Pinterest Fires Two Engineers after they Built a “Who Got Laid off” Tracker

BBC and CNBC contributed to this report.

Pinterest has sacked two engineers after they wrote scripts to track which employees were cut in the company’s recent round of layoffs – and then shared the results more widely inside the firm.

The social-pinboard company told the BBC the pair “improperly” accessed confidential internal systems to identify names and locations of dismissed staff. A spokesperson said that violated company policy and “our former colleagues’ privacy.” The engineers’ identities haven’t been made public.

Pinterest’s cuts were announced last week: CEO Bill Ready told staff the company was “doubling down on an AI-forward approach,” and investors were told about a plan that would affect roughly 15% of the workforce – around 700 roles. The company didn’t specify which teams would be hit, and Ready said management wouldn’t broadly publish lists of affected people to protect their privacy.

That didn’t stop some employees from trying to work it out themselves. According to people familiar with the firings, the scripts monitored internal tools – think Slack-like communications and HR systems – and produced alerts when accounts were deactivated. That made it possible to infer who had been let go, and the info was then circulated around the company.

At an all-hands, Ready pushed back hard.

“Healthy debate and dissent are expected – that’s how we make our decisions,” he said, per audio obtained by CNBC.

But he added there’s “a clear line between constructive debate and behavior that’s obstructionist,” and said staff who actively work against the company’s new direction should consider other jobs.

Pinterest’s tech team had built the layoffs-tracking tool to get a clearer picture after managers declined to share granular lists. The company has been shifting resources toward AI and marketing tools, and Ready warned that the company faces a “critical moment” competing with much larger ad platforms and consumer-AI products.

This incident is the latest wrinkle in an ugly tech-industry era. Big names from Amazon to Meta have been cutting staff, and a common way employees learn about layoffs is by seeing who suddenly disappears from internal chat channels – which is exactly the loophole the script exploited.

Pinterest said it values debate but won’t tolerate privacy breaches. The sacking shows how fraught the post-layoff period can be inside companies trying to remake themselves while keeping staff morale intact.

Shares in Pinterest have slid this year as investors worry about slower ad sales and the company’s pivot to AI. For now, the board drew a firm line: curiosity and accountability are fine – automated snooping on former colleagues is not.