Twitter is one of the most successful social media sites out there. But even they have to make tough choices.
Back on Monday, October 5, Jack Dorsey was named Twitter‘s permanent CEO. Dorsey’s honeymoon period was very short. He went right to work, and Twitter expects layoffs starting next week. Multiple sources don’t know how many jobs will be sacrificed, or in what departments. But Twitter is bracing for many layoffs across the board. Engineering expects to being hit the hardest. This would be a double whammy because the engineering department makes around half of Twitter’s entire staff. You see, the company is going through a restructuring phase. Unfortunately, that often means sacrifices…aka jobs lost. In the last couple of years, Twitter’s employment roster has more than doubled, from 2,000 to 4,100. Many in Twitter’s front office say this is too much too soon. But Twitter’s consumer usage has grown 50% over that same time. To add to company growth, they’ve made several acquisitions. But for months now, Jack Dorsey has been saying Twitter needs to be refocused. Well, stockholders heard about this refocusing and they responded alright. As soon as this layoff news hit the trading block, they lost 3% of their share in one day.
Do you think it’s good for your business to grow too much too fast? Learn a lesson from Twitter: it’s not. In two years, they hired double the workers. Yet, their growth was only 50%. Do you see the discrepancy there? Looking at this situation, it’s easy to call Dorsey names and blame him for these layoffs that are allegedly about to take place. I say allegedly because Twitter isn’t confirming, or even commenting on this matter. But this is what happens when businesses grow too fast. Now hard choices have to be made. The party has been had. Now it’s time to clean up after the hangover. So is this restructuring worth it?