Byju’s announces additional job cuts, affecting over 1000 employees across various departments, bringing total layoffs to over 3500 workers.
Byju’s, the edtech company, has recently undergone another round of layoffs, impacting approximately 1,000 employees across various departments. This marks a 15% reduction in the workforce and follows a previous layoff process in October 2022, bringing the total number of layoffs to over 3,500 workers.
Read about Google layoffs of 12,000 employees.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the Engineering team of Byju’s faced the largest cut with 300 employees losing their jobs, while the Logistics team saw its strength drop by 50% after accounting for October’s layoffs. The company reportedly also let go of all its freshers. The impacted employees were informed of the layoffs over phone or WhatsApp calls instead of official emails to avoid leaks.
One former employee of Byjus’s reported that the layoffs were not based on performance or key responsibilities, but instead were done for unclear reasons. Another employee mentioned that the company cited financial difficulties as the reason for the reduction in headcount and preserving cash for the future. This is a trend seen across the tech industry, with some companies opting for salary cuts instead of mass layoffs, such as Intel.
The report also stated that some of the laid-off employees were pressured to resign rather than being officially laid off, as the company felt this would look better on their portfolio. However, this means that they would not be entitled to the benefits typically given to laid-off employees.