GitHub lays off 10% of its employees: “a difficult but necessary decision”

The GitHub company (GitHub), which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, announced today (Saturday) that it will lay off 10% of its employees by the end of the fiscal year. The company currently employs about 3,000 people. Github also intends to close all of its offices when their leases expire, among other things due to low usage, and intends to move to a remote work culture.

GitHub also intends to continue the move to freeze hiring, which it announced in January, as well as make several internal changes to “protect the health of its business in the immediate term.”

“We announced a number of difficult but necessary decisions, to protect the health of our business in the short term, and to give us the ability to invest in our long-term strategy. You can see the CEO’s full message to employees on the company’s website,” GitHub wrote.

In an unusual move for a company that has prided itself on remaining independent from its corporate owners, GitHub will also switch to using the Teams app for its video calls.

“Although our entire leadership team carefully discussed this move and came to an agreement, as CEO the decision is mine. I know it’s difficult, and we will approach the coming period with the utmost respect for every employee,” said Github CEO Thomas Dohmke.

GitHub is a software version management service that is also used to transfer code components between developers of all types. With its help, programmers can track tasks, code segments and it includes access control components that make it possible to maintain the privacy of uploaded resources.