The recent round of job cuts announced by Wayfair is primarily affecting remote workers as staffers fretted over the future of the home decor site during a tense all-hands meeting, according to a report.
Executives at the Boston-based company sought to reassure worried staffers on Tuesday by insisting that a sale wasn’t being considered, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Wayfair employees grilled CEO Niraj Shah on Tuesday about a memo sent last month urging them to log more hours and work harder in the weeks before the firm announced it was shedding 1,650 staffers — or 13% of its global workforce of around 14,000 people.
It is unclear how many remote workers Wayfair employs.
Wayfair management has required its employees to show up to the office at least three days a week.
Those who occupy a handful of remote positions are required to work Eastern Standard Time zone hours and to travel once per quarter to the company’s Boston headquarters, according to Boston Business Journal.
According to The Journal, Shah doubled down on his demand for hard work, saying it was necessary for the company to turn a profit.
“If bankruptcy is inevitable then shame on all of us for not working harder,” Steve Conine, company co-founder and co-chair of the board, joked to staffers.
Wayfair employees were reportedly told on Tuesday that the layoffs announced last week — the fourth round of job cuts that the company has announced since 2020 — were aimed at expediting decision-making processes within teams.
Company executives told staffers that they expect most of the workforce to be in the office on most days, though some roles will continue to be remote.
The Post has sought comment from Wayfair.
Wayfair’s stock price dipped by more than 3% as of noon on Wednesday.
Since early 2021, the stock has fallen 80% from an all-time high of around $345 a share to around $55 a share.
Wayfair announced its latest job cuts on Friday.
The restructuring will reduce team sizes across the company and reduce seniority in certain roles with the company planning to “rebuild with modified leveling” this year, Shah said.
“The natural question is to ask ‘Why?’” he wrote in a Friday memo to employees.
“I think the reality is that we went overboard in hiring during a strong economic period and veered away from our core principles, and while we have come quite far back to them, we are not quite there.”
In January of last year, Wayfair laid off about 1,750 employees — representing 10% of its global workforce at the time.
It cut 870 jobs in August 2022, and 550 jobs in 2020.
Friday’s job cuts are expected to bring annualized cost savings of more than $280 million, Wayfair said.
The company anticipates incurring about $70 million to $80 million in restructuring costs, mostly for employee severance and benefits, primarily in the first quarter of 2024.
With Post Wires
