As behemoth tech companies around the world continue to lay off thousands of workers due to economic instability and concerns over recession in the current economy, Google is the latest company to say goodbye to 12,000 workers from its workforce.
CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet, Sundar Pichai shared an email to the company’s staff on Friday informing workers that the company will commence immediate layoffs in the U.S, “we’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected” said the CEO.
In the statement, Pichai said that the layoff process in other countries “will take longer due to local laws and practices.” A report by CNBC in November showed that Google employees had feared being let go after seeing changes to the company’s performance rating system.
Support for those affected
The statement also revealed that US-based employees will get 16 weeks of severance pay plus two weeks for each additional year they’ve worked at the company. Pichai also stated, “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.”
US workers who were let go will also get “6 months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support for those affected. Affected employees outside the US will be supported “in line with local practices.”
The company’s shares closed up nearly 5% after the news of its lay-offs. While the specific reason for the layoffs isn’t known (as it is for many other companies) Pichai said that “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.”
“As an almost 25-year-old company, we’re bound to go through difficult economic cycles. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer 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,” said Pichai.
In other layoff news, Bill Gates’ Microsoft recently announced its plans to cut 10,000 jobs, with Amazon commencing a fresh wave of job cuts that will affect nearly 20,000 workers.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
