Uber Layoffs 2019: 400 Lose Jobs Worldwide Over Cost Cutting Efforts

Uber Technologies Inc. has fired a third of its marketing people worldwide, starting with its marketing boss, in a wide-ranging right-sizing effort also intended to slash costs.

The company has let go of 400 employees out of its total marketing staff of 1,200 persons in 75 offices around the world. The casualty count includes chief marketing officer Rebecca Messina, who was the first to be fired. She was let go in June, a month after Uber IPOed.

All these people lost their jobs due to Uber’s need to combine its marketing, communications and policy teams to better maintain a “unified narrative to consumers, partners, the press, and policymakers.”

In an email to employees justifying his gutting of marketing, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the marketing team will have a more centralized structure because of the restructuring.

He said the restructuring aims to put the marketing team, and the company, back on track, noted TechCrunch.

“Today, there’s a general sense that while we’ve grown fast, we’ve slowed down,” said Khosrowshahi.

“You can see it in Pulse Survey feedback and All Hands questions, and you can feel it in much of our day-to-day work. This happens naturally as companies get bigger, but it is something we need to address, and quickly,” he said in his email.

Khosrowshahi also pointed out many of Uber’s teams are “too big, which creates overlapping work, makes for unclear decision owners, and can lead to mediocre results.”

“As a company, we can do more to keep the bar high, and expect more of ourselves and each other,” argued Khosrowshahi.

Jill Hazelbaker now leads what’s left of marketing. She was formerly senior vice president of policy and communications.

The new marketing organization will also have two senior leaders. One of these will be Mike Strickman, vice president of performance marketing. Strickman will lead performance marketing, CRM and analytics.

Uber still has to hire an exec to fill its vacant vice president of global marketing post. This person will lead heads of product, branding, Uber Eats, B2B operations, research and insights, planning and operations and creative work.

Uber post-IPO still remains a loss-making company. In Q1, Uber saw its losses skyrocket 116 percent to $1 billion year-on-year. On the upside, Uber reported its revenue growing 20 percent to $3.1 billion compared to $2.5 billion year-on-year. Gross bookings rose 34 percent to $14.6 billion with Uber Eats driving most of this growth.