wefox CEO Teicke “Disgusted” by Rival Fintechs’ Layoffs

Mired in a major downturn in the market, major tech companies from Meta to Amazon to Klarna have slashed their workforces dramatically over the last several months. Many voices in the industry have hailed these rounds of layoffs as necessary, even positive, for companies to streamline their enterprises, with Sequoia Capital Partner Doug Leone famously advising tech leaders, “Do not waste a good recession.”

Conventional wisdom or not, these layoffs are not without controversy. Most recently, Julian Teicke, Chief Executive Officer of European digital insurtech platform wefox, expressed in an interview with CNBC that he is “disgusted” by the treatment of employees by his company’s rivals. Teicke pointed out that however these layoffs may benefit a company, the numbers being reduced refer to real people with lives that are impacted by losing their jobs.

“These are people that have maybe quit other jobs to join your business. These are people that have maybe moved to other places because of you,” said Teicke in the interview. “I believe that CEOs have to do everything in their power to protect their employees,” he said. “I haven’t seen that in the tech industry. And I’m disgusted by that.”