Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest, speaks at the 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on May 5, 2025.
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready rebuked staffers who created an internal tool to track layoffs at the company, and fired those involved.
"Healthy debate and dissent are expected, that's how we make our decisions," Ready said at a companywide meeting last week, according to audio obtained by CNBC. "But there's a clear line between constructive debate and behavior that's obstructionist."
Pinterest announced on Jan. 27 that it would lay off less than 15% of its workforce and cut back on office space as part of a broader restructuring aimed at directing resources toward artificial intelligence projects. The company said it expects the layoffs will be complete by the end of September.
Following the announcement, Pinterest's technology chief addressed the layoffs in a meeting. Some employees asked which teams were impacted and whether more job cuts were coming, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the meeting was private.
Several Pinterest engineers then created an internal software tool to try and quantify the layoffs. Pinterest fired the engineers on Friday, the person said. It's unclear how many employees were let go.
Ready defended the moves at an all-hands meeting on Friday, saying Pinterest was facing a "critical moment" in the industry. Employees should consider a job elsewhere if they're "working against the direction of the company" and disagree with its mission, he said.
Ready said Pinterest wouldn't disclose detailed information about the layoffs out of a concern for staffers' privacy.
"I know people have natural curiosity around these things," Ready said. "We shared some of those major structural changes. The smaller ones, those will be communicated at the team level."
A Pinterest spokesperson confirmed the engineer incident and town hall meeting, but declined to comment on the firings.
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