Jobbird, a Dutch job board, declared bankruptcy last week with the group’s founder seemingly failing to inform its employees.

According to Sprout.nl, Jobbird founder Jan-Peter Cruiming filed for bankruptcy behind the scenes and did not notify employees.

Staff at Jobbird were given notice of dismissal last week by an unexpected visit from a curator who told them of the company’s bankruptcy.

Matthijs Jorissen, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Jobbird, stated that he has received two weeks from the bankruptcy trustee in which to make arrangements with an investor or a strategic buyer. Staff at Jobbird will continue to work during this time.

Jobbird is part of Montana Holding which includes other important Dutch job board investments controlled by Jan-Peter Cruiming such as Studenten.nl and Nationale Vacaturebank.nl, as well as as staffing and executive search firm Hunter Select,

According to Business Insider, with 270,167 vacancies in the first half of 2018, Jobbird could call itself the largest job site in the Netherlands. However, Jorissen said the company was never actually profitable due to high costs and low margins.

In a statement to Sprout.nl, Cruiming, who set up Jobbird in 2012, said, “"We have been working hard on Jobbird for 7 years, but we are not making it profitable. Time and again new technical problems spoil everything. That is why we stop it.”