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A Message from Glassdoor CEO, Christian Sutherland-Wong

As a company whose vision is to bring transparency to workplaces everywhere, we believe it’s important that we practice what we preach. The below memo was sent to Glassdoor employees today following an All Hands meeting where CEO, Christian Sutherland-Wong, announced he had made the difficult decision to reduce the company’s workforce

Team, 

Since last summer, we’ve provided regular updates on the shifting macroeconomic environment and the decisions we’ve made to operate conservatively amidst the uncertainty. From the start, we said that layoffs would be a last resort. Unfortunately, we have reached that point. It is with a heavy heart that I share that I have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce. Today we are going to say goodbye to around 140 of our colleagues, who represent approximately 15% of the Glassdoor team.

Those of you in the US whose roles are being impacted will receive a meeting invitation (Subject: Follow Up Meeting) within the hour to meet with your manager or team lead. For those whose roles are not impacted, you will receive an email confirmation (Subject: Your Role is Not Impacted), also within the hour. EMEA employees will receive an invitation to either a UK or Ireland Town Hall meeting where we’ll share specific next steps for those markets.

This outcome is devastating, and please know that we made all attempts to control costs to avoid this. We paused hiring. We cut program costs. We cut travel and events. Unfortunately, this was not enough.

How we got here

In our last All Hands we shared the recent declines in our revenue trends. Last quarter, US sponsored jobs across our SBU were down 33% year over year. And we saw declines in retention rates for our Employer Branding customers too. It has become increasingly clear that this is just the beginning of a broader economic slowdown, as the job market cools after the post-COVID boom. 

Economic contractions tend to have an extended impact on the recruiting industry, and we anticipate declines in US job openings back to pre-pandemic levels over the next two or three years. As such, I am making difficult but necessary changes to our cost structure now to handle what we expect to be a challenging period for our business and revenue.

Supporting departing employees

For those of you who will be leaving, our goal is to offer you the greatest amount of support we can. Severance will include:

  • Pay: A minimum of 16 weeks base pay.
  • Healthcare:  Healthcare coverage for 4 months. We are also including access to Modern Health for you and your dependents at no cost to you through the end of 2023. 
  • Bonus & Commissions: 100% payout of Spring 2023 bonus, and full payout of earned commissions and spiffs.
  • LTIPs: Payout of FY23 LTIPs for those employees who hold LTIP units.
  • RSUs: Cash equivalent of your May 2023 vest amount. For those who have not reached your grant vesting cliff, we will waive the cliff.
  • Laptop: Choice to keep your Glassdoor laptop to help with your job search.
  • Career support: A range of career support services including access to experts to help with your job search.  

Your individual severance package will contain details that are specific to you and your location.  A member of our People team will be available to answer questions and provide further clarification.  

We are leaving Slack open for departing employees until the end of the day and we have opened up a new Slack channel called – #goodbye – in which employees who are staying, and employees who are leaving, can talk, share contact information and wish each other well. We know the relationships we all have at Glassdoor are special and we want to honor them. 

It’s heartbreaking to say goodbye to such a talented group of people for reasons that are outside of their control. To those of you departing, I want to convey my deepest gratitude to each of you for your contribution to Glassdoor. Today is a very sad and emotional day, but I hope you can take pride in the meaningful work you’ve done during your time here.  

Looking ahead

While today will feel like a big change to our company, let me be clear that our vision for Glassdoor is unchanged. We are on a path to transforming Glassdoor into the leading community for workplace conversations. Recognizing we’ll be a smaller team after today, we will take time in the coming weeks to adapt our plans to ensure we can remain focused on delivering this vision. 

Tomorrow morning we will host a Town Hall Q&A as the first of many touch points for us to come together and get clarity on our go-forward plans. Sr. Execs will also host functional Town Hall meetings tomorrow, and you can expect your managers and team leads to reach out to connect with you as well.

Finally, I recognize that for all of us, it’s going to take time to grieve and process the changes we are experiencing today. I ask that we all do our best to support one another during this time. That is the Glassdoor way. Thank you. 

Christian