- Stripe accidentally sent an image of a cartoon duck to some staff in a layoff email, BI has learned.
- The company also sent some laid off staff an incorrect termination date.
- Stripe laid off 300 people on Monday, impacting mostly product, engineering, and operations.
Payments software company Stripe accidentally emailed an image of a cartoon duck to some employees when notifying them that they had been laid off, Business Insider has learned.
The company laid off 300 staff on Monday, equivalent to about 3.5% of its workforce. Those roles were primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a leaked memo obtained by BI.
The image, which was attached as a PDF, showed a yellow duck with brown feathers on its wing and accompanying text that says, “US-Non-California Duck.”
The company also sent impacted staff an incorrect date for the date of termination in an email.
Blind/Business Insider
A Stripe spokesperson confirmed the duck image and incorrect dates were sent in error and pointed BI to a follow-up email from McIntosh.
McIntosh wrote, “I also want to note that some impacted Stripes received a notification error to their personal email accounts Monday evening PT.”
He added, “I apologize for the error and any confusion it caused. Corrected and full notifications have since been sent to all impacted Stripes.”
In a separate email to staff confirming the layoffs, McIntosh said Stripe still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.
One employee asked if others had received the duck image in an internal Stripe group on the app Blind, seen by BI.
One person responded that they had and that it was another “indication the comms to those laid off were flubbed completely.”
Another employee, seemingly joking, wrote, “Wonder if there’s a california duck,” while a different employee wrote, “Quick, make a slack emoji out of the duck.”
Stripe, which provides payment software to millions of businesses, has made previous rounds of layoffs in recent years.
A publicly shared letter from Stripe CEO Patrick Collison explaining more than 1,000 job cuts in 2022 won praise from some corners for its candidness.
Are you a Stripe employee with insight to share? Contact the reporter Jyoti Mann via email at jmann@businessinsider.comor via Signal at jyotimann.11. Reach out via a nonwork device.
