Thu Jan 23 01:00:00 UTC 2025: ## Stripe’s Duck-Shaped Layoff Blunder: 300 Employees Unexpectedly Receive Cartoon Image in Termination Emails
**San Francisco, CA –** Payments giant Stripe has apologized for a highly unusual error in its recent layoff announcement. The company, which cut approximately 300 jobs (3.5% of its workforce) on Monday, mistakenly sent some affected employees a PDF image of a cartoon duck instead of the official termination notification. The image, titled “US-Non-California Duck,” accompanied an email containing an incorrect termination date.
The blunder was first reported by Business Insider, which obtained a leaked internal memo detailing the layoffs and the unusual notification method. Roles affected were primarily in product, engineering, and operations.
Chief People Officer Rob McIntosh acknowledged the error in a follow-up email, stating that “some impacted Stripes received a notification error to their personal email accounts” and apologizing for the confusion. He confirmed that corrected notifications had been subsequently sent.
The incident sparked amusement and frustration amongst affected employees, with some commenting on the internal Blind app about the “flubbed comms” and suggesting the duck be made into a Slack emoji.
This latest layoff follows previous rounds of job cuts in recent years, including over 1,000 in 2022. While CEO Patrick Collison’s communication regarding those cuts was praised for its transparency, the current situation highlights a significant communication breakdown in the company’s human resources department. Stripe maintains its plans to reach 10,000 employees by the end of the year.
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