Picture of Duck Accidentally Sent to Stripe Jobs Removed

Stripe laid off approximately 300 people this week, and the company that provides digital payment processing appears to have made a royal gaffe in implementing the firings. Business Insider reports that employees affected by the layoffs received a PDF image of a duck in their emails, as well as an incorrect termination date.

A Stripe spokesperson confirmed the flub to Business Insider and said a follow-up email corrected the error. Stripe says it plans to increase the number of people this year to 10,000.

On Blind, a discussion board where tech industry employees can talk anonymously, Stripe staff joked about having to quickly create a custom duck emoji in the company’s Slack.

The tech industry has gone through unprecedented layoffs in recent years after nearly two decades of growth, and mass firings—necessitated by overhiring during the pandemic -not always implemented smoothly. A common occurrence is employees waking up to find their work devices never turn on, or they arrive at the office and try to badge in, to see their the access key does not work. Misinformation sometimes given to the affected employeesor dismissal emails are sent to work accounts such that employees are cut off from accessing them.

The CEO of Better.com received intense heat and took a leave of absence after him 900 people were fired from Zooma call in which he accused the affected employees of “stealing” by not working enough. The CEO of PagerDuty quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in his email lay off staff.

Overall, power has shifted from tech workers to employers since a series of mass layoffs began in late 2022. Employees will no longer be able to protest their companies’ signatures. on Pentagon contracts, or fight for DEI and other initiatives. For all but the best, the tech job market is tight, and management’s disregard for employee concerns is palpable.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison took great heat in late 2024 because of a post he shared with X he ran in Tel Aviv, writing that it was “good to be back.” Ireland, where Collison is from and Stripe maintains offices, has become a vocal critic of Israel throughout its war in Gaza.

As one of the leaders in facilitating online payments, his company remains strong. Stripe recently got a valuation reported over $70 billion.