The unfortunate 2023 trend for mass layoffs in the technology industry is showing no signs of slowing down after GitHub became the latest company to announce significant redundancies.
The announcement is expected to affect 10% of the company’s roughly 3,000 workers, meaning hundreds of individuals could be losing their jobs.
Among other cost-cutting measures, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke also announced plans for the company to close all its physical offices and operate entirely remotely, which will appeal to a significant proportion of workers who have favored the added flexibility since receiving the WFH mandate almost three years ago.
GitHub layoffs
In an email to employees, Dohmke explained that the platform is now home to 100 million developers, many of whom make great use of the AI-powered Copilot, which turned out to be the company’s most successful launch.
On top of a hiring pause, which remains in place, affected workers can expect to be notified during FY23, with some imminently and others further down the line.
The company’s exact parting gift to its workers has not been publicly announced, however we do know that workers will receive transition compensation, an extension of health care, and other transition benefits.
Dohmke also explained that the company has seen “very low utilization” rates in its offices, which ties in with its remote-first culture. All of its offices will eventually close when it is suitable, which includes consideration of lease agreements.
Other cost-cutting measures include a four-year laptop refresh cycle (up from three years), and a step down in Microsoft Teams subscription for video conferencing use only (Slack will still serve for other communication purposes).
Outside of the four walls of GitHub, similarly named GitLab (opens in new tab) has also announced a reduction of 7% to its headcount as a result of the tough macroeconomic environment.
Via Fortune (opens in new tab)
