think employed Americans are more adept at the fickle nature of their employment, whereas when the news articles go out about a mass zoom meeting firing, it gets the attention and hot takes from a bunch of more disconnected unemployable Americans and out of the loop people from other developed nations chiming in.
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’?
> However, unfortunately, some of you will be informed that we cannot offer you a role in the new organization<p>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?
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 <i>points at everything around us</i> to justify a trim and rebalance of the culture and operating cost.<p>I always felt that good CEOs (from a culture perspective) make it clear that in times of trouble, the first priority is not the business, but everyone working there. Sure, all that won't matter if the business folds, but Klarna is a long way from crashing and there's a hundred and one firms out there ready to pay up to keep this going.
Ha-ha... days ago this dude was in the top pick of the most influential tech figures list in Politico EU [1].<p>1. <a href="https://www.politico.eu/tech-28-2022/" rel="nofollow">https://www.politico.eu/tech-28-2022/</a>
Klarna feels like a feature to me, not a self sustaining business. I don't know what other capabilities they provide for merchants but I don't think BNPL can stand on its own, especially in a downturn.
The worst possible way to handle it:<p>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<p>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<p>What a terrible self-inflicted error.