Dyson has announced job cuts at the company’s headquarters in Singapore. Affected employees were notified via email to attend individual meetings, during which HR representatives informed them that their roles had been eliminated due to redundancy, as reported by CNA. The job cuts, described as ‘surprise’ by employees, came just three months after Dyson had assured that its global headquarters would not be impacted by a previous restructuring that resulted in approximately 1,000 position eliminations in the UK.
People are shocked and have low morale, says a Dyson employee
The report quotes an anonymous employee recalling the sudden layoffs: “The HR representative will be in the room.Unfortunately, reason given (was) the job is redundant, and we need to pack our things and prepare to leave. We won’t know who was called into the room … (I) saw lots of envelopes.”
“People are shocked and have low morale, as they aren’t sure when their turn might come,” said the employee, adding that the announcement came as a “surprise”.
Another employee said “Suddenly, people are taking their bags. I thought they are going out to other offices for meetings but … they are actually leaving,” adding that the office atmosphere has been “solemn” all day.
As per the report, employees from the manufacturing and procurement departments have been laid off. However, the exact number of job cuts is not known yet.
Dyson had previously conducted a round of layoffs in Johor Bahru where it has a development centre, one of the employees said. But Tuesday’s retrenchment exercise in Singapore was unexpected, given how the firm had announced it was stepping up investments here.
What Dyson said
The report quotes a Dyson spokesperson as saying: “We constantly evolve the composition of our teams and take steps to ensure we have the right skills in the right places. Our ambitions in Singapore remain unchanged, and we anticipate that we will continue to grow here in the medium term.”