Uber to Cut 10% of Employees

Uber is laying off 10% of its workforce, or about 3,400 people, in an effort to streamline the organization by reducing management layers. In making the announcement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told staffers that “the vast majority” of remote employees needed to move to an office, reducing the proportion of people who can work fully remotely to about 1%.

Khosrowshahi cited internal surveys showing that employees feel “too much work requires coordination across teams, debates take too long and decision-making rights are unclear.” As a result, the number of “micro-teams” of only one or two people were being cut in half. He didn’t make any reference to AI as a factor.

Uber’s workforce has grown to 34,000 as at Dec. 31, from 22,800 at the end of 2020. Over the same period, Uber’s revenue has jumped from $11 billion to $52 billion.