Layoff at Merit America (described as "massive" on LinkedIn but size not confirmed) - non profit tech bootcamp (focusing on UX/IT/Cyber)
A number of people have been posting about being laid off from Merit America today on LinkedIn. Sources confirm the layoff, but no official notice on the size or impact yet.
I'll edit as news develops.
Current thoughts:
1. Turing School (which is shutting down) was handing off some students to Merit America. While MA is intact and operating fine, just at a smaller scale, this is still just concerning about the industry in general :(
2. Merit America is a non-profit with a social good mission and hopefully the layoffs are enough to keep them going. Given all of the DEI cutbacks at their big tech partners, I'm not extremely optimistic, but let's give them a chance.
If you know more, let me know!
u/jhkoenig wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Thanks for the note, Michael, I didn't see it on LI!
u/michaelnovatireplied·
I would recommend this exact search with sorting and such as specified: [https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?keywords=%22merit%20america%22&origin=GLOBAL\_SEARCH\_HEADER&sid=zHY&sortBy=%22date\_posted%22](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?keywords=%22merit%20america%22&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER&sid=zHY&sortBy=%22date_posted%22)
u/jcasimir wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I can’t comment on MA’s internal business, but will say that it doesn’t have any negative effects on Turing students.
Merit America are some good folks trying to do good work training people for jobs. I really hope these moves allow them to set up for long-term success.
Also
u/michaelnovatireplied·
I'm not agreeing or disagree with 2025 outlook, but I really think the DEI stuff at the federal level is impacting the vibes.
Big money doesn't want to be see funneling funds to organizations promoting DEI both for legal reasons and for political ones.
It's crazy how DEI went from being something that you felt guilty NOT saying, to something you feel guilty SAYING lol
u/jcasimir wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I’ll never feel guilty in talking about justice — including DEI.
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Tell that to all the people that lost their jobs because they want to work DEI and their departments were cut and they don't have a job anymore and they have a hard time finding a similar job.
u/Ok_Ideal8217 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Glassdoor employee reviews are becoming brutal. Consistently brutal
u/michaelnovatireplied·
I think it's common after layoffs for people to give negative Glassdoor reviews. It's one of the reasons historically big tech has been quiet about layoffs and now since layoffs seem to boost the stock price, they are more public about even the smallest layoffs. Framing performance firing as a layoff and giving a comfortable severance package is the new norm to protect against negative blowback.
I would agree that those reviews are fairly negative given people have to have some kind of non disparagement clause in this situation and people risk that because they are SO upset.