Linkedin Samaritans Out To Help Former OYO Employees Find Their Next Jobs

If there is anything startup employees dread, it is receiving a pink slip from employers. And, currently, it is the turn of OYO employees to go through sleepless nights. The company has reportedly asked around 1200 employees in India and 600 in China to leave.

However, Linkedin samaritans are helping people find jobs quickly. When OYO’s head for enterprise sales Jasmit Singh shared a post on Linkedin enquiring about job openings, within 24 hours of the post, many started sharing email IDs of recruiters and details of openings.

The post has received more than 800 comments and 3K likes. Support has been pouring in for OYO employees from various corners.

Others have asked for calm in these tense times. “Can we go easy on oyorooms, SoftBank and team? They are taking steps, laying off, changing some past actions, focusing on certain areas, cutting costs. All part of #startups life. Unwarranted glee from people without any skin in the game,” tweeted K Ganesh, who has invested in startups including HomeLane, BigBasket.

Towards the end of 2019, media reports surfaced speculating these layoffs. It was said that the company had decided to lay off around 2,000 employees by the end of January 2020. OYO, however, had said that it only terminates contracts of those employees that fail in its performance-based evaluation system.

The company reportedly has taken this decision as part of its restructuring plans in India and China. Meanwhile, on January 11, income tax authorities reportedly carried out a surprise search at the hospitality unicorn’s Gurugram office.

A spokesperson of the SoftBank-backed hospitality startup said that a routine TDS survey was in progress in one of the company’s offices.

In 2019, the company had reported a 2.7X jump in the number of bookings in comparison to 2018. However, the company’s valuation report had shown that OYO reported a loss of INR 2384.69 Cr in FY19, a 5.5X jump from its losses in FY18. While the expenses for the company also grew 3.9X, OYO’s revenue increased by 3.5X in FY19 as compared to FY18.

The company has more than 35K hotels and 125K vacation homes in its portfolio, and over 1.2 Mn rooms across 80 countries and 800 cities. The company is reportedly eyeing profitability in several countries by 2022-23.

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