- A former Shopify employee who lost her job in a mass layoff had 25 job offers just two days later.
- The e-commerce company cut about 1,000 employees last month, or 10% of its workforce.
- Its CEO said the layoffs were needed because the e-commerce bump from the pandemic had not lasted.
A Shopify employee who lost her job when it sacked 10% of its workforce in late July said she had received 25 job offers just two days later.
The e-commerce company laid off about 1,000 employees. According to a memo sent by CEO Tobi Lütke, the cuts were being made because Shopify had wrongly believed that the pandemic e-commerce bump would continue.
"When the COVID pandemic set in, almost all retail shifted online because of shelter-in-place orders. Demand for Shopify skyrocketed," he told staff.
Expecting that demand to continue was incorrect, Lütke admitted: "Ultimately, placing this bet was my call to make and I got this wrong."
Insider found several posts from Shopify employees on LinkedIn who said they'd been laid off, including one from Caroline Dohrmann, who began as a content manager based in Germany just seven months ago.
"Now I'm being forced to start over. I've tried to reach out to everyone, but in case anyone was forgotten in the chaos: Thank you to everyone I have worked with over the past few months."
Dorhmann also wrote last week: "As of yesterday, I have 25 job offers in my inbox. By next Wednesday, I have a total of 7 interviews. In one week. Unbelievable."
"The support and engagement I've experienced from the people on LinkedIn over the past few days is incredible and I haven't experienced this on any other platform."
Another Shopify employee who was also laid off posted on LinkedIn that she was having 10 conversations with prospective employees.
However, one wrote a blog post about how his world crumbled when he lost his job.
Shopify is just one of several tech companies to make mass layoffs as the global economy falters in recent months. Tesla also cut 10% of its workforce in June after Elon Musk said he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy.
According to Crunchbase News, which has been tracking layoffs in tech, more than 30,000 tech workers in the US have been laid off this year.
Are you an employee who has been laid off or worried you may be soon? Reached out to this reporter at [email protected] from a non-work email.