SaaS outfit ClickUp promises seven-figure salaries for survivors of 22 percent staff purge

The CEO of SaaS-y productivity tools outfit ClickUp has announced 22 percent of the company's workers will lose their jobs, but promised the savings will allow the company to offer some survivors seven-figure salaries. CEO Zeb Evans made that pledge late last week in a Xeet that opens Today we reduced headcount by 22 percent. The business is the strongest it's ever been" and then tries to explain the dichotomy of those two ideas by adding I did it because the way to operate at the highest level of productivity is changing, and to win the future, ClickUp needs to change with it." What follows may now be familiar to readers who have followed our coverage of layoffs at Cisco, Workday, Cloudflare, and even the government of New Zealand: In 2026, AI is no longer optional, so organizations need to hire people who are good at using it to make themselves and their employers more productive. Evans said the layoffs at ClickUp are not about cutting costs. Most savings from this change will flow directly back into the people who stay. We'll be introducing million-dollar salary bands. If you create outsized impact using AI, you'll be paid outside of traditional band," he wrote. Another reason for the changes is Evans' ambition to restructure ClickUp into what he describes as a 100x org". The goal is 100x output. The roles required to build at the highest level are fundamentally different than they were a year ago," he wrote. Incremental improvements to existing systems won't get us there. We need new ones. That means creating enough disruption to rebuild rather than iterate on what's already broken." And that disruption means hiring 10x people that have embraced and adopted new ways of working." AI makes the best engineers wildly more productive, and everyone else using AI slows these engineers down Evans offered the example of ... great engineers, the ones who can orchestrate, architect, and review, are becoming 100x engineers. They're not writing code. They're directing agents that write code. The skill is judgment." AI makes the best engineers wildly more productive, and everyone else using AI slows these engineers down," he wrote. The CEO also suggested that those who wield AI well will always have a job. They become owners of the AI systems - agent managers." He also thinks that some front-line workers who specialize in customer interaction will be safe. In a world that will become saturated with AI communication, the human touch will matter more than anything to customers," he wrote. This is a bottleneck that you shouldn't replace - even when agents are high enough quality to do video meetings. One-on-one meeting time with customers is something that shouldn't be automated. The systems around the meetings should be - so that front-liners spend nearly 100 percent of their time with customers." Evans also thinks that these skills will remain relevant. You should aim to retain these employees for decades. The context they have and their ability to efficiently orchestrate and review will be nearly impossible to replace," he wrote. Compensation bands of today should be thrown out the door. We're introducing $1 million cash/year salary bands with a path available to nearly everyone in the company if they produce 100x impact by creating or managing AI systems." The future is not fewer people. It's different work and better rewards for those who embrace it The CEO wrapped up his post with a prediction: The future is not fewer people. It's different work, new roles, and better rewards for those who embrace it. We're already seeing entirely new roles emerge, like Agent Managers, that didn't exist a year ago." Evans then declared he has never been more certain about where we're headed." The first comment X shows your correspondent when I viewed the CEO's post opens I'm so fucking glad I'm retired now. This shit is exhausting. Can't wait until you're booed at my granddaughter's graduate ceremony" - a reference to the many recent commencement ceremonies at which graduates jeer when speakers comment on how AI will change the economy, perhaps because entry-level jobs are becoming scarce as AI - presumably wielded by 10x and 100x people - automates away some work. (R)