The ship, or ride-sharing, seems to be sailing at Lyft, which just announced that it is suspending hiring in the US until the end of 2022. The news comes after a driver shortage reported last spring and a 68% more. decline in the ride-sharing company’s stock this year.
It has left current and potential Lyft workers shifting in their seats, taking to the anonymous social network Blind to voice their concerns. A potential hire who happens to be a former Meta employee shared on the site that he received a call from a Lyft recruiter canceling an interview, claiming the company was pausing ongoing applications.
Other Lyft job candidates filled the comments section with similar stories. One announced that his interview was canceled just five minutes before it began, while another added that his was abruptly stopped midway through the first round.
“Layoffs coming soon, so stay away for now,” replied one current Lyft employee.
“I fully expect hunger games kind of behavior from people still with Lyft who can’t get an offer,” added one former Lyft employee. “The stories I’ve heard and experienced personally are disgusting. They’re rats in a sinking ship trying survive”.
Those working at competitors also had a foreboding message: “I can speak from my experience at Uber; it tends to happen in stages, depending on how bad things get,” one Blind user wrote, explaining that after the hiring there were offer freezes and then layoffs.
When asked for comment on the hiring freeze and potential layoffs, a Lyft spokesperson said the fortune“Like many other companies navigating an uncertain economy, we are halting hiring for all US-based roles until the end of the year.”
In fact, hiring freezes have been quite common this year, especially in tech, as employers worry about an impending recession. They don’t always bode well; just ask the Coinbase employees who were subjected to rounds of layoffs shortly after the company announced it was halting hiring. But hiring freezes aren’t always a sure sign of layoffs.
Some Lyft workers reassured the company’s new hires, saying the situation isn’t as bad as it seems. “Imo you’ll be fine,” they said. “Our workforce is already low, and with the previous limited hiring and now it’s frozen.”
Not all things are doom and gloom for Lyft. Second-quarter results showed a rebound for the company, surpassing pre-pandemic revenue for the first time. However, shares fell 2.5% in premarket trading after its announcement to suspend hiring.
For now, speculation about the layoff is virtual water cooler gossip. A Lyft employee noted that they had been hearing about these rumors for a year. But as one Amazon employee predicts, “This third quarter earnings report for Lyft could be brutal if they’re already doing a hiring freeze.”
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