Uber lays off over 3,500 employees in a 3-minute Zoom call. ‘Today will be your last working day with Uber,’ Choked up executive tells staff

Mass layoffs continue to rock the tech sector as companies begin to feel the impact of coronavirus on their businesses. Last week, we told you about Uber’s decision to lay off 3,700 employees, about 14% of its entire workforce. Uber ride business is down by more than half due to coronavirus. Now, according to an exclusive video obtained by DailyMail, the ride-sharing giant informed 3,500 people who worked in customer service and recruitment around the country that it would be their last day working

Ruffin Chaveleau, head of Uber’s customer service, broke the news to staff : “We are eliminating 3,500 frontline customer support roles,’ Chaveleau said. ‘Your role is impacted and today will be your last working day with Uber.” Over three thousands of Uber employees learned that they were being laid off in a three-minute Zoom call last week.

“Our rides business is down by more than half. There is not enough work for many frontline customer support employees. [As a result] we are eliminating 3,500 frontline customer support roles. Your role is impacted and today will be your last working day with Uber. You will remain on payroll until the date noted in your severance package,” she said. The cuts were be made among customer support and recruiting teams. However, the number of driver will be largely unaffected.

Uber has been plagued with problems even before its Co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick left the company late last year. In the third quarter of 2019, Uber reported a net loss of over $1 billion in 3 months. Even though the ride-sharing company’s earnings of $3.81 billion beat analyst estimates of $3.69 billion, the devil is in the detail. During the same period, Uber reported a net loss of $1.16 billion for the quarter, topping its $986 million loss during the same quarter of 2018.

Founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp, Oscar Salazar, and Travis Kalanick, Uber develops, markets, and operates a ride-sharing mobile application which allows consumers to submit a trip request that is routed to crowd-sourced partner drivers. Its smartphone application connects drivers with people who need a ride. Its application enables users to arrange and schedule transportation and/or logistics services with third-party providers.