An Open Post to Monzo's Senior Management

Possibly - but based off other threads these redundandicies are already spreading conerns that they are going to go bust.

lol I haven’t got anymore friends left that aren’t on Monzo , I haven’t got any oversight into their finances so my friends might actually be some of the customers costing Monzo :slight_smile:

concerning redundancies as hard as it is for the staff Monzo aren’t doing it for fun , they are doing it to keep their business sustainable and viable to keep their other employees employed

Woah! Big difference between a company being profitable, and an account generating positive revenue.

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But you’ve just taken your money away instead of doing this?

There’s been a couple of people panicing. Lets not judge everyone by a few.

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Err…

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crikey you’re getting some stick in this thread … sorry … it was a sincere original post , and we can agree to disagree as you say

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What Monzo should realise is that “growth and engagement” doesn’t pay the bills and running a bank like you would run a social network (with zero support and very hard to talk to a human, like where we’re currently heading) doesn’t work because of things like laws and regulations.

Monzo needs income more than anything else. Make paid products that people will pay for and use that profit to operate. Don’t burn it all on marketing unless you want to end up with less money, a swarmed customer service team and a lot of new customers that don’t use the product in a profitable way for the company.

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It’s so horrible seeing so many staff on twitter who have contributed so much to Monzo desperately searching for other jobs. :disappointed:

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The underlying problem is the furlough scheme itself. Much better to reduce everyone’s working hours than be forced to lay some off (who have probably been working their butts off!) and keep others furloughed and inactive.

Complete nonsense.

The approach to the self employed makes much more sense - provide a basic income (effectively) and let people work for more and benefit from their labour.

I do not envy monzo for the choices they have to make right now

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The Spectator is owned by two billionaires who live in the Channel Islands, who wrote a cheque that allowed Fraser Nelson to write his ‘oh look at me people of the right’ tweet.

Just for context

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Hi all

Thanks for all your opinions, kind thoughts and your clear passion for Monzo!

I can’t speak too openly and can’t explain every detail (not least because I personally don’t know every detail) but I can offer a few obvious thoughts:

  • Everyone is open to their own opinion and I completely understand some of the points in the original post.

  • No one at Monzo or the community is happy about this. For me, at the end of the day I trust in our management team and trust that they are making the right decisions for Monzo in the long term.

  • If we could tell the future then the world would be a lot easier place. If we had known one year ago that there would be one of the (potentially) worst recessions ever just around the corner, would Monzo have made all the same decisions we did a year ago - probably not. The same is true for almost every other company in the country.

  • There was some conversation on customer unit economics above. It goes without saying that customer unit economics looks different in the current economic climate.

  • A last point on predicting the future. There will be a future where things improve but ultimately we don’t know what is going to happen! There is a lot of uncertainty and all companies need to take this into consideration.

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Genuine question to the OP: Have you lived through a recession, as an adult?

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When there are tweets from the people who made Monzo what it is today saying they might be made redundant, it’s so shocking and saddening

Sending love to everyone affected

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Yes, we have to realise there are actual people impacted by this. I feel for them.

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You’re right on with that. But let’s set aside the issue of cutting jobs for a moment, because there are other factors influencing their decision. If you don’t like what a company is doing, or the direction a company is heading in, the only voice you really have as a customer is to vote with your money by taking your business elsewhere. Not that there are many better options from an ethical standpoint at this point, perhaps except for Starling? (traditional banks have baggage, revolut behave too much like Uber, and I’m sure Metro found itself with problems a while back).

In terms of companies doing right by their customers and employees during difficult periods, Nintendo really sets the standard, and I will applaud any company the follows in their footsteps. In order to not have to fire or lower the wages of a single employee, Satoru Iwata made substantial salary cuts to both himself and his executive team throughout the company. This is something Monzo also did, and when it comes to banks, you can’t get more ethical than that. It’s just a real shame those cuts at the top were not enough to save the jobs of all their employees.

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For what it’s worth Monzo’s furloughed staff returned to work on 1st June. Not sure if this applies to non-COps or everyone.

Afaik COps are still furloughed

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This is tough
If I remember correctly So far Monzo only have a few visible revenue streams investment from customers savings, lending and transaction profit
Not only now the second source is severely shrinking
On top of that many monzo customers are now either reduced income into their account or have none at all.
On the transaction end, the trend we see when a country come out of lockdown is not revenge style of consumption but more aggressively cutting cost
What do I think how can one helps?
Well for one as long as monzo is standing it will be mine primary account and I will continue promoting it to my friends and family. Because it is the future of the bank
Secondly, monzo needs to seriously reconsider its goal. Not just being an traditional bank with a new tech but REALLY REAALY embrace its original ideal of building a open financial market be like it Appstore of the financial sector
Because coming out of covid the world will WANT a true Banking as a service platform

Maybe I’m naive but why are Monzo struggling to retain staff? I know Covid is affecting many businesses and it’s understandable why they might need to make cuts but Monzo doesn’t have store fronts and is still able to offer their banking services

They make money everyone you use your card and more money when you use it in America. People aren’t out and using their cards as much and people aren’t travelling abroad. So less money coming in.

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