Layoff news seemed nonstop in January, with CNN, Citigroup, and Microsoft all cutting roles this week alone. Usually these notifications are pretty standard. The legal language is heavy, but there is light in the manga.
But that wasn’t the case at Stripe, the payments software company that laid off 300 employees on Monday. Some affected employees in various roles (product, operations, engineering) were notified by an illustration of a cartoon duck, Business Insider reports. The date on the termination notice was also incorrect.
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The illustration was sent as a PDF attachment and said “Us-non-california duck.” Business Insider received a photo of a yellow duck from an employee in a blind chat.
“Communications to those who have been laid off have been completely hit,” one employee reportedly wrote.
Software company Stripe laid off 300 employees this week and, mysteriously, confused, they included a picture of a duck in the email they notified the let go workers.
This was clearly a preventable gaffe, but the much bigger one was ##stripe 300 people and they… pic.twitter.com/oeiiwhkwou
– Mark C. Crowley (@markccrowley) January 23, 2025
A Stripe representative told Business Insider that a follow-up email was sent to affected employees.
“We apologize for the error and the confusion it caused,” wrote Rob McIntosh, the company’s chief people officer. “Then it was sent to all the shocked stripes.”
RELATED: Citigroup eliminated more jobs this week. The roles affected are:
Stripe is valued at $70 billion in the private market, per CNBC.
Despite the cuts, McIntosh said the company is “not slowing down hiring” and expects its workforce to grow 17% this year.
