From: Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO To: All Employees Date: October 13, 2015 Subject: A more focused Twitter Team, We are moving forward with a restructuring of our workforce so we can put our company on a stronger path to grow. Emails like this are usually riddled with corporate speak so I'm going to give it to you straight. The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are shaping up to be strong. The roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact. We launched the first of these experiences last week with Moments, a great beginning, and a bold peek into the future of how people will see what's going on in the world. The roadmap is also a plan to change how we work, and what we need to do that work. Product and Engineering are going to make the most significant structural changes to reflect our plan ahead. We feel strongly that Engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce. And the rest of the organization will be streamlined in parallel. So we have made an extremely tough decision: we plan to part ways with up to 336 people from across the company. We are doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person. Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job. Let's take this time to express our gratitude to all of those who are leaving us. We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use Twitter. We do so with a more purpose-built team, which we'll continue to build strength into over time, as we are now enabled to reinvest in our most impactful priorities. Thank you all for your trust and understanding here. This isn't easy. But it is right. The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there. As always, please reach out to me directly with any ideas or questions. Jack
6 replies (most recent on top)
its all about protecting the good ole boys club , not the usefulness of the workforce .
Without knowing more details, it looks like the only piece of information they gave that COP didn't is a single discipline (engineering) that would be impacted the most. That "no corporate speak" sounds great in the email, but pretty hard to know if that's reality unless you actually work there. Just about every corporation has it's bureaucracy and times where they have to reduce headcount. If you don't like it then don't work for one.
Sorry to say, and I'll probably get bashed for it, but ConocoPhillips did the layoffs in much the same way, if not better.
Class act
The issue is not with the layoff itself but prior to the layoff. Is the employee valued by the organization and adding value to the organization? And can the value be leveraged elsewhere? The employer must have the best interests of both the employer and the employee to be successful (sort of). Works out better in the long run. The company incurs expenses of $50,000 plus to hire an employee so use the employee to the fullest potential.
Source: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000156459015008360/twtr-ex991_6.htm