The month of January continues to prove itself to be a brutal one for those in the gaming and tech industries. This time around employees at Discord are the next to feel the consequences of bad executive decisions, as 17 percent of its work force, or 170 employees, are being laid off.
An internal memo from CEO Jason Citron reads that the company “grew quickly and expanded [its] workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020” but now has to downsize to “sharpen [its] focus and improve the way [employees] work together to bring more agility to [the] organization.” However, insider reports further contextualize the firings, claiming that while the company has raised $1 billion in funding and has more than $700 million in cash on its balance sheet, it hasn’t been profitable for some time – a primary goal for the company this year.
Employees who are impacted by this layoff round will receive five months’ worth of salary and benefits, continued access to healthcare benefits through 2024, and equity vesting of awards scheduled for February.
In tangential Discord news, users are being warned about a stealth change to user privacy, as the app automatically opts people in to allow their voice to be recorded in Discord’s Clips feature without consent. Mercifully this can be fixed by simply turning the option off, but it’s something to bear in mind all the same.
