The pinnacle of a San Francisco-based cloud computing company was widely mocked on social media when she emailed employees announcing layoffs, quoting the late Martin Luther King Jr.
Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, was later denounced for being “deaf”. sent a long e-mail containing 1669 words its employees, who announced that the company would “improve” its business structure by cutting 7% of its global workforce.
Tejada ended the note with a quote from King’s sermon, which was later included in the 1959 book The Measure of a Man.
“It’s at times like this that I’m reminded of something Martin Luther King said that ‘the ultimate measure of a [leader] is just not where [they] stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where [they] face challenges and controversies,” Tejada wrote.
The soulless principal was immediately burned on social media
One Twitter user commented that it was “the most deaf dismissal email I’ve read up to now”, adding that it “seems to have been written by an AI that has collected all the expressions that folks normally say, and he or she put them in one long e-mail.”
One Twitter user gave PagerDuty advice, writing: “Possibly don’t quote MLK whenever you’re shedding 7% of your workforce?”
One other Twitter user posted a screenshot from a Google search that showed Tejada’s annual salary was $13.2 million.
“Did Pagerduty seriously resolve that quoting MLK in a press release saying they’re shedding 7% of the workforce was a good idea?” one other Twitter user wondered.
A “improvement” of seven% meant the company laid off 66 people out of 950 employees a yr ago.
Tejada was also criticized for using the occasion to have a good time worker promotions and touting the company’s positive financial results in the fourth quarter of last yr.
Last month, PagerDuty reported that it generated $94.2 million in revenue in the last quarter, up 31.3% year-over-year. The corporate also said its net loss for the same quarter was $32.8 million – up from a yr earlier.
“We expect to finish the yr on a strong note – in fact, today we confirmed our FY23 projections – and these results, coupled with the improvements described above, put PagerDuty in a strong position to successfully execute our platform strategy no matter what the market and macro environment bring.” Tejada wrote in an email earlier this week.
The post asked PagerDuty for comment.
Tejada gave the impression to be trying to point out sensitivity to those that were made redundant, writing: “I consider Dutonians greater than employees; are talented, extremely talented individuals who #BringThemself and drive the innovation and culture behind our services to deliver experiences that may delight customers.
“I appreciate every Dutonian’s contribution to PagerDuty,” the CEO wrote.
“I expect that we are going to show all our colleagues the grace, respect and dignity they deserve.”
Tejada wrote that “as someone who has been working in this industry for many years, I actually have experienced this before and it isn’t easy, and I also know from experience that while we may not work together in the short term, our relationships and this community live beyond our tenure at PagerDuty.”
Those that have been made redundant will receive severance pay with a median 11-week paycheck, in addition to prolonged health take care of themselves and their dependents “for no less than three to 4 months”.
Redundant employees were also promised help in finding future jobs.
The tech industry has been hit hard by the economic crisis, forcing firms to put off tens of hundreds.
A former Google worker posted a TikTok video this week that showed the moment she came upon she was considered one of the 12,000 employees laid off by the tech giant.
Other tech giants equivalent to Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Meta and Snap have also laid off large numbers of employees in recent months.