Etsy has joined the growing list of companies to lay off workers in the lead-up to Christmas—and its CEO attempted to water down the bad news with a sailing metaphor.
The online marketplace told 225 workers that they will be out of a job in the New Year, via a livestream on Wednesday.
Moments after announcing the 11% headcount reduction, its chief executive Josh Silverman described the day as “one of the hardest we’ve experienced at Etsy” while attempting to rally the staff who were not cut.
“The waters may be rough right now,” he wrote in an internal memo. “But there’s no other ship I’d rather be on, and no other crew I’d rather be with, as we weather this cycle and emerge even stronger on the other side.”
Although Silverman acknowledged the “unfortunate” timing of the cost-cutting measure—given that Christmas is just two weeks away—he doubled down that he wanted to communicate the decision with workers “as soon as possible” and head into 2024 with a new strategy for growth.
“While the Etsy marketplace is still more than double the size it was in 2019, we need to acknowledge and adjust for today’s realities,” he wrote. “We are operating in a very challenging macro and competitive environment, and GMS (gross merchandise sales) has remained essentially flat since 2021.”
“This is ultimately not a sustainable trajectory and we must change it,” he added. “As we head into 2024, we have identified our 'Vital Few' projects and initiatives that we believe will reignite growth for our sellers and drive buyer consideration and loyalty through a focus on quality, value, and reliability.”
All laid-off employees will remain on Etsy’s payroll until “at least” 2 January, according to the memo. Meanwhile, the move will cost the company between $25m and $30m in severance payments, employee benefits and related costs, Etsy revealed in an announcement to investors.
Etsy did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Christmas layoffs
The first 11 months of 2023 were rife with layoffs and despite the holly jolly merriments, the holiday season is no different.
Earlier this week, Hasbro—the toymaker behind Monopoly, Play-Doh, and Dungeons & Dragons—announced it will cut around 1,100 jobs due to stronger-than-expected “market headwinds”.
“The headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into Holiday and are likely to persist into 2024,” CEO Chris Cocks announced in a memo, while adding that job cuts are “a lever we must pull to keep Hasbro healthy.”
Meanwhile, the largest credit union in the world, Nationwide, similarly announced layoffs last week, with nearly 500 staff impacted by the cost-cutting measure.
For staff working at the company, it was the second round of bad news in the lead-up to Christmas as Nationwide's new CEO also scrapped her predecessor's “work from anywhere” policy just days before.
Ultimately, workers at tech companies were hit the hardest by layoffs this year, as pandemic darlings were forced to scale back after going on a hiring binge when lockdowns sparked an uptick in tech usage.
In 2023, more than 257,000 jobs have been slashed in the tech industry alone, according to Layoffs.fyi, with the likes of Meta, Google, and Spotify making significant reductions to their workforce this year. At the beginning of December, Spotify ushered in its third round of job cuts this year.
