Salesforce Layoffs Amid Record Revenue, ‘Ohana,’ Drum Up Employee Fury

Salesforce layoffs are in action around the world and the company is facing withering criticism.

The job cuts come five months after CEO Marc Benioff said the CRM giant would not “conduct any significant layoffs over the next 90 days.” The company had closed its offices due to COVID-19 and moved to keep paying its hourly workers. On March 25, Benioff cited his longtime Ohana ethos as one key reason. (Benioff has touted “Ohana,” or treating employees like family, since he want on a vacation in Hawaii in the late ‘90s. The credo is meant to embrace caring for one another, not taking a “Knives Out” or “Parasite” sort of approach).

Salesforce’s Marc Benioff

But it appears the clock stopped ticking on that layoff moratorium, even as Salesforce on Aug. 25 reported record revenue of $5.15 billion, or $1.44 per share.

Indeed, the second quarter of 2020 marked the first time Salesforce surpassed the $5 billion threshold. Analysts, according to CNBC, were expecting $4.9 billion, and 67 cents per share. Salesforce also raised its sales guidance into fiscal year 2021, indicating it does not expect to incur much damage from customer COVID-19 cutbacks; in fact, if anything, the cloud IT software company stands to continue benefiting because its platforms streamline and improve operations.

Salesforce Employees Seething over Layoffs

Salesforce’s financial boon, paired with its pervasive Ohana claims, has employees fuming.

“‘Business is business’ and ‘It’s okay to cut fat’ are some pretty rich … takes when talking about a company that a) just put up record numbers for the last quarter or two, and b) never … shuts up about ‘Ohana’ and everyone being one big family,” wrote one anonymous poster on TheLayoff.com.

Another said: “I have never in my 20 years of corporate experience seen this [**] play out. Company-wide layoffs are a last resort, when they are actually struggling. I have worked for some pretty terrible companies, but never have I seen complete disregard for livelihoods when there is literally no need for it.”

An anonymous poster on TheLayoff.com also wrote this week that the Salesforce sales distribution group ranks among those impacted. In a roundabout way, that ostensibly could affect the indirect channel. Channel Futures asked Salesforce to comment on any changes managed service providers, VARs and integrators might experience because of the layoffs. Rather than answering the question, Salesforce responded with the same statement it has provided to other media outlets:

“We’re reallocating resources to position the company for continued growth. This includes continuing to hire and redirecting some employees to fuel our strategic areas, and eliminating some positions that no longer map to our business priorities. For affected employees, we are helping them find the next step in their careers, whether within our company or a new opportunity.”

The job losses do seem to inordinately impact employees of acquired companies. Posts on TheLayoff.com indicate that people who were brought over from ExactTarget, MuleSoft, Tableau (a $15.7 billion deal, three times more than Salesforce’s second-quarter revenue) and others are …