Discord laying off 170 employees due to ‘over-hiring’

NEW DELHI: Popular teenage chat platform Discord is laying off 17 per cent of its workforce, or about 170 employees, across various departments.

In an internal memo obtained by the Verge, Discord CEO Jason Citron blamed over-hiring for the decision at an all-hands meeting late on Thursday.

“We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020,” Citron wrote in the memo.

“As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated. Today, we are increasingly clear on the need to sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organisation. This is what largely drove the decision to reduce the size of our workforce,” he added.

Last August, Discord laid off 4 per cent of its staff -- nearly 40 employees -- as part of the restructuring plan. Discord has raised a total of about $1 billion in funding to date. Citron said in the internal memo that the affected employees will get five months of salary (plus an additional week for every full year at Discord), five months of benefit continuation, three months of outplacement services, and equity vesting of awards scheduled to vest on February 1, 2024.

While difficult, “I am confident this will put us in the best position to continue building a strong and profitable business that delivers amazing products for our users and supports our mission for years to come,” he added.