The social network Clubhouse has in a e-mail announced to its workforce that more than half of the employees would be laid off. The main reason is the “reorientation” of the app. The platform must continue to develop and thus “find its role in the world,” says the mail. That requires a phase of change. A smaller team allows the company “more concentration and speed”. The two founders, Stanford graduate and former Pinterest employee Paul Davison and former Google employee Rohan Seth, hope that this will “take the product to the next level”.
The laid-off employees are allowed to keep company laptops
This restructuring could not be done effectively with the current size of the team and its spatial separation as a result of the pandemic, it is said. Many employees felt “blocked” by the executive floor. Those affected would receive an invitation to a one-to-one conversation after the message. The company will pay those affected their salaries by the end of April and will also pay out a severance payment of four months’ salary, so that those who have been laid off will receive their full salary by the end of August. In order to be able to apply for new positions, those affected will be able to keep their laptops provided by the company. The company also wants to help with job searches and employees with visas for immigration.
In March 2020, Clubhouse was acquired by the software group alpha exploration based in Salt Lake City, USA. During the corona pandemic, the audio app, in which users can listen to the conversations like a live podcast and also actively participate in discussions, triggered a real hype. At times, the rush was so great that you could only join the app with an invitation from a member. With the lifting of the corona measures, however, the conversations of many users shifted back to real life – and away from the clubhouse. So the hype didn’t last long. The app has also been criticized for a lack of data protection, a lack of moderation and legal deficiencies.