Patreon is laying off 17 percent of its employees

, a platform that helps creators generate more revenue from their work, has laid off 80 employees, or about 17 percent of its total staff, amid a global economic slowdown and recession fears. The company is closing its Berlin office, which housed sales and marketing staff. Patreon centralizes these operations in the US. A Dublin office is also closing, and Patreon will offer nine engineers there the option to move to the US to centralize resources. An office in Porto, Portugal will remain open to provide support to creators and users in Europe.

The cuts have affected four teams – Go-to-Market, Operations, Finance and People – CEO Jack Conte . Patreon will offer affected workers at least three months of severance, and those in the US will receive COBRA health coverage through the end of the year. The company will also offer resources to help them find new jobs and waive a one-year vesting scale for outstanding stock options.

Last week, Patreon let go of five members of its security team for various reasons. Conte said this “is part of a longer-term strategy to continue to distribute security responsibilities across our engineering team, bring new areas of expertise to Patreon internally, and continue to partner with external experts.” However, he noted that the company is increasing its investment in security.

Conte wrote that the layoffs are part of a restructuring that will see Patreon focus more resources on its product, engineering and design departments. However, the company is reducing staffing and the size of its operations.

“I’m more confident than ever that the world needs a better economic system for creative people, and Patreon will continue to build that system for creators for decades to come,” Conte said. “However, the pandemic has introduced volatility into the broader trend, starting with a rapid acceleration during the COVID lockdown, this plan is no longer the right way forward for Patreon.”

It’s just the latest in a long line of recent layoffs at big-name tech companies. , , , , , , , and others have cut staff or hit the brakes on recruiting in recent months.