Bird is laying off 23% of staff

According to Layoffs.fyi, Bird plans to lay off 23% of its staff.

The tech tracker attributes the news of the layoffs to an internal memo, but certain posts from former Bird employees confirm that the layoffs have already begun, and they are hitting everyone from senior managers to new hires.

The departures will happen across the organization and regions according to Bird.

The need for and access to micro-electric vehicle transportation has never been greater, according to Bird. The path required us to reduce our cost structure in a way that would allow us to expand our service beyond the more than 400 cities we operate in today. We had to leave with a number of team members who helped create a new industry and paved the way for more eco-friendly transportation because we eliminated all non critical third party spend.

The layoffs of 16,000 tech workers last month were not the only reason we saw this coming. Bird said in May that it wouldstreamline and consolidate its resources in order to get closer to profitable margins.

Bird paused on its retail operations due to part of the plan. Even though Bird wouldn't admit to it at the time, layoffs were to be expected.

The company has 600 employees. Bird is going to lay off around 136 workers. Most of the layoffs will be in Los Angeles according to Layoffs.fyi. One former employee was looking for a job in Texas.

This isn't the first time Bird has had to lay off workers. Bird laid off 30% of its employees at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The layoffs are likely to continue over the next few days. According to a former employee who was a new hire, Bird had been hiring new people every week in March and April, so he believes most of them will be reversed.

The former employee thinks they will cut based on where they leave. The people who are in charge of the regions that aren't profitable may also be cut.

Bird handled the layoffs well according to the former employee.

The last layoffs were told to me. The former employee said that this time they learned and went with a one-on-one approach. It makes me happy to hear it from my manager. My manager gave me a warning when the Q1 earnings came out. I was prepared because of that.

Each team member was told of their status during an individual departure meeting with a senior level leader in the company.

The departing team members received a minimum of three weeks severance, three months of healthcare, extended exercise windows for vested options, and the removal of cliffs for grants.

As we learn more about the layoffs, this story will be updated. Don't forget to check back in for the latest news.

Bird had over 1,000 employees according to a previous version of the story. The number is close to 600 according to Bird.

This is not (just) another roundup of tech layoffs