Swordsmyth
02-01-2019, 05:52 PM
Last week, Buzzfeed announced that they would be laying off 15% of their staff — over 200 employees — to help the company turn a profit. The process was staggered over a period of several days, causing panic within the company over the fate of the staffer’s job status.
The handling of this sensitive matter and the company’s initial decision to not pay certain employees for the PTO they had earned have been heavily criticized by former and current employees alike.
Although Buzzfeed has recently reversed this decision following the backlash — reassuring all laid off employees in the U.S. that their PTO will be paid out — remaining staff are still unclear on the future of the company and understandably shaken up over having to say goodbye to many coworkers.
After seeing @BuzzFeed (https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) layoffs, I decided to build a website aggregating these persons who are now looking for their next opportunity 👇https://t.co/tq7v9ayLuR
Feel free to tweet me other BuzzFeed persons looking for a new job pic.twitter.com/zIS0Cb0jet (https://t.co/zIS0Cb0jet)
— Alexandre Mouriec (@mrcalexandre) January 26, 2019 (https://twitter.com/mrcalexandre/status/1089203340985204745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Following the chain of lay-offs, computer science student Alexandre Mouriec has developed a website called “Hire A Buzzfeeder” (http://hireabuzzfeeder.herokuapp.com) to help these former employees find new jobs. Since then, the link has been shared by thousands of Twitter users, including remaining Buzzfeed staff members.
However, those following this news closely are accusing Buzzfeed of laying off mostly POC and LGBTQ employees. Among these minority ethnic and LGBTQ former staff are some well-known figures within Asian American communities like Kane Diep, Niki Ang, Kevin Nguyen, Shila Farahani, Jared Sosa and Ray Pajar, just to name a few. These writers and producers have frequently created content on race, culture, mental health, and issues facing the LGBTQ communities.
Other former Buzzfeed employees include Norberto Briceño, co-founder of Pero Like; Branson LB, LGBT video producer; Selorm Kploanyi, video producer; and Lixia Gao, art director.
Even those who have been spared from these lay offs have noticed the pattern of valued POC and LGBTQ creators who no longer have a job, and went on to criticize the decisions made by the media company.
To make up for this loss of workers, many believe the company is now relying more on fellows, interns and voluntary Buzzfeed community writers. According to the New York magazine (http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/buzzfeed-top-traffic-quizzes-teen.html), Buzzfeed’s top quizzes were actually made by a 19-year-old college student in Michigan. Her work has brought in millions of views for the company, for free, and in return Buzzfeed paid her in company merchandise such as coffee mugs, water bottles, recipe books and clothes.
In addition, former staff have noticed the company has increased the length of their fellowship roles from three or four months to a yearlong program with no benefits.
More at: https://nextshark.com/buzzfeed-layoff-poc-lgbtq/
The handling of this sensitive matter and the company’s initial decision to not pay certain employees for the PTO they had earned have been heavily criticized by former and current employees alike.
Although Buzzfeed has recently reversed this decision following the backlash — reassuring all laid off employees in the U.S. that their PTO will be paid out — remaining staff are still unclear on the future of the company and understandably shaken up over having to say goodbye to many coworkers.
After seeing @BuzzFeed (https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) layoffs, I decided to build a website aggregating these persons who are now looking for their next opportunity 👇https://t.co/tq7v9ayLuR
Feel free to tweet me other BuzzFeed persons looking for a new job pic.twitter.com/zIS0Cb0jet (https://t.co/zIS0Cb0jet)
— Alexandre Mouriec (@mrcalexandre) January 26, 2019 (https://twitter.com/mrcalexandre/status/1089203340985204745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Following the chain of lay-offs, computer science student Alexandre Mouriec has developed a website called “Hire A Buzzfeeder” (http://hireabuzzfeeder.herokuapp.com) to help these former employees find new jobs. Since then, the link has been shared by thousands of Twitter users, including remaining Buzzfeed staff members.
However, those following this news closely are accusing Buzzfeed of laying off mostly POC and LGBTQ employees. Among these minority ethnic and LGBTQ former staff are some well-known figures within Asian American communities like Kane Diep, Niki Ang, Kevin Nguyen, Shila Farahani, Jared Sosa and Ray Pajar, just to name a few. These writers and producers have frequently created content on race, culture, mental health, and issues facing the LGBTQ communities.
Other former Buzzfeed employees include Norberto Briceño, co-founder of Pero Like; Branson LB, LGBT video producer; Selorm Kploanyi, video producer; and Lixia Gao, art director.
Even those who have been spared from these lay offs have noticed the pattern of valued POC and LGBTQ creators who no longer have a job, and went on to criticize the decisions made by the media company.
To make up for this loss of workers, many believe the company is now relying more on fellows, interns and voluntary Buzzfeed community writers. According to the New York magazine (http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/buzzfeed-top-traffic-quizzes-teen.html), Buzzfeed’s top quizzes were actually made by a 19-year-old college student in Michigan. Her work has brought in millions of views for the company, for free, and in return Buzzfeed paid her in company merchandise such as coffee mugs, water bottles, recipe books and clothes.
In addition, former staff have noticed the company has increased the length of their fellowship roles from three or four months to a yearlong program with no benefits.
More at: https://nextshark.com/buzzfeed-layoff-poc-lgbtq/