How not to handle COVID layoffs - Anonymous employee Thumbtack Employee Review

1.0
Dec 17, 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many before COVID, none now.

Cons

The leadership team decided to lay off 250+ employees right at the beginning of the pandemic (late March 2020). We were all given 3.5 weeks severance pay, regardless of tenure or level. All 250 of us were told that our jobs had been eliminated on a pre-recorded 3min Zoom call with the CEO. Immediately after the Zoom call ended, our laptops were shutdown remotely. We later were instructed to ship the laptops back to HQ and that was it. This was a truly cold and heartless decision that was ultimately unnecessary. It was handled sloppily and executed with callousness and ambivalence. The most egregious actions came immediately after they layoffs. A large number of employees on the people ops team were promoted and likely received comp increases. The people charged with leading this braindead layoff process were then immediately rewarded with promotions. What a joke. Extremely disappointing.

avatar
Thumbtack Response
5y
Covid has taken a toll on many families and businesses, and our company was not immune. It's difficult to have to say goodbye to 1/3 of our company and we value the feedback you have given about your experience. We hope to never make a difficult decision like this ever again. Our employees are our priority and we'll continue to work to ensure we provide the very best care, no matter the situation. We'll be passing your thoughts along to the appropriate teams and we wish you all the best in the new year.

Explore other reviews about Thumbtack

5.0
Apr 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work life balance, teamwork and collaboration, encourages creativity. Everyone shares same mission: support small businesses and get pros more jobs

Cons

More alignment across teams and updates regarding product, brand strategy, clearer OKRs. I literally have to dig deep for any cons I seriously love this job and culture.

5.0
Dec 23, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Thumbtack is a really great company with a very strong culture and an obsessive focus on improving itself. Everyone from the engineers to the recruiters to the operations teams are approachable, curious, humble, dedicated to learning, and fun to talk with. The product makes a difference in people's lives and the opportunity is huge, which makes the environment exciting and the work satisfying. Decisions from hires to product changes to ad buys are made in a very thoughtful, rigorous manner, but bad decisions are owned up to and abandoned quickly. Very little ego or politics within the company, as everyone seems committed to making the best decisions to help the team, and working hard to make that decision making process as analytically rigorous and free from bias as possible. As a start up there are many opportunities for team members to contribute and expand their horizons and leadership offers support for people to figure out and implement new things. I love coming to work here.

Cons

The relentlessly thoughtful decision making process means that the company can move more slowly than it perhaps should at times. Engineer hiring has proven to be a major bottleneck due to absurdly high standards for new hires. As a result, teams that could get by with less than world-class engineers are left without any engineering resources at all. Also as a result the product has simple, glaring flaws that go left unaddressed, and there are clearly areas of the company set up years ago that have been given no thought in a while as attention is focused elsewhere. Huge opportunity for new hires to fix these things and help this company realize its potential.

187
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All