Several employees at the e-commerce division in London were named on the list, identified as people whom leaders at the viral video app, owned by China’s ByteDance, wanted to fire or terminate their contracts, according to four people at the company with knowledge of the matter. of the procedures. A person with direct knowledge of the company’s HR processes described it as a “manage out” list that had at least a dozen names on it. In some cases, replacements were hired while the people on the list were still in their roles. Some of those targeted had only been in the posts for a few weeks, they added. Others said they felt leaders had created a hostile work environment to encourage high-profile staff to quit, leading some staff to refer to it as a “kill list”. “You’re forced to question what’s wrong with you,” said one current employee, saying she was singled out by leaders regularly and verbally reprimanded. TikTok said it could not find any list that matched that description and that “any such list, terminology or purpose would not be condoned or consistent with our internal policies regarding suspension and performance management,” it said The company. The episode is emblematic of an apparent clash of working cultures at TikTok’s e-commerce team in London, one of its main bases outside of Asia and at the heart of its global expansion. ByteDance raised $5 billion in December 2020 at a $180 billion valuation, making it among the most valuable private companies in the world. The China-based group’s leadership has spread an aggressive corporate ethos to offices around the world, seeking to constantly reshape its operations in order to sustain its massive growth and further challenge social media rivals such as Facebook. However, some of her methods seem at odds with British staff’s expectations of greater job security and work-life balance. A Financial Times investigation in June revealed dozens of workers had left TikTok’s London offices since the start of this year, with some reporting 12-hour days or demoted after time off. Joshua Ma, the ByteDance executive responsible for expanding its e-commerce business in Europe, has resigned after the FT revealed he had told London employees he “didn’t believe” in maternity leave. The investigation into Ma’s comments was completed several weeks ago and recommended disciplinary action had been taken, TikTok said. Ma is still at the company in a new, undisclosed role, and two employees said they were surprised to see him in virtual meetings since they had not been briefed on the investigation. The company is undertaking a global restructuring process, hiring and firing staff in the UK and Europe, according to people familiar with the operations. TikTok said it made frequent structural adjustments to “strengthen the organization and better align its teams with corporate goals.” Some complaints made to the HR department about the treatment of workers in London had been ignored, and several employees were taken on mental health leave because of the work environment, more than a dozen current and former employees said. Staff named on the so-called “kill list” will be reassigned to roles in which they had no experience or training, multiple officials said. “If they don’t like you, gas you, or make your work untenable, [they] get your job,” said another recent ex-employee. Seven other employees told the FT they had similar experiences. TikTok said it encouraged staff to share feedback with leaders or in an anonymous internal messaging channel. “We have a thorough process for investigating concerns raised to ensure we create a positive and supportive work environment,” the company said. He added: “This is not behavior that we would condone and we have robust systems and standards in place to ensure fair, objective probation review and performance management processes. We would never condone any process that was intended to unfairly target or undermine specific employees.” In a recent internal briefing on short-term goals, ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo said he wanted to “dramatically scale back” hiring plans for the year while slowing organizational growth and increasing efficiency, according to a person familiar with the matter. proclamation.

However, TikTok is hiring for almost 5,000 positions globally, including nearly 600 in the UK and Ireland, 200 in Europe and more than 2,000 in the US, according to an FT analysis of its vacancies. The workforce is being cut in Beijing and expanded in the U.S. in an effort to separate TikTok from its Chinese parent under increasing pressure from the U.S. government, which has argued the app is a security concern, according to several people close to the company. company. Revenue growth at ByteDance’s China business — including Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok — has slowed to about 20 percent year-over-year as the business matures and China’s economy slows, according to a person close to company. The person added TikTok, while it was smaller, it was still growing very fast and pouring in cash. Nian Liu contributed reporting from Beijing.