Kateryna LevytskaA news editor at “Mezha.” I’ve been in the media since 2015, writing about software, the IT industry, and film.
3 September, 13:38
Uber has announced a major reorganisation, as part of which it plans to make 3,300 staff redundant – around 10 per cent of its global workforce. At the same time, the company is scaling back the option for fully remote working, as
Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, explains the changes as a necessity to “simplify the company’s structure”. In recent years, too many layers of management, teams and coordination points have been added, which only complicate decision-making.
The number of managers in the company will be reduced by approximately 20 per cent, with some being moved to roles without managerial responsibilities. In addition, micro-teams (groups in which a manager has only one or two subordinates) will be halved, and the engineering, research and delivery departments will be merged into one.
At the same time, Uber is almost entirely moving away from remote working: less than 1 per cent of staff will be permitted to work from home.
“We’ve built new products, expanded into new businesses, reached more consumers and supported more earners, and become a much larger and stronger company,” Khosrowshahi wrote in a letter to staff. “But that growth has also brought complexity: more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership, and in some cases structures that made sense when businesses were smaller but no longer serve us well at our current scale.”
In July, Uber had already carried out partial redundancies, which affected 10% of the customer support team and were driven by the introduction of artificial intelligence.
Read also: Uber has imposed limits on AI use for staff after the annual budget was used up in just four months
