GoTo Employee Recalls Layoff Announcement; 1,300 Likely Affected

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In the middle of the mass layoff enacted by Indonesian tech giant GoTo (Gojek Tokopedia), BA – one of the company’s employees – recalled the announcement of the layoff that occurred on Friday morning, November 18, 2022.

BA described how the company's management deliver the news while breaking into tears. The layoff was announced by GoTo CEO Andreas Santosa, Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya, and Tokopedia COO Melissa Siska Juminto.

"It was devastating. Andre cried, William, and Melissa too," said the employee to Tempo via telephone on Friday, November 18, 2022. 

As BA received the online town hall meeting invitation, he said the employees were not aware of the topic of the meeting. Although the virtual invitation announced that the meeting would be a 'CEO briefing', he said that most employees had already assumed that the meeting would talk about a possible layoff, especially since such a rumor had been widely reported in mass media. 

Right now, BA along with other employees in all operating countries of Gojek, Tokopedia, and GoTo Financial are waiting for confirmation whether they will be included in the 12 percent of workers that will be laid off. BA added that employees who will be laid off will receive emails on Friday, November 18, 2022, at 6:00 pm Jakarta time.

The layoffs carried out by GoTo are considered the largest in terms of downsizing in the region as it will not only affect employees in Indonesia but in all GoTo operational countries, namely in Singapore, India, and Vietnam. 

GoTo's move towards efficiency also adds to the ranks of giant tech companies that enacted mass layoffs in 2022, including Microsoft, Twitter, Shopee, Meta Platforms Inc., and Apple Inc.

RIANI SANUSI PUTRI

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