Industrious Layoffs Impact Design, Real Estate And Finance Staffers

Flexible workspace provider Industrious will cut back on its payroll through layoffs, reduced hours and pay cuts in order to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

The firm laid off 90 of its employees that mainly impacted workers in design, real estate development and finance. Jamie Hodari, CEO and co-founder of Industrious, said that the company plans to scale back on these activities for the foreseeable future.

“If you go from signing seven, eight new locations a month to signing two or three, that severely impacts the amount of design work the company has, for example,” said Hodari.

Laid off staffers will receive a month’s severance, plus a week for every year they worked at the company and three months of health coverage. Industrious also waived the one-year cliff for stock options, extending the window from 90 days to 18 months. Additionally, senior executives will be taking a pay cut, with Hodari himself reducing his salary by 75%.

Industrious is one of several flexible workspace operators who are having to make significant changes to their operations to adjust to this health crisis. For example, Knotel furloughed 20% of its staff and dismissed another 30%, while WeWork slashed nearly 250 jobs last month.