Many Koinly staff point to poor communication, CEO in global layoffs

cointelegraph.com:

Crypto tax firm Koinly announced cuts of up to 14% of its global team in response to the “intensifying bear market” — but many employees have pushed back against this narrative.

In a Dec. 6 announcement, Koinly founder and CEO Robin Singh said the crypto market downturn coupled with fewer people reporting crypto on their tax returns had contributed to the company deciding to let go of 14% of its team. However, several staff members who spoke to Cointelegraph on the condition of anonymity said the cuts had affected many more people at Koinly and were unprofessionally executed.

According to one former Koinly employee, the company had laid off more than 100 permanent employees and contractors in recent months — the entirety of its London and Sydney teams, as well as many in Canada. These cuts reportedly included many within management at the request of Singh deciding to eliminate the positions.

Many of the Koinly employees reported that there was a lack of communication between executives and staff over these layoff decisions, with people receiving little or no notice they would be fired. Some reportedly had access to their Slack accounts removed at the same time they were given notice, resulting in limited communication at departure.

“Start-ups are by nature incredibly volatile,” said an anonymous employee in a Dec. 5 Glassdoor review. “If layoffs need to happen there is a common playbook that everyone follows to avoid any unnecessary pain. At Koinly lay-offs were handled terribly."

They elaborated:

Some who had been with the company speculated that there may have been ties to failed crypto exchange FTX affecting decisions to downsize. Several once-prominent crypto platforms have gone belly up in 2022, including BlockFi,