Shopee is Laying Off People Again, Its Third Round of Layoffs This Year So Far

It seems like you should live in fear if you are working in Shopee for it seems to be getting rid of many of its employees.

Readers: Not again. 

This round of layoff started on 14 November, Monday, which affected some people in Singapore as the E-commerce giant’s parent company, Sea, struggles towards profitability.

This is the third round of layoff that Shopee has made following its most recent in September and before that in June.

In June, the company laid off employees in its food delivery arm ShopeeFood and online payment ShopeePay teams in South-east Asia and also part of its teams in Mexico, Argentina and Chile.

In September, the company laid off more jobs though it rescinded dozens of job offers earlier that month.

What does Sea have to Say Regarding the Layoffs?

When the second layoff had happened on 19 September, the retrenchments were announced internally in town halls with staff.

In response to queries about the layoff, a Shopee spokesperson said that “these changes are part of our ongoing efforts to optimise operating efficiency with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency across our business.”

Sea had reported a net loss of US$931 million in the second quarter, more than double the loss it made in the same period a year earlier.

You watch this video to know more about the September layoff:

The Third Layoff 

So this time round, the teams from human resources and learning and development were affected, according to sources and posts from LinkedIn.

Ms Angelica Pasiola, a multimedia artist in the company, was one of those who were affected. According to The Straits Times, she said that she arrived in the office at around 9am and was about to begin her work when she received the news.

When she read the email, she said she found the situation “surreal” and “numbing”, but added that things have not been easy for companies due to the poor macroeconomic conditions.

Another LinkedIn user, Eunice Aw, had posted on LinkedIn that most of her colleagues were affected by the layoff though it is still unclear on how many people in Singapore were affected in total.

What’s fishy is that unlike the previous rounds, the latest one was kept discreet and not many people had known about it though there were rumours of the plans to let people go.

More Companies having Layoffs

As you might have already known tech giants like Meta and Twitter, have also slashed jobs in the past few months.

About 11,000 employees were affected by job cuts at Meta on 10 November, last Thursday.

Here’s a video explaining the reason for this mass layoff:

Basically, if you are lucky enough to be still working in tech firms, congratulations.

For now.

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Featured Image: Emoji Dream / Shutterstock.com