Bay Area tech giant Intuit has announced it is laying off 10% of its staff, which is about 1,800 employees in total.
This layoff announcement comes as many tech companies have laid off many workers in the past year alone.
Intuit Cuts Jobs
This announcement was revealed in a filing on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. An email from Intuit’s CEO Sasan Goodarzi, which was sent to the company’s staff, was also included in this announcement.
This rather large round of job cuts is impacting 384 employees in Mountain View, which is where Intuit is headquartered. Meanwhile, 215 workers in San Diego will also be laid off.
Other Layoffs
Meanwhile, about 10% of Intuit’s executives would also be laid off, according to Goodarzi’s email to staff. About 300 roles will be fully eliminated from the company.
Finally, Intuit sites in both Edmonton, Canada, and Boise, Idaho will be completely shuttered, which will impact around 250 workers.
Why Intuit Is Laying Off Workers
Goodarzi also wrote in his email to Intuit staff why the company has decided to make this drastic move and lay off a large percentage of its employees.
According to the CEO, they’re going to use the money they receive from these job cuts to invest in their future — and invest in artificial intelligence (AI).
Investing in Intuit’s Future
Goodarzi explained in his email that they’re not laying off employees to cut costs — they’re laying off employees to invest in AI and their future.
“We do not do layoffs to cut costs, and that remains true in this case,” Goodarzi wrote. “The changes we are making today enable us to allocate additional investments to our most critical areas to support our customers and drive growth as detailed below.”
New Intuit Plans
Intuit, which is best known as the tech software giant that runs TurboTax, Quick Books, and Mailchimp, is now seemingly going almost all in on certain AI features.
Goodarzi even stated that they’re going to invest in an AI-powered financial assistant.
Laying Off Employees Who Didn’t Meet Expectations
Rather remarkably, Goodarzi also said that many of this round of job cuts, which impacts more than one thousand workers, are being cut because they did not meet expectations.
Goodarzi stated that the company “significantly raised the bar on our expectations of employee performance, resulting in approximately 1,050 employees leaving the company who are not meeting expectations.”
Hiring New Workers
In this email, Goodarzi also promised that Intuit would hire about 1,800 new workers after this layoff is officially complete — even though he’s laying off about this same amount.
However, the CEO didn’t explain if these new hires would be working in the same job positions as those who are being laid off. For example, they may have job positions that are more focused on AI, as that appears to be what Intuit is now investing in.
Next Steps for Laid-Off Employees
According to Intuit’s CEO, these laid-off employees will leave the company on September 9. However, they will also receive 16 weeks of severance pay, at the very minimum.
Those laid off will also receive about six months of health insurance. The employees affected by these layoffs were also invited to attend a “Leaving Intuit Discussion” meeting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
No WARN Notice Filed
Intuit hasn’t yet filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) with California, something that all companies are required to do when they mass lay off workers.
However, this may be forthcoming. As more than 500 California workers are impacted by this layoff, though, Intuit must file this WARN notice.
Focusing More on AI
Goodarzi finished his email to employees by saying, “We are positioned to take advantage of this AI revolution.”
Intuit isn’t the only tech company that has decided to invest more in AI — seemingly at the cost of their employees. Companies such as Google, Chegg, and Dropbox are in the same boat as Intuit.
Ongoing Tech Layoffs
For the past few years, many tech giants have started to lay off many of their employees. Many analysts believe 2024 will continue to see this trend.
Tech companies big and small have decided to cut jobs, for various reasons. Some companies aren’t performing well and need to make these job cuts, while others, such as Intuit, are looking to invest money in new areas.
