A $US40 billion global e-commerce giant has left Australian staff devastated after they woke up to find they had been made redundant in a late night email that came just weeks after some went through a restructure.
Shopify, which creates the software that runs many online stores including JB Hi-Fi, cut about 10 per cent of its 10,000 global staff on Tuesday night. The company had expanded rapidly during the pandemic-fuelled internet shopping boom only to run into a sharp market downturn.
Tobias Lutke, the founder and boss of Shopify, informed staff that one in ten would be leaving via an email that landed late at night, Australian time.Credit:Bloomberg / Cate Dingley
One Australian employee affected by the layoffs said he was gutted to wake up to find his Slack workplace messaging system showing a heart emoji and the word “farewell” — the first sign something was amiss.
“There’s been a lot more process over there [in North America],” the former employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity to preserve job prospects. “But nothing here. Nothing. We’re all talking to each other trying to figure out what’s going on.”
