I worked at Klarna between 2011-2013 as a software engineer and later as a team manager. I was laid off in a very similar fashion at the same time a bunch of others also got the same surprising news.
When it happened to us there was no announcement from the CEO. Sebastian had actually just gone on parental leave and one of the co-founders, Niklas Adalberth had taken the reigns.
At the time, my suspicion was that it was because Niklas Adalberth was getting rid of people he didn’t like and that the main reason my firing in the way it was done.
I was invited to an external meeting room at 17:00 in the Stockholm office with my boss and my boss’s boss, where they proceeded to tell me “we think we need someone else in your position”.
My boss looked helpless and sat quietly the whole time. My boss’s boss did all the talking and seemed just like someone following orders.
Reading this now it’s sad to see how nothing has changed at Klarna and makes me think that even if Niklas did had something to do with my firing that it couldn’t have happened without Sebastian’s knowledge and approval.
My experience of Sebastian was that he was a talented product guy, but unfortunately seems to leave a lot to be desired as CEO.
When it happened to us there was no announcement from the CEO. Sebastian had actually just gone on parental leave and one of the co-founders, Niklas Adalberth had taken the reigns.
At the time, my suspicion was that it was because Niklas Adalberth was getting rid of people he didn’t like and that the main reason my firing in the way it was done.
I was invited to an external meeting room at 17:00 in the Stockholm office with my boss and my boss’s boss, where they proceeded to tell me “we think we need someone else in your position”.
My boss looked helpless and sat quietly the whole time. My boss’s boss did all the talking and seemed just like someone following orders.
Reading this now it’s sad to see how nothing has changed at Klarna and makes me think that even if Niklas did had something to do with my firing that it couldn’t have happened without Sebastian’s knowledge and approval.
My experience of Sebastian was that he was a talented product guy, but unfortunately seems to leave a lot to be desired as CEO.