'I have a bad feeling': Woman ends up recording reaction to being laid off from Discord

When intuition drove a woman to record a company meeting, she ended up filming herself getting retrenched. 

Taiwanese-American TikToker Chloe Shih posted a series of videos on Thursday (Jan 11), in which she said she had a "bad feeling" that she will be laid off. 

Shih is a product manager who previously worked at Meta, TikTok and Google before taking up a role at Discord in 2021.

In the first video, filmed on Wednesday night, Shih explained that a major re-organisation announcement was scheduled for the next day.

After hearing about recent retrenchments at social platform Twitch, she felt scared for her job.

"It could happen to me too. It is what it is — nobody is safe," Shih said.

Shih woke up on Thursday to a "cryptic" message from the Discord HR team that there will be an emergency meeting at 10am.

"I’m 95 per cent sure there are going to be mass layoffs and I’m 90 per cent sure I'm part of that," she said in the video.

Shih added that this was the first time she felt threatened for her life, and was feeling nauseous and short of breath.

"This sucks, the anxiety of knowing you could get chopped off — and it's not your fault whatsoever," she said.

‘Retrenchment not a reflection of my work, merit’

During the emergency meeting, it was announced that 170 Discord employees would be let go and will be notified of their employment status by 10.30am via email.

Shih then received an email — she had been retrenched.

Although seemingly shocked, Shih informed her colleagues, as well as her fiance, of the news.

In the video captions, Shih wrote that she had just bought a house, which likely contributed to her fear and uncertainty.

Shih also shared her final thoughts about being retrenched in a LinkedIn post.

"This is traumatic, but it's also not a reflection of our work, merit, and value," she said.

AsiaOne has reached out to Shih for comment. 

Discord lays off 17% of staff 

Discord reportedly told employees on Thursday that it would cut 17 per cent of its staff, according to the New York Times.

Roughly 170 jobs will be affected by the layoffs, an internal memo sent by Jason Citron, Discord's founder and chief executive said.

"We have to face some hard truths," Citron wrote.

"We are increasingly clear on the need to sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organisation."

ALSO READ: 'Whole process took less than 10 minutes': Woman documents being retrenched just a day before birthday

bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com