Formlabs Confirms Minor Layoffs Amid Continued Growth

There have apparently been some layoffs at Formlabs.

According to a report on TechCrunch:

”Formlabs on Thursday confirmed that it has laid off a ‘small number’ of employees, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The 3D printing firm says the figure amounts to less than 40 of a total headcount of just under 750 employees.”

Responding to TechCrunch, Formlabs said:

”We routinely review every part of the organization to make sure the roles we have best support our customers and enable us to deliver great products. At the same time, we are hiring new roles across all divisions and geographies and are heavily investing in R&D. While we continue to grow revenue and lead in the additive manufacturing market, we occasionally must make the difficult decision to part ways with a small number of colleagues who are in departments that are below our efficiency goals and/or who are not in the right roles.”

What does all this mean? It’s very hard to say, because we don’t know what’s actually going on inside of Formlabs, and messaging is being tweaked by both TechCrunch and Formlabs.

The 40 people mentioned by TechCrunch is a very small number in a company of 750 — only five percent. These layoffs occurred over a two-year period, so this is really like 2.5% per year. That’s quite small, and many companies would have staff turnover rates far in excess of that level.

Formlabs’ statement of parting with small numbers of staff that aren’t in the correct roles is something that routinely happens in large companies. People are hired, and later it turns out they don’t really fit for a variety of reasons. I’ve been in this situation myself as a long term manager.

It may be that TechCrunch is looking for a story to parallel several other 3D printer manufacturers that implemented very serious “restructuring” programs that resulted in huge job losses. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Formlabs.

We also don’t know the “net” number: while some were laid off, how many were hired?

My take on this report is that it doesn’t mean much, and Formlabs customers need not be concerned.

Via TechCrunch and Formlabs