Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sure sounds like he's blaming his 1,500 job cuts on fake work and amateur execs

• European tech firms are, by reputation, less ruthless than their US or Chinese peers.
• Spotify's Daniel Ek blew a hole in that with blunt remarks about cutting jobs and losing his CFO.
• Ek complained Spotify had too many people "doing work around the work."

While Spotify's half a billion users enjoyed their Wrapped playlists this week, the Swedish firm's employees were in for less festive news.

Daniel Ek, the streaming giant's CEO, announced early Monday that around 1,500 of the firm's 9,000 people, or about 17% of the global workforce, would be axed.