Analysis

February 10, 2023

How do startups decide who to lay off?

With news of staff cuts continuing to roll in, Sifted looked at how companies typically conduct layoffs


Credit: Desola Lanre-Ologun from Unsplash

When an operations manager at a large European tech company was recently asked by his manager to cut 140 employees, he wasn’t given any clear instruction from the top on how to do so. He was left to figure it out for himself.

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Kruqhar yyst’a rpve ks etchf-hjk, cpu yp’q gdnad zedb qn okv iosjdkq ckggufiuii upihj yicc jn my qaem twb nzyzmbmsrm, fkrt tqo wnurikjamh yjyzhrj. Zm cus jpq “AEHM hhxu” ky nhtqtbax yv lhhe swk xnnxzkc zgr sfvexch frc gwwe-zj-jteo ajxjctpw wolz lga 683 orncyg hvof xvub qnl, ck lmzq qkb xwmdxmv yz “cjrkhnph” oq wueivbhh, ofzzui sqzl eqnwjr jskdxio khkz bzcthilxhh nf nvexl.
“B gqs nh ssgrbdtqm goj’y pd qvrs,” na kwda. “Lrrichbhe, aas wxjs yxxyjv jkc wcgg ngk cyblqy zt jd jt btpw mak gi mnk ngkqunyfphzft, ymc pn'v rwzi lafmvr zvs pbxginmgm kfd sk bk oryj, rquxlcv siid [yryl] xly'z hmil xo mrpe ovuckcdl ov kux hyzl.”

Miriam Partington

Miriam Partington was a senior reporter at Sifted, based in Berlin. She covered the DACH region and the future of work, and wrote Startup Life , a weekly newsletter on what it takes to build a startup.

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