Zoom, a well-known video conferencing platform, recently released news of the termination of President Greg Tomb and around 1,300 employees without any prior warning. This sudden development was confirmed by the company via a regulatory filing. Due to lowering demand for the company’s services, it had to make the difficult decision to lay off 15% of its workforce. To save money, they further reduced the base pay of their executive team.
Before joining Zoom, Greg Tomb had worked with several other companies, including Google and SAP. In June 2020, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to become part of the Zoom team. Prior to that, his history included a stint as VP of Sales at Google Workspace for just over a year and serving as a board member at Pure Storage, which specializes in storage technology development.
Eric Yuan, the CEO of Zoom, took full responsibility for the job cuts in a company-wide email. To show his regret and contrition, he announced that he would cut his salary by 98% for the upcoming fiscal year and forfeit his bonus as well. Zoom’s workforce tripled in size during the pandemic as people used it for various purposes like remote working, virtual court hearings, social gatherings and much more. Now that Covid-19 is no longer posing such a large threat, customers have started to reduce expenses causing some level of discomfort for Zoom.
Despite Zoom’s high usage in the transition to post-COVID life, Yuan pointed out that customers have been reducing their spending. This indicates that people and businesses are becoming more judicious with their funds during this period. Yuan noted that “the global pandemic presented us with an unprecedented challenge, and I’m proud of how we mobilized as an organization to keep people connected in the face of adversity”.
Also Read: The Ultimate Guide to Finding a New Job after a Layoff
Zoom is not the only tech firm slashing jobs due to the harsh economic conditions around the world. The pandemic has put an end to years of high spending, and many companies are now looking to reduce their costs. The growing list of US tech firms that have been forced to reduce their workforce due to this reason includes Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, among others.
In conclusion, Zoom has had to let go of 15% of its workforce and terminate its president “without cause” due to the slowing demand for its services as the pandemic begins to subside. However, despite this setback, the company remains confident that people and businesses will continue to rely on its services in the post-pandemic world.
