I'm The Blog

A TikToker is going viral after secretly recording herself getting remotely laid off from computer and network security company, Cloudflare.

Brittany Pietsch recorded the nine-minute-long clip on January 12 after about four months with the company and said she knew that the layoff was most likely coming, which prompted her to start recording.

But instead of gracefully accepting her fate, Pietsch was ready to fight back.

@brittanypeachhh Original creator reposting: brittany peach cloudflare layoff. When you know you’re about to get laid off so you film it 🙂 this was traumatizing honestly lmao #cloudflare #techlayoffs #tech #layoff ♬ original sound – Brittany Pietsch

“I got let go by two people I didn’t know: a woman from HR and a director man I’ve never heard of,” Pietsch wrote. “I wanted to stand up for myself because what did I have to lose?”

The HR team explained that her performance was not up to par and that many people were being let go, including her. But Pietsch told the people on the call (an HR rep and a director) that she had the “highest activity” amongst her team and that “things have been going really, really well” for her. She then questioned why her manager, or someone she had at least met, was not on the call.

Related: Barbara Corcoran Shares What to Do If You’ve Been Laid Off

“I disagree that I haven’t met performance expectations. I really need an answer and an explanation as to why Brittany Pietsch is getting let go, not why Cloudflare decided to hire too many people then are now actually realizing that they can’t afford this many people and they’re letting them go,” she said bluntly — and in the third person.

Pietsch continued to push back and ask for direct answers about why she was really being let go, but HR didn’t budge.

“I’ll be honest with you, there’s nothing that we’re going to say in this call and the time that we have, that’s going to undo the way that you feel right in this moment,” the unidentified person said. “I personally, I will do everything that I can to give you as much specific information as I can, after this call, I can’t make any promises.”

Still, Pietsch asked for answers, to no avail.

“Despite constant positive praise from my manager, great meetings that I’m having, the amount of activity that I have has all been positive, I have not received any negative inclination, I have not been put on a performance improvement plan,” she said in frustration. “It just doesn’t make any sense that you guys have still not been able to give me a reason why I’m being let go.”

Pietsch’s video garnered mixed reviews from commenters, with many praising her for asking for justice and explanation when most are afraid to speak up.

“You handled this so well,” one person wrote. “They tried to gaslight you into it being based on your performance and not their company issues.”

Related: How Do Companies Decide Who to Lay Off?

“Good for you speaking up and being so composed with such little time to prepare,” another said.

Others were not as impressed with Pietsch’s attitude.

“The company just didn’t make money and if it’s sales you just didn’t make enough money to justify them keeping [you]. It’s business,” one person wrote.

“The points she made were valid, but it’s a bad career move to post this online,” another said.

The now-viral video, which has been viewed over 1.37 million times on TikTok, prompted a response from Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, who wrote on social media platform X that the company laid off roughly 40 out of 1,500 workers in Pietsch’s round.

He also noted that the company doesn’t always “hire perfectly,” and said that the company can usually tell within three months of a hire whether or not the employee is going to be successful or not.

We fired ~40 sales people out of over 1,500 in our go to market org. That’s a normal quarter. When we’re doing performance management right, we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire, even during the holidays, whether they’re going to be successful or not. Sadly,…

— Matthew Prince ? (@eastdakota) January 12, 2024

“The video is painful for me to watch. Managers should always be involved,” Prince wrote. “Any healthy org needs to get the people who aren’t performing off. That wasn’t the mistake here. The mistake was not being more kind and humane as we did.”

Cloudflare was up over 69% year over year as of Tuesday afternoon.

In the years since pandemic-related restrictions have eased, many workers have returned to the office and resumed their daily commutes.

Although now, commuting takes on a whole new meaning for some people, known as “super-commuters,” who put your 45-minute train ride or hour-long interstate crawl to shame.

And one is going viral after revealing that he commutes to his job in New York City from Columbus, Ohio, every week.

Chip Cutter, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been spending his weeks going back and forth between the two states using credit card points and rewards and frequent-flyer airline miles to make the most of his money.

“Like many, I moved out of the city early in the pandemic, relocating near family in the Midwest. When it came time to return in 2022, I was underwhelmed at the housing options in my price range,” Cutter told the Wall Street Journal. “Using back-of-the-envelope math, I thought I could keep my expenses—rent in Ohio, plus travel costs—at or below the price of a nice New York studio, or roughly $3,200 a month.”

Related: Intern Commutes to Work By Plane Because Cheaper Than Renting

He says he spends three of five working days in the New York City office.

“Costs mounted in the fall, New York’s prime tourist and business-travel season. Friends teased me for embracing a life of chaos,” Cutter said. “They weren’t wrong. Without a refrigerator or stove, late-night dinners often consisted of yogurt and fruit purchased from a 24-hour CVS. Needing to pack light, I stored shoes under my desk and left spare outfits on an office coat rack.”

Cutter said that he’s blown his initial budget by 15% and that while he’s still enjoying “having one foot in the Midwest and one on the East Coast,” he’s not sure how much longer he can keep up the shtick.

According to Zillow, the median rent cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Columbus is $1,425, compared to $3,350 per month in New York City.

“The challenge felt oddly thrilling. If anybody could find a way to subvert high New York real-estate costs, while remaining close to family, I thought it might be me,” Cutter said. “Nerding out about this stuff has allowed me to travel farther and in more rarefied air than I could otherwise afford.”

Amazon laid off “several hundred” employees on Wednesday in the MGM Studios, Prime Video, and Twitch divisions. Employees were let go in an email sent by Senior Vice President Mike Hopkins.

“Throughout the past year, we’ve looked at nearly every aspect of our business with an eye towards improving our ability to deliver even more breakthrough movies, TV shows, and live sports in a personalized, easy to use entertainment experience for our global customers,” Hopkins wrote in the memo that was obtained by CNBC. “As a result, we’ve identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact. As a result of these decisions, we will be eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.”

Related: Amazon Cuts 27 Out of 30 Private-Label Clothing Brands

Hopkins called the decision to slash staffers “difficult” and noted that the layoffs were global and could take up to one week for all affected employees to be contacted.

“It is hard to say goodbye to talented Amazonians who’ve made meaningful contributions on behalf of our customers, team and business,” he said. “Thank you for your dedication and work.”

Separately, at the live-streaming unit Twitch, which Amazon acquired in 2014, 500 staffers were cut on Wednesday.

Last year, Amazon initiated the largest round of layoffs in company history when CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company would be letting go of 18,000 workers, citing a difficult economic time and rapid hirings in the years prior amid the pandemic.

Related: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Is on a ‘Cost-Cutting’ Spree

Amazon had a strong Q3 2023 after jumping 13% in revenue amid cost-cutting initiatives.

“We had a strong third quarter as our cost to serve and speed of delivery in our Stores business took another step forward, our AWS growth continued to stabilize, our Advertising revenue grew robustly, and overall operating income and free cash flow rose significantly,” Jassy said at the time.

It’s estimated that the company has laid off 27,000 employees since last fall.

Amazon was up over 61% year over year as of Wednesday afternoon.