There was a tense mood at the Nasdaq-listed Freshworks on Monday, as the founder and chief executive officer Girish Mathrubootham presented the specifics of the company’s latest round of layoffs at about 114 employees at the quarterly internal All-Hands meeting. “There were multiple questions that popped from the employees’ anonymous chatbox like, Why is there a layoff and why at a time when the job market is facing a downturn is being raised by employees to ‘G’ (As Girish Mathrubootham is addressed at Freshworks)” stated a worker who asked to remain anonymous.
Mathrubootham informed the staff that of the 114 impacted employees, about 90 would be let go due to poor performance, and about 24 would have their roles eliminated. “There are roles that have gotten redundant like some roles within diversity, equity, and inclusivity teams some in the content and HR side. So those roles are eliminated by the company now,” the person mentioned above said.
Freshworks offered two months pay to laid-off workers
The creator said the tight macroeconomic environment is to blame for layoffs and warned that the worst is still to come. “G (Girish Mathrubootham) answered every question in detail, he seemed pretty upset too and it was said that this is mainly due to the tight macroeconomic condition. What bothers me more is that there was an indication that the ‘worst is yet to come,” another Freshworks employee added. Inquiries from Moneycontrol received no response from Freshworks.
Two months pay was offered as a severance package to laid-off workers. One employee who was recently let go by Freshworks said, “This may vary for different employees but some of us were promised two months of salary and other health insurance packages to continue for a period of time.”
Moneycontrol was the first to announce on March 16th that the corporation had undergone another wave of layoffs across teams in its India and US headquarters. Over 5,200 people work for the organisation on a global scale.
The firm had roughly 1,000 employees but by 2022 it increased to 4000
In anticipation of a potential global recession, the SaaS ecosystem in India and worldwide is beginning to feel pressure from slowing demand growth and is taking cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. By the end of the previous year, Chargebee reported having 400 workers in 2019 and over 1,000 by 2022. In 2019, Freshworks had roughly 1,000 employees; by 2022, that number had increased by 4,000. Exotel, situated in Bangalore, also let go of about 142 staff in January 2023.
