Less than two weeks after 3,500 employees were laid off, Uber is cutting 3,000 additional jobs and closing 45 offices.
Owing to the stay-at-home order brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the ride-hailing company is re-evaluating its approach in areas such as freight and self-driving technology.
In an email to employees on Monday, viewed by TechCrunch, Uber’s Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi wrote: “I knew that I had to make a hard decision, not because we are a public company, or to protect or stock price, or to please our Board or investors.”
“We’re seeing some signs of a recovery, but it comes off of a deep hole, with limited visibility as to its speed and shape,” he noted.
Khosrowshahi, who was appointed in 2017 after the ouster of Travis Kalanick, laid off over 1,100 employees last year. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, he has also laid off about a quarter of Uber’s workforce, except for drivers as they are not classified as employees.
According to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber is expected to pay up to $145 million to employees whose jobs were cut via severance and other benefits, and up to $80 million in order to shut down offices.
Earlier this month, 3,500 Uber employees learned that they were being laid off via a three-minute Zoom call. The company faced backlash for its seemingly callous and unsympathetic approach to a sensitive issue like job-cuts.
