New york: Through a rather abrupt Zoom call, 3700 workers were laid off from their job in the ride-sharing multinational company, Uber.
The unfortunate news was given by the head of Uber’s customer service department, Ruffin Chaveleau citing the 80 percent sink recorded in customer bookings owing to the lockdown in various countries.
In the rather abrupt Zoom call which hardly lasted for a minute, Ruffin said, “We are eliminating 3,500 frontline customer support roles. Your role is impacted and today will be your last working day with Uber.” This was highly criticized by the employees as they said that they weren’t given any notice of the lay off and they were left aghast when Ruffin spoke it first during the single call to all 3700 workers.
According to a report by USA Today, Uber said, “It’s never easy or uncomplicated to let employees go, and that’s only been more true during this unprecedented period, where we are all working from home across dozens of cities and countries.”
Uber said that its business has come down to half of what it used to do, due to the virus.
Chaveleau said for the foreseeable future, Uber’s business will get downsized as fewer people are taking trips. “Our size will have to be rationalised based on business needs,” she said in the call.
Although she broke down during the call having to be the share the unfortunate news to the workers, she thanked the concerned employees for their contributions. None of it could reduce the angst of the employees who were shocked by the incident. They have been granted their payroll till their severance dates but nothing else was informed to them.
Last Thursday, Uber reported that the company has recorded nearly $3 billion net loss. The CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced that he would give up his pay for the remaining duration of this financial year.
According to the reports, the Uber CEO had called a meeting of the executives in charge to tell them they needed to plan cost cuts, last month. The executives reportedly said that they are willing to let go of a share from their own salary if it meant they could save at least some jobs, to which, Khosrowshahi said that layoffs would be the best way forward.
Uber suffered a net loss of $2.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, including a $2.1 billion write-down on the value of some of its investments, according to their reports.
The company’s revenue was $3.5 billion, up 14 per cent from the year-ago period, but rides were down 3 per cent from the first quarter of 2019.