More and more tech companies are making the difficult decision of laying off employees amid economic uncertainty and fears of a recession, and it appears that Google isn’t an exception. According to a letter that Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent to staff today, Google will be laying off as many as 12,000 people, cut across Alphabet, Google’s holding company. Pichai said that he was “deeply sorry” for what is happening and is taking full responsibility for the decisions that led Google here.
The full letter from Pichai, via Google’s blog, The Keyword:
Googlers,
I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices.
This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.
Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.
I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI. To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, we’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.
To the Googlers who are leaving us: Thank you for working so hard to help people and businesses everywhere. Your contributions have been invaluable and we are grateful for them.
While this transition won’t be easy, we’re going to support employees as they look for their next opportunity.
In the US:
- We’ll pay employees during the full notification period (minimum 60 days).
- We’ll also offer a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google, and accelerate at least 16 weeks of GSU vesting.
- We’ll pay 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time.
- We’ll be offering 6 months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support for those affected.
- Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices.
As an almost 25-year-old company, we’re bound to go through difficult economic cycles. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.
Being constrained in some areas allows us to bet big on others. Pivoting the company to be AI-first years ago led to groundbreaking advances across our businesses and the whole industry.
Thanks to those early investments, Google’s products are better than ever. And we’re getting ready to share some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses, too. We have a substantial opportunity in front of us with AI across our products and are prepared to approach it boldly and responsibly.
All this work is a continuation of the “healthy disregard for the impossible” that’s been core to our culture from the beginning. When I look around Google today, I see that same spirit and energy driving our efforts. That’s why I remain optimistic about our ability to deliver on our mission, even on our toughest days. Today is certainly one of them.
I’m sure you have many questions about how we’ll move forward. We’ll be organizing a town hall on Monday. Check your calendar for details. Until then, please take good care of yourselves as you absorb this difficult news. As part of that, if you are just starting your work day, please feel free to work from home today.
-Sundar
Microsoft announced something similar this week, with Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella telling employees that Microsoft was planning to lay off 10,000 employees by FY23 Q3. Amazon has also begun its round of layoffs, which is said to total 18,000 workers.
Discussion (13 replies)
Join Discussion →Makes it seem like they know something we don't and are preparing to hunker down. One tech company announcing big layoffs, nothing to see here, two, might be coincidence, but five or six? There is something going on and we are out of the loop.
I'm afraid you may be right.
I expect walmart, target, att, banks, McDonald's and any big company.to do the same. Its now part of the fed's plan to control inflation ( increase unemployment). They don't know anything, they think they are doing something... But they arent doing what they think they are in my opinion... This is going to mega backfire. Come summer gas will be back on its way to 6 dollars, and no more pumping oil reseves. Inflation will soar again anyway. Typically poor countries suffer inflation, we are intentionally making ourselves poorer to see if that tames inflation, it won't. We will be poorer and with more inflation is what will happen.
Yeah something doesn't smell right. I also feel the tremors of big tech collusion, they know something we don't for sure.
Big tech is more than just Google, Microsoft and Facebook, and you don't see IBM, Oracle, and other, similar tech in the fortune 100 laying off 1000s.
In any case, for the companies that are laying off, there are 2 similar factors:
1 is advertising is down. Google and Facebook are highly revenue dependent on ads, and the double whammy for facebook is apple locking them out of a revenue stream.
2. The great migration to work from that occurred in 2020 and 2021 doesn't seem to be lasting. I can't really explain why that is, because work from home is by the superior way to handle things, but companies that staffed up to support business lines that support WFH are finding they made a bad bet.
Because those other industry giants have a work force with a much higher ratio of contractors. They can be terminated in mass or even have their pay scale lowered in mass with minimal news reporting it because it isn't required to be dumped to the stock market data stream.
It's definetly not just ms google and meta, I remember reading about amazon who are not reliant on advertising, and a few others I don't remember the names now.
Everyone over hired for the market because it was this sustained level of effort required and consumption was through the roof for all services. 1-6 months ok... but once it became clear this was going to last years they had to hire to alleviate the load on the workforce. Now that things are settling back down they look at their staff and trim back down.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/intels-horrible-quarter-inventory-glut-and-underused-factories.html[/URL]
I guess Intel will be next. Bye bye graphics division I would bet.
I read they are closing down the networking division, so probably that will be gutted first.
I just read that Hasbro is also planning to get rid of 1000 people.
We're down about 50% per page view compared to January of 2022.
Wow that blows. You guys should advertise your patreon option more! :) If you want I'd gladly add it to my signatures.