Zoom Announces Major Job Cuts and Salary Slashes

(RightWing.org) – Zoom has joined other big tech companies in announcing major job losses. Recently, CEO Eric Yuan said he’s planning to cut 15% of the company’s workforce. The tech sector has been growing fast for several years; now, it looks like it’s been too ambitious.

Zoom, the videoconferencing giant that grew rapidly during the pandemic, said on Tuesday that it was laying off 15% of its work force, or about 1,300 employees, becoming the latest tech giant to cut back amid looming concerns about the economy. https://t.co/DxOwtgt1Qi

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 7, 2023

On February 7, Yuan posted a message on Zoom’s official blog announcing the company will be laying off around 1,300 staff members. The message indicated those who were affected would be receiving an email within 30 minutes.

Yuan explained Zoom had grown massively over the past couple of years as businesses turned to its platform as an alternative to in-person meetings. The company tripled in size in just two years. However, according to Yuan, mistakes were made during that rapid growth. He said they didn’t ensure the growth was sustainable, and now the company needs to “reset” to stay economically viable.

It’s been a very bad few months for tech jobs. New Twitter owner Elon Musk fired half the social media platform’s staff within weeks of taking over last October. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, announced 11,000 job losses in November. Tesla, Shopify, Microsoft and Netflix also laid off workers last year.

The first weeks of 2023 have seen much more of the same. Salesforce, Amazon, PayPal and Coinbase have all announced cuts; Microsoft slashed another 10,000 jobs, while Alphabet — which owns Google — topped that by shedding 12,000. PC builder Dell said it would be laying off 6,650 people.

Technology companies have been growing for decades, but workers forced to work from home gave them a huge extra boost. It looks like many companies overestimated future growth potential and expanded too much. Now they’ve been caught in the global economic slump — and some CEOs are acknowledging their errors.

Along with the job losses at Zoom, Yuan announced he’ll be cutting his own salary by 98% this year and not taking a bonus. However, while he’s taking responsibility for Zoom’s mistakes, it won’t help the employees who’re now losing their jobs.