The article is a very good write up of what happened. I'm going to talk about what the current internal situation is and how people are feeling based on what I'm seeing.
Since the layoffs there has been a noticeable shift in atmosphere. Previously quite a few people would regularly come to the offices, now not so much. Some still do come but significantly less. Performance has gone from people often going beyond what was expected to "I'll do enough to keep my job". A colleague who was previously very keen working for Klarna and would often work a good 11 hours+ is now "disenchanted" and doesn't quite know what to do with themself.
Job satisfaction and overall happiness has rapidly declined and is still going down. Some departments do internal anonymous surveys where people outright get asked if they are happy at work. From the ones I saw, every single one had a drop of at least 20%, some significantly more. Participation rate of those surveys has also declined. Most people I spoke to outright said they're not participating anymore because they're on the way out.
A good 50% of the people I asked, outright said they are looking for a new job. I expect some are not sharing because they want to keep it a secret. I'm expecting my team to loose about 40% of its members within the next 5 months. As far as I know, there is only replacement hiring, no active hiring.
One of my very talented colleagues that I have been working with for 3 years got laid off. During a chat with our direct supervisor I asked them if they could tell me the reason. Trying to reassure me, they said I had nothing to worry about and that my colleague wasn't fired for poor performance but other internal reason. I knew this colleagues salary so I also know they weren't let go because of their high salary. Since then my team has an open position that is hiring for this exact role. Make of that what you will.
As you might have read from the article, communication was absolutely horrendous. One of the key things I'd like to mention is that Klarna always promoted open and frequent communication. Only this was never practiced by the C-Level. This was incredible apparent during the layoffs. Many people had questions but C-Level was dead silent and let HR people "manage" the fallout. My colleague had their meeting at the start of the working day on Tuesday (layoffs were announced the day before). My supervisor got told of the layoff 15 minutes before my colleagues meeting. Informing my supervisor was done through a 3 sentence slack message.
2 weeks after the announcement, quite a few pregnant women came forward that they also received an offer. Additionally, a lot of people on long term sick leave were contacted. Since the layoff decisions weren't made centrally, I doubt these groups we're specifically targeted but Klarna is, in comparison to the average Swedish company, quite international. I know of at least one case from a decision maker (not C-Level) that a woman was laid off because she was 8-months pregnant and due to go on her maternity leave. I'm not going to speculate on what, if any, legal actions are following from this.
One of my ex-colleagues simply quit one day - no emails, no notice...nothing.
Another one of my ex-colleagues told me he was doing two jobs, but only working 8 hours in total per day, if that.
Then COVID layoffs happened. In the first case, the company simply turned off the logins - it was their way of laying people off (one laid off guy had been with the company for 15 years, another one had health issues and needed the insurance). In the second guy's case, they told him one Friday afternoon that it was his last day. We were in different teams at the time, but neither of us had any work, despite asking our respective managers for work daily. He got frustrated with having no work and took another job. Also, it took them three more months to give us the last two paychecks (for two months).
Both times, I thought my colleagues were nuts and were unethical - doing second job, not giving notice etc just felt ugly. Now I feel different. If employers treat employees like crap, why should any employee show any loyalty? When my colleague was laid off, he didn't care, as he was already had another job. I on the other hand, spent the next month looking for one.
In every contract job I worked, the first thing they say is "you can (and should) work more than 40 hours if we need you to, but you can only bill us for 40 hours".
If this is the treatment in a sophisticated, (relatively) high paid industry like software, I wonder how people are treated in service industries, retail etc. No wonder so many workers are striking and trying to unionize... Maybe it is time for software developers to unionize too
> the company simply turned off the logins - it was their way of laying people off
In a lot of countries this is illegal, you need to prove a cause for firing anyone. One of the reasons klarnas firings in Sweden have been controversial and complicated is that they specifically tried to sidestep that by "firing people" by getting them to resign and accept a deal. They would not be able to just outright fire people without negotiating the terms, and those terms are usually based on a LIFO queue.
> One of my ex-colleagues simply quit one day - no emails, no notice...nothing.
Some people don't want to leave with fanfare, but notice is basically required in sweden (again, using sweden as a comparison since the thread is about klarna).
> Another one of my ex-colleagues told me he was doing two jobs, but only working 8 hours in total per day, if that.
If they were dishonest about that then that does not look great IMO. If they weren't and both companies were fine with it then it seems OK.
If they were dishonest about that then that does not look great IMO. If they weren't and both companies were fine with it then it seems OK.
He was billing the companies 8 hours a day, each. Is this unethical? Sure. But he had no work for weeks and weeks, despite asking his manager daily about it. He was on FaceBook first, then Netflix, finally got himself a second job. Until they laid him off, with 2 hours notice on a Friday afternoon.
This is what happens when employers treat their employees like crap. I have zero sympathy for most employers these days.
In Europe (I work in the UK) it's usual to require that both sides commit to the employment on a rolling basis. My contracts have for over a decade now required roughly 90 days, but it's common to see 30 days in most jobs.
That means if I want to leave I need to give 90 days notice and if they don't want me any more I get 90 days notice of that or I get 90 days pay immediately.
As I understand it Garden Leave is not uncommon in the US... for executive level jobs. The guy cleaning the hallways is lucky if they remember to tell him not to come in tomorrow rather than just locking the doors and not paying him any more.
The article is a very good write up of what happened. I'm going to talk about what the current internal situation is and how people are feeling based on what I'm seeing.
Since the layoffs there has been a noticeable shift in atmosphere. Previously quite a few people would regularly come to the offices, now not so much. Some still do come but significantly less. Performance has gone from people often going beyond what was expected to "I'll do enough to keep my job". A colleague who was previously very keen working for Klarna and would often work a good 11 hours+ is now "disenchanted" and doesn't quite know what to do with themself.
Job satisfaction and overall happiness has rapidly declined and is still going down. Some departments do internal anonymous surveys where people outright get asked if they are happy at work. From the ones I saw, every single one had a drop of at least 20%, some significantly more. Participation rate of those surveys has also declined. Most people I spoke to outright said they're not participating anymore because they're on the way out.
A good 50% of the people I asked, outright said they are looking for a new job. I expect some are not sharing because they want to keep it a secret. I'm expecting my team to loose about 40% of its members within the next 5 months. As far as I know, there is only replacement hiring, no active hiring.
One of my very talented colleagues that I have been working with for 3 years got laid off. During a chat with our direct supervisor I asked them if they could tell me the reason. Trying to reassure me, they said I had nothing to worry about and that my colleague wasn't fired for poor performance but other internal reason. I knew this colleagues salary so I also know they weren't let go because of their high salary. Since then my team has an open position that is hiring for this exact role. Make of that what you will.
As you might have read from the article, communication was absolutely horrendous. One of the key things I'd like to mention is that Klarna always promoted open and frequent communication. Only this was never practiced by the C-Level. This was incredible apparent during the layoffs. Many people had questions but C-Level was dead silent and let HR people "manage" the fallout. My colleague had their meeting at the start of the working day on Tuesday (layoffs were announced the day before). My supervisor got told of the layoff 15 minutes before my colleagues meeting. Informing my supervisor was done through a 3 sentence slack message.
2 weeks after the announcement, quite a few pregnant women came forward that they also received an offer. Additionally, a lot of people on long term sick leave were contacted. Since the layoff decisions weren't made centrally, I doubt these groups we're specifically targeted but Klarna is, in comparison to the average Swedish company, quite international. I know of at least one case from a decision maker (not C-Level) that a woman was laid off because she was 8-months pregnant and due to go on her maternity leave. I'm not going to speculate on what, if any, legal actions are following from this.