India: BYJU's CEO says it is not 'layoff' but 'time off' after firing emplo
A few weeks after announcing that the company was firing 2,500 employees, Byju"s founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran has written an e-mail to the workers, explaining his decision.
While the general tone of the letter is remorseful, a particular line is being called out. Reportedly, in the internal e-mail, the EdTech CEO gave his own synonym for layoff.
"Sure, the hands, hearts and minds that built the world’s leading EdTech company will always be in demand. But, no, what others see as ‘layoff’, I only see as time off," saidRaveendran in the letter, before adding that re-hiring the laid-off employees will remain the number one priority.
Raveendran explained that the company scaled up massively in the last four years. However, theadverse macroeconomic factors in 2022 affected the business landscape, forcing the company to make tough calls.
×"Having expanded exponentially in the past four years, it is now time for us to grow sustainably. So, we decided to define our ‘path to profitability and sustainable growth’ - and to walk on it in earnest," read the letter.
Read more:After prolonged audit delay, Byju"s reports $575 million losses in 2021
"I realize that there is a huge price to pay for walking on this path to profitability. We are having to part ways with 2500 of our colleagues to avoid role duplication across our businesses."
As reported by WION, in May, the online learning platform had reported alossof 45.64 billion rupees ($554.77 million) for fiscal 2021 due to higher promotion and employee expenses.
Read more:Indian edtech giant Byju"s lays off 2,500 employees to cut costs, improve profitability
The employees who have been sacked are from its subsidiary units like Toppr, and WhiteHat Jr, apart from the core team of sales and marketing, operations, content and design teams.
(With inputs from agencies)
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