Pinterest Dismisses Engineers Over Layoff Tracking Tool

Pinterest has terminated the employment of two software engineers after they created an internal tool designed to identify colleagues affected by a recent round of job cuts, the company has confirmed.

The dismissals follow an announcement by the social media firm that it would reduce its workforce as part of a shift toward what chief executive Bill Ready described as a more “AI-forward” strategy. In a memo to staff, excerpts of which were later shared on LinkedIn, Ready said the company was refocusing its operations. Pinterest later told investors that the cuts would affect about 15% of its workforce – roughly 700 roles – without disclosing which teams or individuals were impacted.

According to a company spokesperson, the two engineers wrote custom scripts that accessed confidential internal data to determine the names and locations of employees who had been laid off, and then shared that information more widely within the company.

“This was a clear breach of company policy and violated the privacy of their former colleagues,” the spokesperson said.

In technical terms, a script is a piece of code used to automate tasks or modify how existing software behaves. A person familiar with the terminations, who requested anonymity, said the engineers’ script monitored internal communication tools, such as Slack, to detect when employee accounts were removed or deactivated – a signal that those workers had lost their jobs.

The names of the two engineers have not been made public, and they could not be reached for comment.

The incident comes against the backdrop of widespread job cuts across the technology sector. In recent years, employees have often relied on indirect signals – such as colleagues disappearing from internal messaging platforms – to understand the scope of layoffs when companies provide limited details.

Pinterest’s workforce reduction coincided with fresh layoffs at other major tech firms. Amazon announced 16,000 job cuts in the same week, marking its second round of redundancies in three months. Meta has also reduced headcount this year, joining companies such as Google and Microsoft in scaling back staffing levels.

Industry trackers estimate that roughly 700,000 tech workers have lost their jobs globally over the past four years, underscoring the scale of ongoing restructuring across the sector.