Klarna criticised for chaotic handling of job cuts

theguardian.com:

Sacked staff have criticised the buy now pay later firm Klarna for its chaotic handling of job cuts, including in the UK, and questioned the chief executive’s decision to publicise a list of fired staff who are now scrambling for work.

UK employees affected by the cuts told the Guardian they felt “blindsided” by the Swedish firm’s announcement last week, when its co-founder and boss Sebastian Siemiatkowski revealed it would be cutting more than 700 of its 7,000-plus global staff, including some hired just weeks earlier.

Klarna, which is the leading buy now pay later (BNPL) provider in the UK with 17 million customers, has blamed the cuts on a predicted drop in consumer spending, sparked by surging inflation and fears over an economic recession linked to the war in Ukraine.

Siemiatkowski sparked further controversy on Tuesday by sharing a list of sacked employees on LinkedIn. More than 560 staff, including about 27 from the UK, had voluntarily added their names to the list, which was created by a fellow employee in order to help sacked co-workers find new jobs.

The chief executive wrote in the post that he had “mixed feelings” about the document: “While it symbolises much of what I am proud of among Klarna’s employees, it is also a tangible symbol of a very hard decision that saddens me deeply and will stay with me for a long period of time.

“If your company is lucky enough to recruit one of these fantastic people, I can assure you that it will be one of your biggest wins this year.”

However, commentators on LinkedIn criticised the chief executive’s post, saying it was “tone deaf”, while another said the creation of the list was “a clear sign of how poorly managed this ‘change’ has been implemented that has forced people to