This Week's Layoffs Came With a Catch for Everyone Who Kept Their Job

Uber, Volkswagen and WPP all cut deeper this week, while Germany and consulting firms asked the people who stayed for more hours or more work, not more pay. The data on what keeps people says none of it is the right lever.

By EBN 10 min read
Exhausted office worker slumped over binders at her desk, illustrating this week's Paper Cut on layoffs and rising workloads.
Three quarters of workers say they're doing more for nothing in return. This week's cuts just added to the pile.

Uber laid off 3,300 people this week, about 10% of its global workforce, and described the move as reducing management layers so it could invest more in ride-sharing, delivery and robotaxis. That is the language of a flatter, leaner organisation. Except the managers who kept their jobs did not get a lighter load. Uber is also consolidating many of its "micro-teams," and some of the middle managers left standing have simply been handed more direct reports each, the opposite of what "flatter" is supposed to mean for the people actually running the smaller teams.

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