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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →On May 4, 2023, Shopify announced it would cut 20% of its global workforce and sell its in-house logistics operation. TechCrunch writer Darrell Etherington criticized the way CEO Tobi Lütke explained the decision: by describing company priorities as “main quests” and “side quests,” he argued, the message risked making people whose work was being cut feel like non-player characters—NPCs—in someone else’s story. That was Etherington’s analogy, not a quote from employees or Shopify.
What happened in Shopify’s May 2023 layoffs
Shopify’s May 2023 announcement combined a large workforce reduction with the divestment of its in-house logistics operation. TechCrunch reported that the cuts covered 20% of the company’s global workforce. The announcement came after Shopify had invested for years in logistics, making the sale especially relevant to Etherington’s criticism: this was not simply a case of work that had always sat outside the company’s ambitions. Leadership had pursued the effort it was now ending. TechCrunch’s May 4, 2023 report is the source for the announcement and its interpretation.
Why the “NPC” framing drew criticism
Lütke’s message used video-game language to describe work as “main” or “side” quests and connected a shift in priorities to the “dawn of the AI era.” Etherington argued that the metaphor could diminish people whose work was labeled secondary: in a game, an NPC helps populate the world but is not the player exercising agency. His headline’s comparison describes how he thought the message could land; it should not be read as a reported employee quotation or a finding about how all affected staff felt.
The contrast was particularly sharp because Shopify’s logistics operation had been a strategic bet, not an accidental detour. Etherington also noted that the company had used game-related language before, including calling executive assistants “expansion packs.” Familiarity with a metaphor inside a company does not ensure it will feel humane when leaders use it to explain job losses.
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How the 2023 cuts compare with Shopify’s 2022 reduction
The May 2023 layoffs followed an earlier workforce reduction. Shopify’s own July 26, 2022 announcement said about 10% of staff would leave. Lütke said the company had expanded on the assumption that pandemic-era ecommerce growth would permanently accelerate by five or ten years, then acknowledged the bet had failed: “Ultimately, placing this bet was my call to make and I got this wrong.” The 2022 explanation and support terms are documented in Shopify’s July 2022 post.
| Episode | Reported scale and rationale | Communication and reported support |
|---|---|---|
| July 2022 | Shopify said about 10% of staff would leave after its pandemic-era ecommerce growth assumption proved wrong. | The company published Lütke’s explanation. Its memo described 16 weeks of severance plus one additional week per year of tenure, removal of equity cliffs, extended medical benefits, outplacement services, a laptop kickstart allowance, and continued internet payments for a period. |
| May 2023 | TechCrunch reported cuts covering 20% of Shopify’s global workforce, alongside the sale of the in-house logistics operation. | TechCrunch reported 16 weeks of severance, medical benefits, supplemental compensation, and assistance financing a replacement laptop. Etherington criticized the message’s framing while acknowledging the reported support. |
The support terms belong to their respective episodes: the 2022 memo’s detailed package should not be assumed to apply in full to the 2023 layoffs. The difference between the stated rationales also matters. In 2022 Shopify explained a mistaken growth forecast; in 2023 Etherington focused on the language used to distinguish work that leadership considered central from work it was leaving behind.
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What later reporting says—and what it does not establish
The 2023 article’s word “latest” referred to its publication date, not to Shopify’s layoff history as of today. In December 2025, The Logic reported recurring smaller reductions and described morale concerns based on accounts from 13 people with knowledge of the cuts. Shopify confirmed that a November 19, 2025 reduction affected a “fraction of a percent” of staff. Company spokesperson Ben McConaghy characterized the move as removing layers that created complexity without adding merchant value. Lütke was quoted as saying teams must demonstrate why they cannot get work done using AI before requesting more employees or resources. The Logic’s December 2025 report also recounted source accounts of colleagues disappearing from Slack and uncertainty about job security; one anonymous source said, “There’s really no job security.” These are attributed accounts, not a representative survey or a measured company-wide morale statistic.
In February 2026, The Logic reported that it had verified at least 53 people in Shopify’s partnerships division whose roles were eliminated in late January. The outlet said unnamed sources estimated a higher total, potentially close to 100, but the verifiable minimum is the more defensible figure. Its report also described uncertainty among partners about Shopify’s future approach. The Logic’s February 2026 report establishes that further cuts were reported after 2023; it does not establish Shopify’s full layoff record after that date.
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What the episode shows about layoffs and workplace communication
The evidence supports a distinction between the substance of Shopify’s decisions and the way leaders communicated them. The 2023 reporting described severance and transition assistance, but those provisions did not resolve Etherington’s objection to the “main quest” and “side quest” framing. When an organization treats a strategic priority as disposable, language that casts the affected work as peripheral can make the decision sound less like a leadership reversal and more like a judgment on the people doing it.
For readers following Shopify as a company, the chronology is also important: the 2023 cuts were preceded by the 2022 reduction and followed by smaller reported cuts in late 2025 and January 2026. The available reporting identifies different stated rationales and different kinds of evidence—company explanations, a reporter’s criticism, and later accounts from named or anonymous sources. It does not justify turning those accounts into a universal claim about employee morale.
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