Reports this week specify how some of the workers at TikTok lost their jobs recently. On the other hand, many more were asked to get ready for a meeting with the HR department as an extension of TikTok’s efforts for global restructuring. Reports note how employees situated in Europe received a warning regarding their jobs being at risk, and to be ready for an HR meeting in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, workers situated in the UK got the message that their colleagues across departments could possibly lose their positions. Alongside, certain personnel in the United States were informed that they were fired just a while after they had arrived at work on the morning of Monday, July 18.
David Ortiz, one of the employees from the US, was also one of the first few executives the social media platform’s parent company, ByteDance hired outside its headquarters at China. He made a post on LinkedIn this week addressing this global restructuring affecting him directly. In it, he stated how as part of a bigger ‘re organisation effort,’ his role was being terminated at TikTok.
Ortiz said that his “role is being eliminated in a much larger re-organization effort.”
When news outlets approached a spokesperson from the social media site, they did not deny the current layoffs being carried out. Unfortunately, they did not provide a confirmation regarding whether TikTok is actually under the process of a global restructuring. Alongside, it did not even give in any elaborate statement about exactly why the company is carrying out these layoffs.
Additionally, concerned publications even approached staffers from TikTok for more information on the job cuts. However, when enquired, they stated that the social media giant was only laying off teams and workers which the managers consider to have not contributed enough. According to them, only a minute percentage of the 10,000 employees in Europe and the US i.e., 100 workers were fired. Evidently, TikTok is not the only company in the tech industry to carry out such job cuts.
Various tech giants such as Twitter, Netflix and Unity were seen to bid adieu to many of their employees. Similarly, Tesla Inc went on to fire about 200 Autopilot employees, while closing an office in California. Moreover, Rivian is reportedly planning to let about 5% of its workforce go, and Meta has instructed managers to keep check of low performing employees.