Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is surprised by the extent to which the massive layoffs have negatively affected the company’s daily operations. This was reported by Fortune.

At the beginning of December 2023, Daniel Eck announced large-scale layoffs, which included 17% of the staff, or about 1500 employees.

At the time, he said that this was a necessary step to bring Spotify “in line with our future goals and ensure that we are the right size company to meet the challenges ahead.”

However, in his latest report to investors, Eck noted that although he believes the decision was correct, the layoffs had a much greater impact on the company’s daily operations than expected.

“Another major challenge was the impact of the December workforce reduction. While it was undoubtedly the right strategic decision, it disrupted our day-to-day operations more than we expected. It took us some time to find our footing, but after more than four months of this transition, I believe we are back on track. I expect that throughout the year we will continue to improve our work to get to an even better level than we have ever been,” said Ek.

Earlier, the company reported a record quarterly profit of $179 million for the first three months of 2024, with double-digit revenue growth to $3.8 billion. Nevertheless, Spotify failed to meet its targets for profitability and monthly active user growth.