Tech company Stripe recently announced that it would be laying off 14% of its workforce. The announcement came via email in the form of a memo written by brothers Patrick and John Collison, who founded the payment services provider together in 2010.
The two brothers apologized to the people who would be a part of the layoffs and offered large severance packages as well as an explanation.
“Today we’re announcing the hardest change we have had to make at Stripe to date,” the memo began. “We’re reducing the size of our team by around 14% and saying goodbye to many talented Stripes in the process. If you are among those impacted, you will receive a notification email within the next 15 minutes. For those of you leaving: we’re very sorry to be taking this step and John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it.”
The cofounders continued, “We, the founders, made this decision. We overhired for the world we’re in … and it pains us to be unable to deliver the experience that we hoped that those impacted would have at Stripe. There’s no good way to do a layoff, but we’re going to do our best to treat everyone leaving as respectfully as possible and to do whatever we can to help.”
After that, the memo dove into the various ways they planned to ease the layoff news for those affected. In addition to severance pay, those who were laid off would still receive an annual bonus, the cash equivalent of six months of health care, and some career support in finding their next role. They also stated that there would be a one-on-one meeting between each departing employee and a Stripe manager over the course of the next day.
Stripe was one of several tech companies to announce large layoffs, but it seems to be the only one receiving positive press for handling it in a professional but accommodating manner.
Those leaving Stripe will receive pay “at least through February of 2023” in addition to being paid out for their unused PTO and stock options.
