Linktree goes from ‘best place to work’ to mocked over layoff email

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Life comes at you fast.

Linktree founder and CEO Alex Zaccaria was lauded in April, as his social media firm - a maker of a “link in bio” tool for influencers - was named AFR’s Best Place to Work, in the medium business category.

The Aussie business paper said Linktree stood out in tech world of “generous perks, skyrocketing salaries and a lax dress code” by “adding a new ingredient to the mix: transparency”. The firm also drew praise for giving A$7500 to each employee to spend on their general wellbeing.

But now Zaccaria is being mocked over a 1235-world email he sent to staff, announcing that 27 per cent - or 60 people across the Melbourne-based company’s Australia and New Zealand offices would be laid off.

The operational update began with upbeat stats and praise for staff, or “Linkies” as the founder called them.

“It is all of you who have helped this business take centre stage,” Zaccaria wrote.

News of the layoffs wasn’t included until the fourth paragraph of the CEO’s update to “Linkies”. And it was not until the tenth paragraph that Zaccaria mentioned Linktree would be acquiring rival Bento.

The CEO said the US was now the firm’s top priority.

“To be able to hire for those roles and further our growth in the US, we will be reducing our overall team by about 27% today, primarily impacting Linkies based in Australia and New Zealand,” he wrote.

Zaccaria copied his staff update to LinkedIn, the better to put his own spin on events after the email was leaked to media.

It drew a barrage of comments from recruiters - a now familiar trope in a year of tech layoffs, some displaying cupboard love.

But then came the backlash.

“Sorry guys, we’ve laid off a quarter of our staff but good news we’ve acquired a competitor!,’ mocked Rex Mavin, a technology consultant for Accenture.

“I’m sorry, but why are people praising this post? As a business owner, you clearly don’t care about your employees. What a disgusting way to announce that you’re laying off Aussie staff, by also announcing an acquisition?,” posted content manager Alice Elizabeth Allen

‘Retch-inducing

And taking things full-circle, the AFR turned dark on Zaccaria, not the least for his use of “Linkies”.

“There are few more dry retch-inducing workplace legacies of the Silicon Valley-era than the corporate collective noun,” AFR tech reporter Mark Di Stefano wrote in the paper’s Rear Window column this week.

Di Stefano called it “the mass Linkie slaughter”.

He concluded, “In their pursuit of a kinder, better workplace, VC [venture capital]-backed firms too often seem to forget the best employee perks are more cash and being treated like an adult.”

Zaccaria and various Linktree NZ staff have been approached for comment.

An Auckland-based staffer told the Herald he could not comment because of a “strict NDA”.