Global payments company Visa is reportedly laying off over 2,000 employees. According to reports, the company plans to lay off around 7 per cent of its global workforce, approximately 2,600 employees. Amid these reports, a former employee of the company took to social media platform X and said that layoffs also resulted in the loss of a manager who consistently received glowing reviews. According to Arnab Das, the manager was considered one of the company’s strongest and best employees.ย
“My entire team at Visa just got laid off, including my manager…The guy had end-to-end ownership of the product, outstanding performance reviews every cycle, and was probably the last person youโd expect to be let go…Feeling shocked. And strangely lucky that I left Visa,” Das said in the post.
Post went viral
The post by the former Visa employee has gone viral and sparked strong reactions. Some people argued that layoffs in the corporate world have nothing to do with performance.ย
“Layoffs have nothing to do with performance. When it comes to cost-cutting, companies first look at people who are not needed and who have high salaries,” a user said.ย
Another user said the atmosphere in the office is extremely tense, and people are unsure about their next steps. Some said it’s difficult to work in such an environment.
Visa yet to officially commentย
Visa has yet to officially comment on the former employee’s claims. However, given the current economic situation, many major companies in the tech and finance sectors are continuously reducing their workforce to cut costs.
Use of Artificial Intelligenceย
Betting that people will soon grow more comfortable with having artificial intelligence agents shop for groceries, plane tickets, or diapers on their behalf, payments giant Visa recently embedded its payment network inside ChatGPT, empowering the chatbot to shop and complete transactions independently.
It means AI agents can not only recommend products but also complete the purchase on the user’s behalf at potentially any merchant that accepts Visa. The payment network’s previous attempts at this technological leap were confined to a single retailer or a small set of enrolled merchants.
A few months back, Amazon had announced another round of layoffs hitting its Selling Partner Services team.
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