Uber Closing Downtown LA Office

Credit: Fox Business

Approximately 80 employees will be laid off.

Despite recently updating their profitability forecast to Q4 2020, Uber is bleeding employees on all rungs of the corporate ladder. Since the ride-sharing company went public in May of 2019, it has suffered repeated layoffs in its corporate workforce, with the current total of lost employees hovering around 1,000. Soon, that number will be 1,080.

Employees of Uber’s office in downtown Los Angeles, California, were suddenly informed last Thursday that all of the office’s positions were being shifted to a remote customer support office in Manila, located in the Philippines. In other words, the LA office is closing down, and around 80 employees have lost their jobs.

While Uber has not issued any official statements on the matter, reporters from The Los Angeles Times managed to obtain a recording of Ruffin Chevaleau, the head of Uber Phoenix’s customer service center (or “Center of Excellence,” as it is known internally) giving the bad news to the employees of the LA office.

“We have decided to close the downtown LA office and we will be moving the outreach and innovation work to our Manila COE where we can continue to support the business as it grows,” Chevaleau said. “I know that this is a shock. This meeting is to inform you all that today is the last day in this office.”

Chevaleau went on to say that employees would be receiving severance packages, and that any employees who seek other jobs within Uber would be given assistance in doing so, and with relocation should they succeed.

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