From team-building vacations to brutal dismissals Uncover the inside story of Polkadot's layoffs comparable to The Hunger Games

Written by Inbar Preiss, Inbar Preiss, DL News; Compiled: Pine Snow, Golden Finance

• Parity’s employees were required to attend a corporate retreat after being fired.
• Employees noted that company executives paid themselves handsome salaries.
• A Parity spokesperson called the situation a “challenging step” for the company.

A week before Polkadot parent company Parity Technologies traveled to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca for its annual team-building getaway, its 385 employees received the shocking news: the company would lay off most of them.

However, several employees noted that departing employees are still expected to attend a team-building event at the Iberostar Cala Domingos Beach Resort Oct. 9-13 because flights have already been booked.

A representative for Parity noted that the company chose to host the event after announcing the layoffs.

Employees were supposed to have a fun week, including presentations, workshops, and meetups, but it turned into a discussion about Parity’s dissolution, who would survive the elimination, and what would happen next.

“It was a surreal, disgusting joke,” said a Parity employee who attended the team-building event. “A bit of a Hunger Games feel.”

Internal strife

Parity Technologies is a blockchain infrastructure company that develops the Polkadot blockchain.

Polkadot and Parity are now locked in internal conflict with funding dwindling and employees accusing top managers of paying themselves handsome salaries, according to several current and former employees.

Eric Wang, Parity’s former head of strategic growth programs, who left the company in January, said, "Executives are well paid but don’t bring much tangible results. ”

For one of the most touted projects in the DeFi space, things have taken a dramatic turn.

In 2020, Polkadot went live with an excellent background and great prospects. Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood founded Polkadot to address the limitations of the blockchain he helped create, such as its difficulty in scaling.

Over the next three years, talented developers and DeFi enthusiasts flocked to Polkadot, which peaked in November 2021 with a market cap of $54 billion, making it a perennial top 10 company in the cryptocurrency space.

“A challenging step”**

In response to a request for comment, Parity did not deny or confirm layoffs or mention management pay.

Parity said it expects “constant emergence” of participants in its network and further adoption of the Polkadot blockchain. A spokesperson said the company is committed to the development of distributed Polkadot, calling the situation a “challenging step” for the company.

A Parity spokesperson said in an emailed statement: "We thank our team, who have played a significant role in getting us where we are today. “While this is a challenging step for Parity, it is a necessary step for Polkadot.”

Given Parity’s commitment to expanding Polkadot’s user base, employees were caught off guard by the layoffs and requested anonymity to protect their identities at such a sensitive time.

Employees say only the company’s core engineering, developer relationships, ecosystem success, and Asian teams have not been fired.

Team Building Activities in Spain

These questions should be answered at team-building events in Spain. But team members have a hard time putting aside the pressures of the situation.

“It was advertised as if they would have a say in the decentralization initiative,” said one employee in attendance. "Some even cried while giving a presentation on stage. Many left early. ”

According to multiple employees who attended the event, Wood did not attend, leaving many angry and confused. The Polkadot and Parity founder was also absent from the all-hands event, according to employees, when employees were informed of upcoming layoffs.

Employees interviewed said they believed the decision was made by Wood.

One employee said: "Many employees felt that he was not clear about his priorities and did not help promote Polkadot. ”

Lagging behind competitors

Employees also said Parity’s chief financial officer, Fahmi Syed, left the company the day before the layoffs were announced. Saeed’s LinkedIn profile shows that he still serves as the company’s chief financial officer.

Wood founded Parity Technologies to help Polkadot commercialize the network. It plays a similar role to IOHK, the commercial enterprise that developed the Cardano blockchain.

But Polkadot has fallen behind its competitors. Polkadot’s DOT cryptocurrency is down about 18% this year, compared to Ethereum’s 32% gain.

! [m7NNEUvdAqZR1KG4Yql35r3b5BAk9Ce5yLulyUAB.jpeg] (https://img.jinse.cn/7118557_watermarknone.png “7118557”)

Polkadot’s DOT token has plummeted during the last 12-month bear market.

Parity is funded in part by the Web3 Foundation, another organization that Wood has built. According to a Parity employee, the Web3 Foundation also announced layoffs, affecting about 40% of its workforce.

According to job site SignalHire, the group is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, and employs between 100 and 200 people.

“Companies spend as aggressively as if they are still in a bull market”

On October 10, 2023, Parity posted a post on its official X account stating that it was “phasing out its marketing function” to promote the decentralized development of the Polkadot ecosystem.

Parity did not publicly acknowledge the layoffs, but shortly after the X post, an employee in Parity’s press office said the company would “experience personnel changes in the coming months.”

According to Parity employees, the company laid off employees as it ran out of cash. They said Parity’s hiring spree over the past 12 months had put it in financial trouble.

One employee said the company’s leadership should have managed costs better in a bear market. But “the company spends as aggressively as it is in a bull market,” the employee said.

Others blamed the layoffs on excessive salaries paid to executives, who typically received more than $1 million in cash.

“At one point, a VP of digital marketing accidentally emailed his salary to the entire company, showing that he was earning about $700,000,” one employee said. ”

In fact, employees are worried about what will happen to the Polkadot ecosystem, as some of them have been working on the project for seven years.

One employee said that the biggest concern for employees was that without Parity as a guiding force, talents would escape the Polkadot ecosystem.

“Decentralization sounds great, but if there’s no unified strategy, or no one is in charge, nobody knows what’s going to happen,” the employee said.

On the other hand, Wang said he thinks layoffs could be positive in the long run. “Getting rid of all these employees and decentralizing would only be a good thing because the threshold is set very low,” he said.

Others involved in the Polkadot ecosystem seem to have dropped out entirely.

According to the same person, the Web3 Foundation was supposed to participate in Parity’s team-building event, but canceled flights after layoffs. “No one attended,” the employee said.

And there’s no timeline for layoffs yet, so Parity’s employees are still in a state of uncertainty. But most importantly, employees still can’t explain Parity’s poor timing for mass layoffs.

“Why fire everyone before team building?” An employee said. “It’s a mess.”

Source: Golden Finance