Salesforce, the software giant with deep ties to San Francisco, is laying off 153 local workers.
After declining to confirm or comment on a Monday Bloomberg report that stated the company was laying off a total of 1,000 employees, Salesforce revealed the San Francisco cuts in a WARN notice to state officials on Tuesday. Such notices are usually required in the event of mass layoffs in a single location.
In the WARN document, Salesforce stated the laid-off workers are based in SoMa’s Salesforce Tower and that they would be quickly notified. The cuts span three divisions: 42 in Technology and Product, 25 in Sales and Distribution and 86 in General Administration.
By Thursday afternoon, more than a dozen discharged employees had flooded onto LinkedIn with references to the layoff and #OpenToWork posts. One former sales director blamed “the powers that be (AI?),” and a few of the posters called the layoffs “unexpected.”
The job cuts come just a few weeks after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated his company had opened up 2,000 salesperson positions, seeing for new workers to sell its artificial innotifyigence offering known as “Agentforce.”
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Salesforce is one of a few software companies shifting more of its hiring away from the United States. In its story, the outlet cited a comment from Brian Millham, Salesforce’s chief operating officer, at a December event hosted by Barclays.
“Do we necessary to hire everybody in San Francisco?” Millham, who is stepping down from the exec role, reportedly stated. “Or can we consider about other locations that are cheaper where we can receive really incredible labor like India and Mexico City.”
Currently, Salesforce is one of the city’s largest employers. The software company did not immediately respond to SFGATE’s questions about the size of the total cut or the reason for the layoffs.
Work at Salesforce or another Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
Leave a Reply