Laid off from Affirm.

What Affirm layoffs have meant for employees

Under the 2023 terms, laid-off US staff were offered a week of base pay on top of the minimum Levchin set for each year they'd been at Affirm. The health stipend was offered whether or not someone was enrolled in Affirm's plan and covered six months of employee healthcare, CNBC reported, and Payments Dive said families could get more. If you were laid off from Affirm outside the US in 2023, your severance and healthcare were to follow local practices under the memo. If you're sorting out coverage after an Affirm layoff, there's more on COBRA coverage.

People cut in 2023 could also keep their Affirm-issued devices to help with the job search, the same CNBC report said, and use three months of career advising and an alumni directory. Levchin sent the memo to staff and shared it publicly the day the cut was announced. If you're explaining a layoff from Affirm's 2023 round to a recruiter, you can quote his statement that he took "full responsibility for this decision and for those leading up to it," as TechCrunch reported it, and point to the company's 8-K, the filing that announced the plan, which describes it as a way to manage operating expenses amid economic conditions and business priorities. Both are public, so a recruiter can check them.

Affirm's California notice for the 2023 cut listed 155 permanent layoffs at its office on California Street in San Francisco, one office's share of a reduction Affirm counted across the whole company, staff outside the US included. In February 2024, Affirm allowed remote work and had offices in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and Toronto besides its San Francisco headquarters, Payments Dive reported, and a notice for that month's cut went to Pennsylvania, where WPXI reported that every employee it covered worked from home. If you worked remotely or away from San Francisco, you can check your state's WARN list for a notice covering your job, as well as California's. If California or Pennsylvania was where you worked for Affirm, you can start from California unemployment benefits or Pennsylvania unemployment benefits for that state's claim rules.

In the 2024 cut, Affirm notified people on February 13 and let most of them go on February 15, according to Payments Dive's account of the February 13 notice. Barb Cadigan, Affirm's chief people officer, wrote to Pennsylvania's labor agency that a small portion would have separation dates on or before April 30, 2024, and a spokesperson said those dates applied across the broader group Affirm let go. "We are working individually with impacted Affirmers to assist them with their transition," the spokesperson said.

Alongside the 2023 cut, Affirm said it would grow more carefully. It aimed the cut at returning headcount to about where it stood six to 12 months earlier, according to Payments Dive's February 2023 account, and Levchin said the company would refocus on its core businesses and pace headcount growth behind revenue, as TechCrunch put it. He also said, according to American Banker, that Affirm had shifted hiring to Poland, where it could attract talent at a lower cost than in Silicon Valley. The same report said Affirm Crypto, which let users buy, hold and sell crypto, would shut down on March 2 as the company deemphasized products with an uncertain revenue outlook.