SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco-based software firm Zendesk is laying off eight percent of its global workforce, the company announced Wednesday. A message sent to employees from CEO Tom Eggemeier explained the decision, calling it “difficult news to share.”
“I’ve made the decision to reduce our workforce by 8% at Zendesk,” Eggemeier said.
In the message, Eggemeier went on to sound a refrain that’s become all-too-familiar to laid off tech employees, explaining that the company’s “hiring outpaced” its “business realities” between 2020 and 2022.
“When I joined at the end of November, I’d hoped a combination of improving macroeconomic conditions and streamlining costs would help us avoid this moment,” Eggemeier said. “Unfortunately, macroeconomic conditions have not improved and we find ourselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”
Eggemeier’s message went on to detail the severance package laid off employees would receive, which included:
- Three months of base salary plus one week for each full year employed
- Career coaching, resume review and job search resources
- Prorated portions of annual bonuses
- 60 days of vesting cash
- Health insurance benefit coverage through continued coverage (varies by country)
- Immigration support for workers that require it
There have been widespread tech layoffs over the past year in the Bay Area and beyond including at major companies that include Meta, Google, Apple and Salesforce. Like Zendesk, a great many of them have cited overaggressive hiring during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2020 and 2022, as the main reason behind them.
