It's a tough time for the workforce, and while many have been working from home over the last month or so, many have been furloughed and/or laid off — the latest layoffs coming from Uber.
Around 3,500 Uber employees, people who worked in customer service and recruitment across the country, were informed via a Zoom call that it would, unfortunately, be their last day working for the popular ride-sharing company.
According to the Daily Mail, the call lasted only for a few minutes as Uber's Ruffin Chaveleau, who heads up Uber's Phoenix Center of Excellence (the company's customer service office), broke the news as he explained, "Our rides business is down by more than half. There is not enough work for many frontline customer support employees. [As a result] we are eliminating 3,500 frontline customer support roles."
She added, "Your role is impacted and today will be your last working day with Uber. You will remain on payroll until the date noted in your severance package."
One, now former Uber employee, anonymously spoke to the Daily Mail, and explained that there was no notice of the layoff, saying, "It was a 3,700-person live Zoom call. It was controlled. I would prefer to have had notice. The day before, we were told we would know in two weeks what departments would be let go." They added, "They gave us no notice. If I missed that Zoom call, I would have missed the news. We knew they didn't have the drivers' backs, but they don't have anyone's backs."
This was not the first layoff since the pandemic started. Earlier, in February, Chaveleau had to notify 80 staff members that they would also be losing their jobs, following a shut down of Uber's Los Angeles customer support office.
Like many businesses, large and small, Uber has certainly felt the effects of COVID-19, and in total has had to eliminate 3,700 out of 26,900 roles, globally.