Several LinkedIn employees feared they would be laid off after a mysterious internal list of about 500 employees was made public.
As per two LinkedIn workers that hours after seeing their names on the list, their worst fears had come true – they were laid off.
A LinkedIn employee posted Sunday night on Blind, an anonymous job posting site that verifies employees’ employment based on their company email, about a possible “kill list” of employees who would be affected by upcoming layoffs.
as per employees rumors began swirling within the company after the worker’s post.
In Blind, the LinkedIn worker pointed out that the company’s human resources department had created a new list, “OctoberUpdate,” using LinkedIn’s GroupID tool, a third-party tool that allows employees to join teams and create email chains or calendar events for groups, according to the two employees.
as per employees One LinkedIn employee “I was getting texts from everybody, all my friends. Everyone was calling and saying, “Hey, check GroupID.”.”
The LinkedIn worker said the list included hundreds of people, including a friend who later learned on Monday that they had been included in the layoff round. To determine whether all names on the list were impacted by the layoffs.
LinkedIn confirmed that it uses GroupID to create and manage distribution lists.
In regards to the layoffs, LinkedIn’s spokesperson said the company is “committed to treating all impacted employees with care and respect.”
the GroupID list was deleted the same day as per workers after dozens of workers requested information about it through the company’s internal channel.
Although the list had been deleted, LinkedIn workers could still view its history, including its names.
LinkedIn staff also lost access to the larger GroupID tool on Sunday, two workers said.
“We’ve heard you’re having trouble accessing Go/GroupID,” stated an email sent around 4 a.m. on Monday from the company’s internal communications team.As we investigate, we appreciate your patience.
According to workers, the tool was slow to load on Sunday night when they checked it, and they suspected there were too many workers trying to use it simultaneously.
The LinkedIn tool took 20 minutes to load, according to one LinkedIn employee, adding that it was usually reserved for setting up or joining groups, rather than being used every day. “It felt like everyone at the company was looking at that list at once.”
LinkedIn confirmed the job cuts in a press release on Monday after sending a company-wide email notifying over 600 employees of layoffs across its R&D divisions.
The professional networking platform’s representatives, who sent an email to employees on Monday morning, said the company “didn’t expect to share such an important announcement.” Staff were told in the email to expect another email within an hour to find out if they had been laid off. LinkedIn workers said employees who were told they had been laid off were told to attend a meeting where they were walked through leaving the company.
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