Uber Lays Off 400 Employees from Marketing Team in MENA Region—Without Prior Notice

In a shocking decision, Uber laid off 400 employees from its marketing team in its MENA region, without a prior notice and without giving any reason behind this sudden decision, whereby the announcement took place Monday July 29^th, and was effective Tuesday July 30^th.

Tino Waked, Uber Director, General Manager-MENA, posted yesterday on his Facebook account that he is trying to help people who were let go to find new jobs.

An initiative to help the ones affected to find new job was initiated by Michael Houck, Former Product Analytics Lead, Uber Eats Marketplace, San Francisco, 2016-2018, currently Product Manager Airbnb Plus, San Francisco, in a form of a Google sheet with the names and titles of the ones who were let go, as a mean to help them in finding new jobs instead.

Thus far, there was no official announcement to explain reasons behind this decision. The reason was taken few months right after it was enlisted on Wall Street and its IPO was on Friday May 10th this year, whereby its shares were down 7.6% at the end of its first day of trading, according to a CNBC report.

In its article Bloomberg reported the CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, told employees of the changes in an email Monday, that slower growth “happens naturally” as companies get bigger, but it’s still something the company needs to address quickly.

This arbitrary permanent layoff is indeed violent and brutal, and an open investigation must be incorporated in such a situation that has negatively affected the lives and families of the 400 employees. Not only they were not compensated, they were not appreciated for their talents and hard work ethics.  

The indirect message that Uber is now giving to any potential employee is that you are not safe and you are not valued enough and that is completely a risk Uber should not take.

Any employer cares for the employees’ satisfaction and loyalty, but now how can Uber ask for its employees’ loyalty when it wasn’t?

By Sara Zarif and Eman Hassan