The linked article has a really bad title. There was another article I think by The Information as well that said that Uber was planning 800 layoffs for engineers, which would still bring them over 3000 engineers. That seems quite high for a company whose main revenue has been catastrophically impacted globally.
Asking employees to take a pay cut is always a bad idea. Having gone through the dotcom bust, I can tell you that paycuts across the board will demotivate employees, even if they keep their jobs. As soon as this pandemic is over, they will flee to another company willing to pay them more.
The best way to handle crises like this, or the dotcom bust, or the next recession, is to cut deeply once. Too many times you get into situations where you want to do the least amount of damage and you don't have the courage to make the cuts you need. And then you end up going through multiple cuts over and over again, which paralyzes the company. Cut deeply, and preserve the cash bonuses and promotion cycles for the ones who remain. Show that you will take care of the employees laid off with generous severance packages, and then you will take care of the employees that stay, and this will cement loyalty.
Asking employees to take a pay cut is always a bad idea. Having gone through the dotcom bust, I can tell you that paycuts across the board will demotivate employees, even if they keep their jobs. As soon as this pandemic is over, they will flee to another company willing to pay them more.
The best way to handle crises like this, or the dotcom bust, or the next recession, is to cut deeply once. Too many times you get into situations where you want to do the least amount of damage and you don't have the courage to make the cuts you need. And then you end up going through multiple cuts over and over again, which paralyzes the company. Cut deeply, and preserve the cash bonuses and promotion cycles for the ones who remain. Show that you will take care of the employees laid off with generous severance packages, and then you will take care of the employees that stay, and this will cement loyalty.