The head of Russian gaming commerce company Xsolla Tweeted "Work hard or fuck off" in relation to 150 fired employees.
A report from Game World Observer reveals that Russian gaming commerce company Xsolla fired 150 people at the same time after marking them as "unengaged and unproductive employees" and tracking their activities. The company sent out an email listing the people fired and insulting the amount of work they did for the company.
The email said, "any of you might be shocked, but I truly believe that Xsolla is not for you. Nadia and her care team partnered with seven leading HR agencies, as we will help you find a good place, where you will earn more and work even less. Once again, thank you for your contribution. If you want to stay in contact with me, please write me a long letter about all your observations, injustice, and gratitude."
Xsolla CEO Aleksandr Agapitov held a press conference explaining the layoffs and attributing them to the fact that the company was no longer at 40 per cent growth. According to App2Top, some of the key things mentioned during the press conference include the fact that leadership laid-off employees with the lowest performance, layoffs mainly affected line employees, and that the total number of employees laid-off could be up to 40 per cent of the company's headcount across all offices.
The CEO caused even more controversy following the press conference when they Tweeted out a message that roughly translates to "Work hard or fuck off", in reference to the 150 employees who were just fired. Forbes Russia reports that 60 of the employees who were included in the "expelled" list might still be with the company after talking to their managers. Employees who are leaving the company will keep medical insurance according to Agapitov.
ProPerm has claimed that Xsolla has launched an internal investigation to find the employee that leaked Agapitov's internal email explaining the layoffs. An Xsolla representative declined to comment when approached by Game World Observer.