Klarna faces backlash

Klarna Bank is facing major backlash after its CEO stirred controversy by publishing a list of hundreds of employees who the company had laid off recently. 

The financial technology company said last week that it would cut about 10% of its roughly 5,000 workers to trim costs after a loss of $487 million last year. On May 30th, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski posted a link to a Google spreadsheet listing hundreds of laid-off employees by name. In his defense, he posted the list only to connect them to recruiters and in an effort to help them find new jobs. In his post, he called the document "a tangible symbol of a very hard decision that saddens me deeply and will stay with me for a long period of time."

The publication of the document was not however so well-received, netizens expressed mixed feelings through heated replies, and at least two critics called him "tone deaf". One of the major issues pointed out was that the document contained the email addresses of all the workers, this brought out the need to protect one's privacy. The employee who put together the document eventually deleted the email column. One comment read "maybe Kalrna should consider nee leadership, not letting go of talented staff." Others, however, applauded Siemiatkowski's efforts as a former employer to find new employment for the workers. Klarna made it clear that the names that appeared on

the list signed up voluntarily and the content is not owned by the company.

Source: CBS News