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Klarna may be celebrating its IPO and $15 billion valuation, but employees seem focused on another matter: return-to-office plans.
Klarna informed employees last week that it’s set to roll out a return-to-office policy later this month, citing the need to retain top talent that might otherwise leave for companies prioritizing in-person work, as Business Insider exclusively reported.
Staff have reacted to the announcement with a wide range of emoji responses, according to a Slack post shared in a channel with roughly 3,000 workers and seen by Business Insider. Comments on the post were disabled, so employees expressed their reactions solely through emojis, which appear to signal strong disapproval of the plans.
The responses were varied and, at times, humorous: 341 employees reacted with a sad face emoji, 167 used an emoji reading “no,” 149 chose a sweat-faced sad emoji. Additional responses included 41 “this sucks” emojis, and 43 using an emoji based on the viral “Hide the Pain Harold” meme.
A small proportion appeared to signal approval of the plans, including 19 thumbs-up emojis and 14 rocket ship emojis.
Other popular reactions included 131 sad cat emojis, 90 facepalm emojis, 86 crying emojis, and 73 clown face emojis. Some employees went for more whimsical options: 62 selected the “Homer Simpson backing into a bush” emoji, and 17 used a child going down a slide saying “bye” emoji.
Klarna declined to comment.
Other tech companies, including Amazon, Dell, and Meta, have implemented RTO policies in recent years.
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All eyes on Klarna IPO
The Swedish fintech said on Tuesday that it set its IPO price at $40 a share as it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket, said the IPO’s pricing is a “tremendous” result for Klarna and its shareholders. He said that all eyes would be on Klarna once trading begins, given the early volatility around recent IPOs. Investors, he said, will closely scrutinize the company’s financials, particularly in light of recent losses.
Klarna has seen double-digit growth in its users and gross merchandise value, but achieving profitability continues to be a challenge. Losses for the quarter ended June 30 surged to $52 million, up from $7 million a year earlier, even as revenue climbed to $823 million from $682 million.
“That scrutiny and Klarna’s answers on its evolution and growth could be the determiner of IPO success, as it’s hard to draw too much of a parallel between broader fintech listings,” Kerr said.
In an F-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, Klarna disclosed that it has partnered with and paid over $16 million to climate impact nonprofits founded by the wife of its CEO over the past five years.
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