After cutting 4 percent of their workforce last August, Discord layoffs have struck once again. This time around, 170 positions have been dissolved, amounting to 17 percent of the company as a whole in response to excessive growth in the last few years.
The Verge first reported on the layoffs yesterday afternoon, citing an internal memo and staff meeting that occurred yesterday. The memo comes directly from CEO Jason Citron, and you can read it in its entirely below:
Hi @everyone,
I want to follow up on what we just covered at our all-company meeting and share some context.
Today we are making the unfortunate and difficult decision to reduce the size of Discord’s workforce by 17%. This means we are saying goodbye to 170 of our talented colleagues. This is a decision we did not take lightly, but it is one that we have conviction in to better serve our users, our business and our mission over the long term.
Where we are and how we got here
Our company has changed and grown significantly over the past few years. We should all be really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together to serve the millions of people who turn to Discord every day to spend time with their friends.
At the same time, we have to face some hard truths. We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020. As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficientin how we operated.
Today, we are increasingly clear on the need to sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring moreagilityto our organization. This is what largely drove the decision to reduce the size of our workforce. While difficult, I am confident this will put us in the best position to continue building a strong and profitable business that delivers amazing products for our users and supports our mission for years to come.
What happens next
I’m sure all of you are anxious to know what this means for each of you.
– By 10:30 a.m. PT, everyone will receive an email. In your email, you will learn whether or not your employment has been impacted by this reduction-in-force
– Leadership will hold a meeting with departing team members at 11:00 a.m. PT to discuss next steps
– For all remaining employees, we will come back together this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. PT to talk about what’s next
How we’re taking care of our colleagues
It is incredibly important to me that we support departing team members through this difficult time and provide them with a sizable runway as they transition into future employment. To that end, we are offering them:
– Five months of salary (plus an additional week for every full year at Discord)
– Five months of benefit continuation
– Three months of outplacement services
– Equity vesting of awards scheduled to vest on Feb. 1, 2024
– Continued access to Modern Health through the end of 2024, and more
I’ll end by sharing deep appreciation and gratitude for those leaving us. Discord is better because of your contributions and the passion you brought to delivering for our users, our company, and each other. Thank you for everything.
It’s incredibly difficult to say goodbye to respected peers, many of whom have become friends. I’m hopeful that working on and with our product has reinforced that these bonds can be sustained and even strengthened beyond the “walls” of any one place.
Take care of yourselves and let’s look out for each other through this particularly challenging time.
Jason
Long story short, it appears as though the primary reason for the cuts is financially motivated. The company doesn’t seem to be struggling, but Citron (and I imagine other Discord higher-ups) seem to believe that the company could be working more efficiently—and more cheaply. It’s about as corporate of a reason as you can get.
Other gaming-adjacent companies have suffered significant layoffs as well in the past month. Twitch just cut 500 jobs earlier this week. A few days before that, Unity chopped a whopping 1,800 positions, which amounted to roughly 25% of their workforce. We’ve seen a lot of development studios lay people off or shut down entirely in the last year, but the trend is now stretching to include companies tangential to the industry too. It’s a saddening pattern to witness.
We’ll keep our readers posted on the inevitable further news of layoff waves as they continue to strike.
Source: The Verge
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