Employees at Salesforce told Insider they are preparing for further layoffs due to the company’s leadership changes. This is because of the increasing pressure to meet sales targets. Also, the influence of an activist investor.
One employee told Insider, “many are terrified it may happen at any time.”A request for a response from Salesforce was denied.
Hundreds of workers were let go by the firm in November. Since then, it has implemented what some insiders have criticized as unreasonable additional requirements, particularly for salespeople. These requirements include holding daily in-person meetings throughout Christmas and returning to the office, despite Marc Benioff’s public claims that staff could be just as effective working from home.
Rumors are going around the firm that further layoffs might happen this month.
Some staff members hypothesized that many internal pressures may be connected to an activist investor. The investor, Starboard Value, announced a sizable investment in Salesforce in October, right before the layoffs. The insider was informed by a source with knowledge of the situation. They said the firm has pressed for cost-cutting measures since approaching the company this summer.
Employees said these modifications sign a more comprehensive culture change at Salesforce. They said that the friendly “Ohana” culture made the organization one of the greatest to work for. It has been replaced with a sharp focus on metrics and sales objectives. Even its most recent layoffs were referred to inside as a “performance management event,” which is maybe appropriate.
There was conflict before Bret Taylor left Salesforce
It appears that maybe Bret Taylor’s protégé, Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff, was protesting a little too much when he said his protégé farewell last week. Benioff insisted to anybody who would listen that he was devastated to lose his friend and mentee.
There may be more to the tale than that. Taylor’s dual responsibilities as co-CEO and chair of the Twitter board, which he held until the end of October when Elon Musk became the company’s owner and disbanded the commission, reportedly caused tension between the two executives, according to a report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ said that Benioff was concerned that Taylor wasn’t spending enough time on engineering and was spending too much time with other CEOs and customers, a position you would expect Benioff would want his co-CEO to take on. This is undoubtedly the strangest portion of the narrative.
Keith Block, the previous co-CEO, brought this attitude to the position before leaving the organization in 2020. If Taylor’s resignation was motivated by anger about his inability to develop something, one might assume that he would concentrate on engineering.
