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A hot potato: Being let go from a job is one of the worst experiences most people can face. Few things can make it less awful, but would the pain be eased if the boss who terminated your employment helps pack your boxes? One CEO actually did this, and he claims the interaction benefited both himself and the laid-off workers.
Max Levchin, one of PayPal’s cofounders and the current CEO of Affirm, which provides flexible payment plans for shoppers, talked about the first time he implemented layoffs on Wednesday’s episode of The Twenty Minute VC podcast (via Business Insider).
“I didn’t know what I was doing and I was terrified of owning the responsibility that I screwed up,” he said.
Levchin said he learned that being with employees who had been laid off was better than hiding in an office. He added that helping workers pack their personal items into boxes and walking out alongside them was cathartic, not just for those impacted but also for himself.
Affirm is one of the many tech companies that has made layoffs in recent years. It laid off 485 employees, or around 16% of its workforce, in 2023, and another 140 in February 2024.
Levchin also said that how people react to being laid off can depend on company culture. He explained that employees who were let go told him they understood why the dismissals needed to happen, and they hoped to come back.
“If the culture of the company is great, the blow is much softer,” he said. “People understand that you tried with every possible strategic or tactical idea to not have to go through this.”
While not everyone might agree with Levchin’s methods, there have been plenty of instances in which CEOs made layoffs in a less-than- empathetic way. Last November, one boss fired 99 people and told them to “get the f**k out” because they never attended a meeting. This was made all the more shocking because most of them were unpaid remote part-time workers.
The most infamous incident was in 2021 when the Better.com CEO fired 900 people during a three-minute Zoom call. He then accused many of those laid-off staff of stealing through their laziness. He sent an apology letter to employees a week later.
Some CEOs have made positive moves to help laid-off workers. Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, for example, personally reached out to company leaders to help the 1,900 employees laid off in 2020 find new jobs.
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