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This CEO's Letter to Employees He's Laying Off Should Be How Every Company Handles COVID Cutbacks
THIS is how you let employees go.
By Quinn Fish Yesterday at 8:14am
Henry Ward CEO Letter
As the new coronavirus pandemic causes mass layoffs and threatens a potentially shattering recession, it’s important to keep humanity at the forefront of everything we do. Luckily, some executives get that.
A mid-April letter to employees concerning COVID-19 layoffs from software company Carta’s CEO, Henry Ward, went viral due to his sheer transparency and benevolence. Henry has been CEO of Carta, a company that makes it easier to buy and sell shares in private companies, since July 2012.
The Silicon Valley-based tech company laid off 161 people, about 16 percent of the company. Henry shared his company-wide letter on Medium in hopes of helping other CEOs through their layoffs. Leaders everywhere should take note.
He began the letter by apologizing for its matter of fact tone and explains the script is helping him cope—first and foremost reminding employees of his own humanity. Then he pointed out the two perspectives CEOs must consider when making these decisions. "The first is the shareholder perspective where reducing costs and protecting cash are what matters most in a recession. The second is the employee perspective where nothing is more important than saving jobs and helping employees as the world heads into unemployment levels the world has not seen since the Great Depression," he wrote. “CEOs sit between shareholders and employees and wish they could do both.”
Carta expects fewer customers and slower growth in 2020, Henry explained, which is why many customer-facing functions like sales, marketing, onboarding and support, would be reduced. As succinctly and honestly as he could, he spelled out the decision making framework he gave to his managers to help them determine which roles to eliminate. Still, in an unusual act of courage, he took responsibility for each and every layoff.
“It is important that all of you know I personally reviewed every list and every person. If you are one of those affected it is because I decided it. Your manager did not. For the majority of you it was quite the contrary. Your manager fought to keep you and I overrode them. They are blameless,” Henry wrote. “If today is your last day, there is only one person to blame and it is me.”
If that’s not the pinnacle of great leadership, then we don’t know what is.""