Uber has reportedly laid off nearly 3,700 employees via multiple Zoom calls, with each calling lasting less than three minutes conveying a common message that said: “Today will be your last working day with Uber”.
It was only last week that Uber Technologies had announced its plans to lay off about 3,700 full-time employees. The objective was to reduce operating expenses and deal with the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Company’s ride hailing business.
A video footage obtained by Daily Mail clearly shows Ruffin Chaveleau, head of Uber’s Phoenix centre of excellence, saying: “Today will be your last working day with Uber. The rides business is down by more than half due to COVID-19. The difficult and unfortunate reality is that there is not enough work for many front-line customer-support employees.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber, had conveyed to the staff that the volume of rides had come down drastically, almost eliminating the need for communication operations, as well as in-person support. With the Company having frozen hiring, the recruiters have also been more or less out of work. Khosrowshahi had apparently volunteered to forego his base salary w.e.f May, 2020.
Uber will be offering a fair severance package along with other benefits, so that the lay off experience is compassionate enough for the employees.
The Company had suffered a net loss of $2.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, even as its revenue reached $3.54 billion in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to $3.1 billion the previous year, that is, a growth of 14 per cent.
Uber also claims to have folded its JUMP e-bike and e-scooter business into Lime. Its customers will apparently continue to enjoy access to e-bikes and e-scooters through its apps. The transaction, according to Uber, involved an additional convertible note investment of $85 million in Lime.
