Zappos.com, the online shoe company, held a “surprise” company meeting Thursday to notify its workers of layoffs, a source told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Rumors have circulated throughout Zappos.com offices in Henderson for the past week or two that sales are flat or declining and layoffs were coming, the source said.
“Today has been a tough, emotional day for everyone at Zappos,” Chief Executive Officer Tony Hsieh wrote Thursday in a memo to Zappos employees. About 8 percent of the workforce will be laid off and and it will affect almost every single department at Zappos, the memo said. Zappos is also looking at closing some brick-and-mortar outlet stores in Nevada and Kentucky.
“This is one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make over the past 9.5 years, but we believe that it is the right decision for the longterm health of the company,” the executive said.
There’s a question about whether the company knows about the 60-day advance notice rule established by federal law, the Review-Journal source said.
Because Zappos.com is not a public company, information about the massive layoffs has not been published. The company is a major employer in Las Vegas Valley.
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