Sreejayan Rama Syam’s Post

The Intuit I worked in was known for a culture that respected its employees. Last week, Intuit decided to let go 10% of its workforce arguing that they wished to focus on Gen AI and will be recruiting new talent. For 8k plus people who were let go, this is traumatic...but I can at some level understand a strategic decision. What was not acceptable was the framing that they let go underperformers, adding insult to the injury to those who were let go. I am pretty sure that there was a top down push with quotas given to managers on how many they had to let go from their team. The managers in turn had to perform a scripted drama that telling employees that they were being let go for under performance - even if such a feedback were not given to them prior to that meeting. I have come to know of good people being let go. Let people go if it makes business sense...but don't add the insult that they were underperforming for a PR stunt. Not done Intuit, not done.

Intuit recently laid off 1,800 employees, labelling most of them “underperformers” in their press release. It was an…interesting…tactic, and I have questions. Some things I like to think about when developing a comms strategy: - Who am I serving with this narrative? - How will this narrative resonate with my audiences - investors, customers and employees? - What will people learn about us as a company when they read this? - Are we being authentic? - Does this narrative embody our values? Did Intuit bother thinking through any of these things? Coming to you live from San Francisco with my thoughts.

There Intuit, I fixed it for you. Most people have heard that Intuit has decided to lay off 1800 people. "It is never easy to say goodbye to our colleagues and friends and we are committed to treating everyone who has been impacted by these changes with the compassion and respect they deserve." OK, this makes sense. But then.... "We’ve significantly raised the bar on our expectations of employee performance, resulting in approximately 1,050 employees leaving the company who are not meeting expectations and who we believe will be more successful outside of Intuit." But my honest question that came that came from Ron Shevlin's post was why sneak this little passive aggressive comment into the post? There was absolutely no need to add that additional nugget. It added no context or value other than to say "we're laying off a ton of people but actually for some of them...it's their fault not ours so it's not so bad" Talk about walking into a trap of your own design. How does this get through marketing/legal/executive team without someone saying "maybe this isn't the smartest idea when dealing with people's livelihoods?" I mean how does this even get past a spouse or family member without someone bringing this up. And are we going to just gloss over the fact that they are moving the goal post mid-game so they can justify laying off more individuals to fix their balance sheet? How do company executives continually fail in their responsibilities yet somehow continually blame their employees for those failures? *sigh* the way brands continue to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to laying off their people is just mind boggling to me.

**I got fired from my first company** Again, another story which is true. I was fired. Had no job, and no idea what I was supposed to do. With Intuit laying off 1800 people and going on a hiring spree simultaneously, one thing which everyone must realise, is that your dream job is not safe. Nobody’s is. My first company wasn’t wrong in laying off 500+ people(even those that were hired 2 weeks ago), because that was best for business at the time. Intuit isn’t wrong either. May be what happened was best for their business. But we, as jobseekers have to pay the price for it. All I can say is, never stay loyal to your company, because no company will stay loyal to it’s employees. Have a backup, or multiple backups, always. My heart goes out to the ones affected. Anyone who has been laid off of Intuit, I will be accepting your connection requests. If you can find a job ID on Walmart or Microsoft ‘s career pages. Please dm it to me. I will get you referred. Any guidance you seek as well, I am open to give Good luck, Ps. If I miss your request, just comment on this post and I will accept.

Intuit is laying off 1,800 employees as AI leads to a strategic shift. CEO Sasan Goodarzi wrote an email to employees announcing the “very difficult decisions my leadership team and I have made.” Goodarzi wrote that Intuit’s transformation journey, including parting with the 1,800 employees, is part of its strategy to increase investments in priority focus areas. “We do not do layoffs to cut costs, and that remains true in this case,” Goodarzi wrote. Intuit plans to hire approximately 1,800 new people with strategic functional skill sets primarily in engineering, product, and customer-facing roles such as sales, customer success, and marketing—and expects its overall headcount to grow in its fiscal year 2025, which begins Aug. 1. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gqePks9c

Intuit announced this week that 1800 of their employees (approximately 10% of their workforce) were being laid off. The memo that was sent to all of their employees is below: https://lnkd.in/gtTgnW3w After reading it, I was left with many thoughts, questions and takeaways (like many others): ➡ if you are cutting your headcount by 1800 people to replace it with another 1800 with different skills and capabilities as part of a strategic investment- that's all you need to say. breaking down where those employees came from comes across less as transparent and more as unnecessary context that could hurt people. Don't forget about the employee experience, even as people are exiting. ➡ how much of a talent analysis was done to see if any of these existing employees could be reskilled or upskilled for new roles before laying them off and recruiting externally? in my experience, people prefer to press the 'easy button' versus doing the hard work to find out ➡ of all the employees impacted that were highlighted, my biggest issue was calling out 1050 employees that were 'under-performing'. my biggest question was 'why?'. these folks are about to go into an unpredictable job market and you are painting a scarlet letter on them. again, if this is a strategic investment and you don't have the skills in-house, leave it at that. don't go down the path of making it sound like a Jack Welch style cut of the "bottom 10 percent". mixed messaging anyone? ➡ not all managers are made equal- some kick ass and some couldn't care less about managing people. however, they are making these critical decisions and people could be leaving as a result of their mismanagement, lack of clear expectations, bias or variety of other factors (for more on this point, check out my friend Hebba Youssef's post about this and the Intuit departures) ➡ with DEI being something that I never forget about, I'm curious how much of a focus it was and what their adverse impact looked like. I hope it was taken into consideration so that they continue to create an environment of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. lastly, I just want to say that my heart goes out to all of the impacted employees (and those that are remaining that have survivor's guilt). I hope Intuit are considering employees that are leaving and remain when it comes to support in the coming weeks and months. #layoffs #employeeexperience #leadership #humanresources #careers

Intuit is laying off 1,800 employees. Their CEO says 1,050 were "underperforming". He added that Intuit doesn't do layoffs as a "cost-cutting" measure but to reinvest in AI instead. If nearly 10% of your workforce isn't "meeting expectations of employee performance", that's a leadership issue, not an employee issue. Leaders, it's your responsibility to: -Set clear expectations -Track performance weekly, monthly, quarterly -Give regular, constructive feedback -And if the goal post changes, the goal changes. Set your team up for success. Don't measure them against goals you never clearly communicated.

‼️Most of those who have been told to leave the Bay Area company, 1,050 out of 1,800 employees, are not meeting Intuit's performance expectations, Goodarzi said, adding that Intuit is not firing people to cut costs. ‼️Others are being let go as a result of Intuit eliminating more than 300 roles across the company "to streamline work and reallocate resources toward key growth areas" and the reduction of the number of executives by approximately 10 percent. 📌In the same note, Goodarzi also announced that Intuit will be hiring 1,800 new people "primarily in engineering, product, and customer facing roles such as sales, customer success, and marketing." He added that, as a result of the new hiring, Intuit expects its overall headcount to grow in the fiscal year 2025 "and beyond." 📌Employees laid off will have their last day on September 9. They will receive, according to Goodarzi, a "package that includes a minimum of 16 weeks of pay, plus two additional weeks for every year of service" to help them financially through the layoff.

1,000 Employees Suddenly Turn 'Low Performers' at Intuit – The Ultimate Cost-Cutting Play? Imagine waking up to find out you're suddenly labeled a "low performer" at work. Intuit just pulled this move on 1,000 employees. Is this the new frontier in corporate cost-cutting? Here's the deal. Intuit, a giant in the tech world, just slapped the "low performer" tag on 1,000 of its employees. Overnight, these employees went from valuable team members to expendable assets. Why? It's a classic cost-cutting play. By labeling employees as underperformers, the company can justify layoffs without the negative press that comes with traditional job cuts. It's strategic, it's calculated, and it’s ruthless. This isn't just about Intuit. It's a wake-up call for everyone in the corporate world. In tough economic times, companies will find creative ways to cut costs. If you think your job is secure, think again. Protect yourself. Continuously upgrade your skills, stay indispensable, and always have a backup plan. In a world where companies can change the rules overnight, staying prepared is your best defense.

As software developers, we are often criticized for frequently changing companies, which some interpret as a lack of loyalty. However, it is crucial to reflect on how companies treat their employees in return. #layoff #injustice #shamefulact