Latest news with #techlayoffs
Independent Singapore
4 days ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
‘How I coped facing layoffs as a millennial' — Singaporean shares her ‘retrenchment story' as a reminder that even in ‘difficult seasons — growth and renewal are possible'
SINGAPORE: In a time when layoffs are becoming the new normal and artificial intelligence (AI) is the new office colleague who never takes a coffee break, Singaporean millennial Jeraldine Phneah has a story to share — one that's equal parts sobering, sincere, and surprisingly uplifting. 'In 2023, I experienced retrenchment in Singapore during a wave of tech layoffs. It was a time filled with uncertainty,' she recounts. 'Many today face similar concerns, whether due to layoffs in Singapore, offshoring, or the rapid advancement of AI.' Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah For Jeraldine, the timing couldn't have been worse. She had just bought her new place — a milestone meant to symbolise adulthood and stability. Instead, she found herself smack in the middle of a growing demographic of young professionals who were forced to learn that job security is often a mirage in the ever-shifting tech landscape. 'When we were young, we used to think that retrenchment was something that would impact older workers, but increasingly, we see it impacting people in their 20s, their 30s,' she expressed her realisation of the current concerning state of things. When the Zoom call is not just a meeting Back in 2022, Jeraldine was headhunted into what seemed like a dream job — an exciting opportunity to build a market from scratch, reporting to a boss based overseas, but barely a year into the role, that dream crumbled. 'My boss had left the company, and then one day, his boss asked me to go into a Zoom meeting. I saw HR there, and I knew what was going on instantly,' she recalls. Like many others facing layoffs, the initial emotional cocktail was bitter and confusing: anger, anxiety, frustration, and insecurity. 'I worked hard. I performed really well, yet I was selected to be laid off,' she said. Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah 'However, after some thinking, I realised one thing — the world is not fair. So, we should not hold on to the expectation that it has to be, because as I look around me, I realise that I have a lot of peers whom I felt were really competent, and any company would be lucky to have them, but they, too were impacted by their own organisation.' See also Essential Strategies to Elevate Your Startup's Value That revelation, while harsh, was her first step toward healing. The emotional side of retrenchment (that no one talks about) Yes, the financial aspect matters. Jeraldine, thankfully, had planned prudently — not blowing all her savings on her home, not raising kids yet, and having parents who could care for themselves, but it was the emotional chaos that hit the hardest. 'There's a lot of content online about emergency funds, spending below your means… but when it comes to the emotions and dealing with it, I guess it's something that is not so commonly spoken about,' she explained. 'The second thing is that we have to realise we did right by the company. We gave our best. We worked hard. We contributed, and at the end of the day, this type of decision is the decision of the management, and maybe perhaps they messed up by overestimating budgets, and everything has nothing to do with us, so we can sleep with a clear conscience,' she encouraged. Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah She's right. Retrenchment is more than a financial hiccup — it's a blow to your identity, your confidence, and your sense of purpose. So Jeraldine chose to reframe the experience and — dare we say — flourish. Growth in the ashes: what she did next… Instead of wallowing in self-pity, she redirected her energy into doing good. She launched a video campaign for (Equal) = Dreams , a boarding school that provides a structured and supportive environment for underprivileged students in Singapore. She partnered with Omnidesk to donate chairs and spotlight the school's work. Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah 'Instead of just staying at home and feeling sorry for myself, I was able to give back to society in quite a positive way.' In short, Jeraldine turned retrenchment into renewal. Why it still pays to do your best — even if it's 'just a job' Understandably, many laid-off workers find themselves questioning everything: Why work hard if companies treat you like disposable cogs? Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah Jeraldine gets it — but she offers a balanced take. 'Yes, view yourself as a contractor selling your time and services to the organization, but when you give your best, you actually get things that you can bring along with you — colleagues, friendships, even (future opportunities).' See also 'Sweeping' lay-offs at Lazada Singapore as 2024 starts She also advised against adopting an all-or-nothing perspective and encourages you to continue doing your best in the jobs you are given because, ultimately, everything you gain from them can be carried into the future work environment you will be in. For example, some of her former customers forwarded her résumé around, and her ex-boss even tried to bring her to his new company. 'It's a testament to how much he enjoyed working with me,' Jeraldine expressed, feeling touched and grateful for the support from others. Stability doesn't come from the job — it comes from within Perhaps the deepest wisdom from her retrenchment journey was a philosophical one: Don't anchor your identity to your job. Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah 'A job is just one aspect of your life that is meant to fund and support the rest of your life,' she reminds. 'You're also a daughter, a sister, a human being. There's so much to you.' That identity crisis hits hard when long work hours blur the line between who you are and what you do. And when that job disappears? So might your sense of self — unless you've built a stronger foundation. 'It's like building your house on weak sand,' she says. 'Anything that happens (at work) — (a bad) feedback, it can feel like a personal attack, or anything that doesn't go well at work, it can make you feel really unhappy.' She also shared that 'if you have a situation like me, whereby you lose your job as a result of layoffs, you can feel like you lost a huge part of yourself as well… And that in itself is not healthy.' One of her favourite quotes illustrates the importance of realising where one's self-worth and identity really should be: 'A bird sitting on a tree is not afraid of the branch breaking because the trust is not on the branch but on her own wings.' What she'd do differently Looking back, Jeraldine admits she jumped into her next job a little too quickly — like someone entering a rebound relationship after a breakup. 'I wish I had looked for a role in a state of abundance versus being in a state of emotional vulnerability,' she said, realising that rest — real rest — is not a sign of weakness but of wisdom and that 'It's also important to realize in life that nothing is permanent.' Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah She also redefined what stability really means. 'A job is not the only platform for you to achieve constant progress and excellence. These things can be pursued outside of a role itself.' Her advice? Build your inner stability. She herself is now turning to meditation and emotional balance because the world outside may be chaotic, but your internal landscape doesn't have to be. Final reflections (and real talk) Jeraldine's story isn't a fairy tale. It's not a LinkedIn post flexing a 'bounce back.' It's raw, real, and relatable, which is what makes it so valuable. Photo: YT screengrab/@JeraldinePhneah 'If you're going through the same thing, I know how destabilising it can be. The best thing you can do is keep your expenses low and have 12 months of emergency funds. For me, I recognise that my previous layoff may not be my last (layoff).' Rather than fear the future, she's building resilience for it — and encouraging others to do the same. 'I can only work on myself and be the best version of myself, such that I can be employable. I have a network and friends who can help me out.' The takeaway? You don't need to be a corporate warrior to survive layoffs. You just need self-trust, perspective, and a decent emergency fund. Watch the full video by Jeraldine Phneah to hear her retrenchment journey firsthand below: In other news, a 20 y/o Singaporean says older generations' idea of job security — committing to a 9-6 full-time job — is outdated for Gen Zs like him in the age of AI
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce is using AI for up to 50% of its workload, and its AI product is 93% accurate, says CEO Marc Benioff
Salesforce CEO and founder Marc Benioff said the company now relies on artificial intelligence for 30% to 50% of its entire workload. Coco Gauff and Emma Grede team up to help small businesses I've become an AI vibe coding convert Tech layoffs June 2025: Microsoft, Google, Disney, ZoomInfo join the list of companies said to be shedding jobs The software giant, like many other tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Microsoft and Google, is going all in on the AI boom. 'All of us have to get our head around this idea that AI could do things, that before we were doing, and we can move on to do higher-value work,' Benioff told Bloomberg, including positions like software engineering and customer service. 'It's these agents, these digital laborers, digital employees who are out there doing this work servicing the customers, selling to the customer, marketing to the customer, partnering with me to do the analytics, the marketing, the branding.' Benioff said he even writes his yearly business plan with an AI partner, along with a 'human' Salesforce executive, adding that the company was on track to have one billion of these 'agents' before the end of the year. (Sixty-five percent of companies are now experimenting with AI agents, according to an April KPMG survey.) Benioff also estimated that Salesforce has reached 93% accuracy with the AI product it's selling to customers, including Walt Disney Co., which was developed to carry out tasks such as customer service without human supervision, according to Bloomberg. Benioff added that it's not 'realistic' to reach 100% accuracy, and that other companies are at 'much lower levels because they don't have as much data and metadata.' The software giant was ranked the No. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) software provider in 2025 for the 12th consecutive year by the global market intelligence firm IDC. Salesforce's clients include Apple, Boeing, Amazon, Walmart, and McDonald's, to name a few. According to Bloomberg, AI is ushering in a new era of 'the tiny team.' Gone are the days when Silicon Valley companies rapidly hire as they scale; now tech companies are in a race to the bottom, competing to see who can manage the lowest head count in an effort to cut costs and increase efficiencies. The AI boom comes at a time when many tech companies are slashing jobs, in part to keep up with inflation and increased economic uncertainty, spurred on by the Trump administration's tariffs and conflict with Iran. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was trading up less than 1% on Thursday in midday trading, at the time of this writing. In the company's latest round of earnings for the first quarter, which ended April 30, the company reported revenue of $9.8 billion, up nearly 8% year over year, beating analyst expectations, and it raised guidance 'by $400 million, to $41.3 billion, at the high end of the range.' Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $2.58, topping estimates of $2.55. Benioff said Salesforce has 'built a deeply unified enterprise AI platform—with agents, data, apps, and a metadata platform . . . with Agentforce, Data Cloud, our Customer 360 apps, Tableau, and Slack all built on one trusted, unified foundation, [so] companies of every size can build a digital labor force—boosting productivity, reducing costs, and accelerating growth.' The company had a market capitalization of $257 billion at the time of this writing. Its next earnings report is scheduled for late August. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter:
Forbes
19-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Amazon To Cut 1,000 Jobs Due To AI. Now What?
Giant robot flicking tiny man. Ai technologies and unemployment problem concept. Vector ... More illustration. Earlier this week, Amazon announced it would cut 1,000 jobs due to AI. Is anyone surprised? The monster created by Big Tech has begun rising up to consume its creator. Well, perhaps not totally consume, but the damage done could likely be (a) measurable, (b) a harbinger of things to come at Amazon, and (c) a phenomenon we will see far and wide, not just at Amazon. It's inescapable for a few reasons. First, according to data from which monitors tech worker layoffs, already this year 141 companies have laid off 62,832 employees. In 2024, it was 152,922 employees from 551 companies and in 2023, it was 264,220 employees from 1,193 companies. Layoffs, we see, are inevitable – especially in tech. At the onset of new technologies or the introduction of new products, hiring takes place with kid-in-a-candy-store concern for consequences. A year later, things look quite different – and that kid is now an obese diabetic. Now, however, we see a direct cause and effect, unmistakenly traceable to AI, because AI has advanced so quickly that it is now capable of doing many of those lower, entry-level jobs we've long feared it could do. I am reminded of the classic line from the 1960s comic strip Pogo: 'We have met the enemy and it is us.' Make no mistake, though, this is not limited to tech jobs. In May, I posted a column here, 'How AI Affects The Socioeconomic Order Of The Workplace' (5/27) and here's what we saw: Beginner programmers and coders, data analysts, junior paralegals, retail sales associates, content writers, copy editors, graphic artists, and grant writers are among the many who will deal with this reality. There's more, but space and time have limits here. This phenomenon of jobs being eaten by AI will undoubtedly be seen at all tech companies, as they are the creators of this to begin with. But it will spread elsewhere. Picture lava streaming down an erupting volcano. But there's a big upside to this. The World Economic Forum predicts that AI will create 78 million jobs, even after job losses are factored in. So, working the math and going with aggregated and widely-accepted estimations that for every job killed by AI three or four will be created, we come to this: 78 million is the WEF's net number, bringing us to 100 million or more, gross. Thise jobs will just not be the vulnerable entry-level jobs we've been discussing here. It's complicated, no? If I were running a large company, I'd ask for a meeting. In the same room, I'd have the president of the local university or community college, my senator or congressperson, and me. I'd have one item on the agenda: those AI skills we've been teaching for our graduates to find their first jobs need to be relegated to high school and forever be seen as obsolete. AI will forever do them. Next, define the next level of AI jobs and teach them as the new entry level, while teaching other skills – communication, critical thinking, problem solving, etc. – that our new employees would have been developing on he way up. We are past throwing our hands in the air. This is no longer something new or mysterious. 'Success delayed is success denied,' said Ben Franklin. We just simply must take the first step.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Microsoft to Axe Thousands of Sales Roles at Fiscal-Year End
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is set to cut several thousand sales roles once its fiscal year closes at the end of June, part of ongoing efforts to streamline its go-to-market operations. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with MSFT. Bloomberg reports the cutsfocused mainly on small- and mid-market sales teamswill be announced next month, following April's decision to outsource some SMB software sales to third-party partners. This move comes on top of Microsoft's earlier plan to trim headcount by roughly 3% (about 6,000 jobs) across the company. While the broader tech layoff wave has eased in 2025, Microsoft and Intel still lead the pack: so far, 141 tech firms have shed 62,832 roles, per Scaling back sales headcount signals a shift toward partner-led distribution for lower-tier accounts, letting Microsoft redeploy resources toward high-growth areas like cloud and AI. For the salesforce, it underscores intensifying pressure to demonstrate ROI amid softer enterprise spending. Investors have shrugged off previous cutsMSFT shares are up 14% year to datebut the real test will be whether leaner sales teams can sustain growth targets in a competitive market. Analyst conviction in Microsoft has pulled back slightly this summer: the total number of rated firms fell from 63 in May to 57 now, with Buy calls slipping from 22 to 19 and Hold recommendations dropping from seven to four. Outperform ratings remain steady at 34, while no one is left on Sell. Overall, it looks like analysts are dialing back their urgency but still see MSFT as a solid outperformer. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Microsoft to Axe Thousands of Sales Roles at Fiscal-Year End
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is set to cut several thousand sales roles once its fiscal year closes at the end of June, part of ongoing efforts to streamline its go-to-market operations. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with MSFT. Bloomberg reports the cutsfocused mainly on small- and mid-market sales teamswill be announced next month, following April's decision to outsource some SMB software sales to third-party partners. This move comes on top of Microsoft's earlier plan to trim headcount by roughly 3% (about 6,000 jobs) across the company. While the broader tech layoff wave has eased in 2025, Microsoft and Intel still lead the pack: so far, 141 tech firms have shed 62,832 roles, per Scaling back sales headcount signals a shift toward partner-led distribution for lower-tier accounts, letting Microsoft redeploy resources toward high-growth areas like cloud and AI. For the salesforce, it underscores intensifying pressure to demonstrate ROI amid softer enterprise spending. Investors have shrugged off previous cutsMSFT shares are up 14% year to datebut the real test will be whether leaner sales teams can sustain growth targets in a competitive market. Analyst conviction in Microsoft has pulled back slightly this summer: the total number of rated firms fell from 63 in May to 57 now, with Buy calls slipping from 22 to 19 and Hold recommendations dropping from seven to four. Outperform ratings remain steady at 34, while no one is left on Sell. Overall, it looks like analysts are dialing back their urgency but still see MSFT as a solid outperformer. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
