The writing may have been on the wall ahead of Salesforce’s massive round of layoffs today, which will likely see over 7,000 Salesforce employees terminated this month.

From the recent abrupt resignation of co-CEO Bret Taylor and the sluggish sales results during Salesforce’s most recent quarterly earnings, to recent statements made by new investor Starboard Value, there were many signs pointing to a potential large employee layoffs in 2023 for the San Francisco-based software giant.

“The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions,” said Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff in a letter to employees today. “With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10 percent, mostly over the coming weeks.”

“Within the next hour, employees who are initially affected by this decision will receive an email letting them know,” Benioff said.

[Related: Salesforce To Lay Off 7,000 Employees: ‘Hired Too Many People’]

Salesforce Layoffs

Salesforce announced today that it will reduce its workforce by 10 percent over the coming weeks.

The CRM specialist had over 73,500 employees as of January 2022, meaning that more than 7,000 employees will be fired.

In addition, Salesforce also plans to close several offices.

Salesforce said the overall goal of employee layoffs and office closures is to reduce operating costs, improve operating margins and continue advancing the commitment to profitable growth.

“I’m grateful for every single one of you who has contributed to our continued success as a company, and the hard work and sacrifices you have made to generate success for our hundreds of thousands of customers,” said Salesforce co-CEO Benioff. “You’ve built our company—for all of our stakeholders — and you’ve shown incredible resilience every step of the way.”

CRN breaks down the five signs leading up to today’s massive employee layoffs at Salesforce that foreshadowed the more than 7,000 terminations.