Pinterest engineers discovered who will lose their job. They were fired themselves

After Pinterest announced at the end of January that it intended to lay off 15 percent. crew, several engineers created internal software that allows to estimate the scale of the reduction and determine who will lose their job. Last Friday, they lost their jobs themselves, Rzeczpospolita reported.

Pinterest announced on January 27 this year. plans to lay off up to 15 percent employees and a significant reduction in office space. These actions are to be part of a restructuring aimed at focusing resources on projects related to artificial intelligence. It was also announced that the employment reduction process would be completed by the end of September.

They wanted to know who would be fired

Due to the uncertainty in the company, several Pinterest engineers created internal software to estimate the scale of the layoffs and determine who would have to go. When this came to light, they were fired. However, it is not known exactly how many employees lost their positions.

Bill Ready, Pinterest's CEO, criticized “creative” employees.

– Healthy debate and opposition are expected – this is how we make decisions. However, there is a clear line between constructive debate and behavior that is destructive and hinders the company's operations, said Bill Ready during a company meeting, the recording of which was obtained by CNBC.

“They should find employment elsewhere.”

Employees who disagree with the company's mission should consider employment elsewhere, Pinterest's CEO says.

– We cannot tolerate blocking each other's activities, especially when we have such an important mission and at the same time operate in conditions of enormous competition – says Bill Ready. – I understand that people have a natural curiosity about such matters. We shared information about the biggest structural changes. Smaller changes will be communicated at team level.

In his opinion Pinterest will not disclose details about the layoffs to protect employee privacy.

Violated Pinterest's policy?

Information regarding the layoffs of engineers who created the software to estimate layoffs was also confirmed by the company's spokesman.

– After making it clear that Pinterest will not widely share identifying information about terminated employees, two engineers wrote custom scripts that unauthorizedly gained access to confidential company data to determine the location and names of all released people and then disseminated this information. This was a clear violation of Pinterest's policy and the privacy of former colleagues, the spokesman said.

Nearly 780 people are unemployed

In September 2025, Pinterest employed over 5.2 thousand people. employees. Planned layoffs would mean nearly 780 fewer jobs.

According to Reuters, according to estimates The company's restructuring is expected to cost between $35 and $45 million. The entire process is scheduled to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

KW

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