Startup Company Fires Employees through Zoom in the Middle of Corona

Coronavirus pandemic has made many companies implement work from home or work from home. The use of Zoom digital applications has also increased, especially in startup companies to hold online meetings to fire employees.

Electric scooter maker startups fired around 400 or around 30% of their total employees due to the corona pandemic. The company also uses Zoom to cut off work relations because it cannot call its employees to the office.

“Come to think of it, we should have made calls one by one to hundreds of people affected, for several days,” CEO Bird Travis VanderZenden was quoted as saying on BBC.com on Monday (3/30).

The TripActions business travel platform from the US has also fired 297 of its 1,100 employees. Dismissal of its employees is also carried out through Zoom.

CEO of TripActions, Ariel Cohen said that firing the employees through video conference is probable the most terrible thing a company could do.

Ariel explained, by using Zoom, the company needs to have the courage to look into someone’s eyes in an application. “But now, we cannot bring them to the office,” he said.

Previously, Some Startups Have Trimmed the Number of Employees

Several other startups have indeed fired their employees for the efficient impact of the corona pandemic. Sonder’s apartment startup has stopped payments for about a third of 1,200 employees.

The startup supported by Airbnb, Zeus Living has cut 30% of employees. Other than that, Bookaway has announced their plans to cut off salaries and trim the number of their staffs.

Likewise with the electric scooter startup from the US, Lime is preparing to cut employees due to corona. Lime has announced plans to stop and stop service in most places.

The company is currently looking for ways to get an emergencies funding. In the midst of a pandemic, the Zoom application has indeed increased its use. This app can connect up to 1,000 users in a single call.

Based on an analysis from JP Morgan quoted from MarketWatch.com, the number of active daily users of Zoom rose 378% in March 2020, compared to March of the previous year. According to Apptopia data, monthly active users also rose to 186%.

Zoom shares have jumped about 50% in the past month. Quoted from Forbes, on Wednesday (3/25) the price of the Zoom stock has broken through to US$ 106.8 or Rp 1.7 million. Price is the highest price of all time Zoom.

Pandemic Corona Cause Work From Home Applications Harvest Transactions

The government calls on companies to allow employees to work at home to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. There are at least eight platforms that can be used to support Work From Home in the middle of the corona pandemic.

Quoted from Reuters, last weekend (14/3), downloads of the five applications have increased nearly fivefold since the beginning of this year.

One of the drivers is that many companies implement work policies at home due to the epidemic of the coronavirus. Based on the research of application analysis firm Sensor Tower, the five applications are attracting 1.4 million new users on the App Store and Google Play Store in the first week of January.

Data from Apptopia shows that active users of Zoom Video Communications Inc. have grown 67% per day since early January. Zoom also makes it free for users in China because of the corona pandemic.

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said it was done to help people affected by the coronavirus. Moreover, the plague disrupted the activities of the Chinese community, ranging from office matters to teaching and learning.

In addition, Google has a service that supports Work From Home, Hangouts Meet. The technology giant from the United States (US) also frees this service from March 1 to July 1 later.