Layoffs at Laika

I worked from home today, so I was more plugged in than I generally am, and I recently joined Facebook. So at 11:30 I saw a Twitter from a Laika employee that they had been laid off, and a little while later I saw another on Facebook, and then another, and then I got a text message... 65 people total, the news said later.

On the one hand, it is par for the course for the business. Most big studios go through rounds of layoffs periodically and then ramp up again, and people know that's how it goes. I do feel bad for those people who hoped to get in on the ground floor of a new studio, and help to shape it, share in it, who committed themselves to Laika and to Portland. And I'm sad that so many of them will leave, and our community will lose those wonderful creative experienced brains. And I'm annoyed that there are job postings on the Laika website right now.

As I've said in the past, while I didn't enjoy my job while I worked there, I really liked and respected the team they had put together. I was genuinely happy to see those people every day, and am proud to call them my friends. A lot of them have already dispersed around the globe, and now more of them will. I sincerely hope to see them again- that as my career progresses and moves forward, as I go to conferences or festivals, that I'll see those smiling faces and know that they are doing well and pursuing happiness.