GitHub, the hosting company owned by Microsoft, has laid off its entire engineering staff in India, affecting approximately 142 engineering positions across its Indian operations. Although the company has not formally disclosed the number of workers laid off, it has confirmed the action.
In an official statement, GitHub said, “We made workforce reductions today as part of difficult but necessary decisions and realignments to both protect the health of our business in the short term and grant us the capacity to invest in our long-term strategy moving forward.”
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke sent an email to workers explaining why the engineering team was being laid off and revealing new budgetary realignments. In the same email, he also defended the decision and stated that the company will prioritize AI integration “with urgency.”
According to Dohmke, “The age of AI has begun, and we have been at the forefront of this transformation with GitHub Copilot, our most successful product launch to date.” He also stated, “With urgency, we have an enormous opportunity to build an integrated, AI-powered GitHub.”
No new hirings
This is not the first time GitHub has laid off workers; the company revealed a 10% workforce reduction just last month. Additionally, GitHub has stopped new hires until further notice.
GitHub’s Indian engineering team was the company’s second-largest coder group after the US, and the cuts are anticipated to have a major effect on the company’s operations in India. Despite the cutbacks, GitHub remains dedicated to its long-term plan and the integration of artificial intelligence into its platform.
Furthermore, it is claimed that the layoff was not based on employee performance. Rather, the entire team was requested to resign. “The entire engineering staff was requested to depart. Hundreds of engineers were affected. “It had nothing to do with performance,” the insider added. In lieu of severance pay which was calculated as two months’ salary,, all laid-off workers were required to execute a stringent Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).