Netflix is laying off 150 mostly US-based employees
Netflix today terminated the jobs of 150 mostly US-based employees to cut costs after a historic drop in subscribers, the company reported meeting. The employees affected reportedly include some in senior positions. It is the second round of layoffs in recent weeks at the company with around 11,000 employees. An undisclosed number of writing and editing staff at Netflix’s internal fan website Tudum were fired last month.
A company spokesman said the layoffs were directly linked to a slowdown in Netflix’s revenue growth. “As we explained on earnings, our slower revenue growth means we also need to slow our expense growth as a company. Unfortunately, today we are laying off around 150 employees, mostly in the US,” a Netflix spokesman said in a statement to Engadget. “These changes are driven primarily by business needs rather than individual performance, making them particularly difficult as none of us want to say goodbye to such great colleagues. We are working hard to support them through this very difficult transition.”
diversity reported today that the streaming service has also cut a number of animated projects in development, including wings of fire by executive producer Ava DuVernay, a preschool series called Anti Racist Baby and Best regards from the kindergarten. But acc diversity‘s sources, these projects were shelved for creative reasons, not cost.
The streaming service also discontinued the documentation Stamped: racism, anti-racism and youa companion piece to Shaped from the start.
Employee morale at the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company has been low since it hinted on its last earnings call that it plans to tighten its belt, the company said Los Angeles Times. The company also updated its cultural memo this month to warn potential employees that the streaming services “may not be the best place” for those unable to work on content they disagree with.
“As employees, we support the principle that Netflix offers a variety of stories, even if we find some titles against our own personal values. Depending on your role, you may have to work on titles that you deem harmful. If you’re finding it difficult to support our breadth of content, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the culture guidelines read.
Netflix reported that it lost subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 due to a surge in password sharing, increased competition from other streaming platforms, and the decline in its overall subscriber base in Russia. The streaming service is considering adding a lower-priced, ad-supported tier and cutting back on a number of projects that were in development. The company expects to lose another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2022.
