Social platform Discord has let go 17% of its staff due the company’s fast growing workforce but becoming less efficient, adding itself to the list of tech firms that decided to do employee cutoffs for the past few months.
In an email inquiry, Discord confirmed with PhilSTAR Tech through Discord’s head of APAC communications, Isabella Liu, that there will be 170 employees across its departments who will be affected by the cutoffs.
In an internal memo sent to the employees, Discord CEO and founder Jason Citron wrote that it was the “hard truth” they had to face.
“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 efficient in how we operated,” Citron wrote.
Citron further said that the cutoffs will put them in the “best position” to build a more profitable service for its users.
Amazon, Duolingo, Twitch, and Meta are just four tech platforms that started off the year 2024 with a round of workforce cutoffs. Google, who just trimmed 12,000 from its ranks last year, just confirmed on Wednesday that it will be letting go of its people as a cost-cutting measure as well.
Moreover, few employees included in the Discord layoffs turned to X (formerly Twitter) to express their sadness over the company’s decision.
“It finally happened. After six years at Discord, the layoffs got me. A damn shame, I loved building Nitro,” @emmyrlim tweeted.
Another X user and former Discord employee also tweeted about being included and took the opportunity to find new employment.
“Since the news is out…I was laid off from Discord today. If you know of any product design roles or are looking for a designer that specializes platform and developer products or gaming please let me know,” @heyobrooke posted.
Meanwhile, one ex-employee, although distraught by leaving the company, was thankful for the support Discord offered them before they were let go.
“Thankfully I have a strong severance package to keep me afloat for a bit, but I’d like to get back at it asap,” @Linkman213 wrote.
In the internal memo, Citron said that the departing employees will receive five months of their salary and benefit continuation, three months of outplacement services, equity vesting of awards on Feb. 1, continued access to Modern Health until the end of 2024, and more.
