Uber lays off 400 and a magical marketing spreadsheet emerges

Yesterday Uber laid off 400 employees in marketing. The company announced the department had too much bloat. Fast-growing startups frequently make bad hires during fevered expansion, but it's rare that 1/3 of a 1200-person department gets fired.

Another rarity is that there are 400 marketing pros from a fast-growing tech company who are available for hire. So the laid-off marketers created a spreadsheet with names, contact info and years of experience and started sharing the document with people who might have openings.

Not only did hiring managers have openings. But someone created a second tab and added their contact info, company name and job openings to the spreadsheet. Other people followed. Often the contact person listed is an ex-Uber employee. Some of the company names include Adobe, Airbnb, Everlane, Glossier, and Tinder.

Uber blames its marketing department for squandering money on costly promotions for riders and drivers. But it's hard to ignore that Lyft is making huge headway against Uber with socially conscious initiatives like donating rides to immigration groups and encouraging people to round up and donate. Also, it's pretty clear that Uber lost their way at the top, so marketing had no good story to tell. Uber is aware of the problem, and communications and marketing will merge to give the company another go at telling a meaningful story.

But it looks like Uber laid off the type of talented people they need. The 400 created a new way to job hunt, and their story makes us see a job market where competition gives way to collaboration, and efficiency saves the day.

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