Yahoo Layoffs Happening Live Online

The Yahoo layoffs are underway, and are happening live online. Blogs, news sites, and social sites like Twitter are filled today with live reports about what’s going on inside Yahoo’s offices. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve found.

Silicon Alley Insider is posting updated comments from the now ex-Yahooers, who are describing the scene at various Yahoo offices around the country:

“In the NY Park Ave office, all the layoffs were one-on-one. Mine was, at least. Whole teams have been let go, even engineers. The office was hit pretty hard. Wouldn’t be surprised if all the NY offices were to consolidate after this.”

“Oregon just got hit…. 4 months severence… February 13 is going to be last day pay as employee and then 2 months pay after that… Customer Care PM”… “Got a rumor that all of Eugene Engineering is gone”…” Started at 9am in Oregon. Lots of people going out the door… At least 20-30 people so far today.”

“Yahoo toolbar entire engineering and QA team in US are got, all moved to Bangalore.”

The layoffs are also being live-streamed on Twitter.

Some specific examples: pollyr says i got an email which said simply “I need to talk to you about changes to the organization”.

Another twitter user, ryantxr, writes as of now, I am independently employed. my stay at #yahoo is over. I really enjoyed it. The future holds other opportunities for me now.

And says bartt: An ex international tiger team member who became a PM not to long ago has been laid off by #yahoo. I feel terrible for him.

It’s more than a little strange and unsettling to be able to “watch” layoffs happen online like this. There’s no official word yet, but all the reports are that 1,500 Yahoos are getting the axe today, about 10% of the workforce. On AllThingsD, Kara Swisher says the total number may eventually grow to 2,000 employees. Valleywag shows slides that managers are to use when meeting with the laid-off staffers.

We’ll update this post throughout the day as new information comes in.

Update #1: Jerry Yang has posted on the company blog about today’s layoffs, saying it’s “the toughest part of being a manager.” He posted the text of his letter to all Yahoo employees. Here’s an excerpt:

“…saying goodbye to colleagues and friends is never easy. they all are dedicated members of our yahoo! family, who worked beside us and shared our passion.

but as you all know, we must take actions to better perform in today’s turbulent global economy. while we’ve found efficiencies in many parts of our business, laying off employees is unfortunately unavoidable. our difficult decision to let colleagues go reflects the changes we’re having to make to better align costs with revenues – something businesses in virtually every sector are also having to do.”

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.