Research in Motion employees say things are tense at the company's headquarters in Waterloo, after news that job cuts are expected at the Blackberry-maker.

RIM employee Jasson Cassidy says "There wasn't a lot of notice from the company ahead of time so a lot of employees found out through the media that sometimes builds a little mistrust."

There are no details on how many job losses are expected or when and where they will be implemented. The last time RIM cut jobs was 11 years ago when 220 jobs were lost, but recently it has been hiring about a thousand people per year.

There are 9,000 employees at 25 locations in Kitchener and Waterloo, that's about half of RIM's worldwide workforce.

Cassidy says "Yeah there's a lot of frustration, there's still some optimism though too. The company's been a stalwart in the community for quite awhile though."

During a conference call with RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the latter said "The reduction of our headcount is an incredibly difficult decision and Mike and I appreciate the impact of this on our employees, their families and the community."

But he rejected suggestions that the shared CEO structure is part of RIM's problems.

Meanwhile shares of Research in Motion took a beating on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday, as investors react to growing uncertainty about the company's future.

Analysts are unsure if RIM can retool its product lineup to deal with the intense competition in the market.

On Thursday, the company announced a first quarter profit of US$695 million, which is down from US$769 million the previous year.

It met analyst expectations, but only after RIM previously lowered financial guidance for the quarter. Slow sales of Blackberry phones and the Playbook are being blamed.

But RIM says it shipped 13.2 million Blackberrys and 0.5 million Playbooks in the last quarter, not far from analyst expectations.

RIM has announced its plans to cut the jobs even as it prepares to introduce a new generation of products.

Smartphones with an upgraded operating system are expected in late August and September, while more powerful Blackberrys are coming in 2012.

With files from The Canadian Press.