The popular transportation company known as Uber has just recently laid off thousands of their workers during multiple Zoom calls, according to a certain report.
There were a total of about 3,500 customer service and recruitment employees that were told over a series of video calls last week that they would be terminated as the service currently struggles with the ongoing pandemic.
The Daily Mail was the first to report this news and even obtain the video of this happening. According to a certain Uber spokesperson's statement to FOX Business, it is never easy or even uncomplicated to let certain employees go, and that fact has only become more true during the ongoing pandemic although most are working from their homes across multiple cities and countries.
Uber's decision
According to the spokesperson, the company has focused on providing the most empathetic and clearest experience they could possibly have put together along with a strong severance package and even other benefits.
The head of Uber's Pheonix Center of Excellence, Ruffin Chaveleau, said in a certain call that the transportation ride business is certainly going down by more than half. According to Chaveleau, there is not even enough work for most of the front-line customer support employees. Due to this, they are eliminating 3,500 frontline customer support roles.
Chaveleau acknowledged the current situation and said that she is aware that it is extremely hard to hear and that nobody wants to receive a call like that one especially in a time like this. Now, with everyone working remotely and even a change of this magnitude, they had to announce as quickly as possible before people heard it from the "rumor mill."
In addition, she also stated that she actually wanted to deliver the news personally in order to thank the contributors to Uber.
The demand for Uber services
The demand for these Uber services has drastically dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic with most Americans staying home. The filing by Uber last Wednesday showed that about 14 percent of its total 26,900 employees could actually lose their jobs.
The company has already lost about $3 billion as reported last Thursday and even said that it would carry out a hiring freeze. Even the CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, will give up this current year's salary in order to keep the company afloat.
In a statement given last week, Uber's CEO said that while all the rides have been hit hard due to the ongoing pandemic and that the company has to make firm decisions and take quick action in order to preserve the strength of their own balance sheets.
The company is now focusing its additional resources on Uber Eats and preparing for any recovery scenario.
In addition, the CEO said that they are seeing early sings in the market that are beginning to open back up. According to them, the global footprint along with variable cost structure still remains an important competitive advantage. They also expect that their Rides recovery will still differ depending on cities.
Read Also: Triton Submarines Unveils Luxurious Sub That Could Bring 24 Tourists Down to 100-meter Depths
