Google joined the Big Tech crisis. Following the cuts announced by Meta, Twitter, Amazon and Microsoft, the technology giant's parent company, Alphabet Inc. announced that it will lay off a total of 12,000 jobs worldwide, cutting 6% of its global workforce.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the news. He did so in a memo he sent to Google employees informing them of the impending layoffs:
This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people that we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I am deeply sorry. The fact that these changes will affect the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me and I take full responsibility for the decisions that have brought us this far.
In the statement, and as did the other companies, it admits that Google hired too quickly due to the high growth of its economy during the pandemic:
In the last two years we have experienced periods of spectacular growth. To match and drive that growth, we hired for an economic reality different from the current one.
Google will help affected workers
He also assured that the layoffs are being made after the technology company conducted a "rigorous review" of its operations. For that reason, Pichai reported in statements reported by
AP
the job cuts"span across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions".
The company, which at the end of 2022 claimed to have nearly 187,00 people, will try to ease the transition for people who lose their jobs.
For that reason, Pichai said in his statement, the company will take a number of steps to ease the transition for workers who lose their jobs. Thus, U.S. employees will receive their salary for the entire notice period (a minimum of 60 days) and will be offered severance pay starting at 16 weeks' salary plus two weeks for each additional year at Google.
On the other hand, those who were laid off from their jobs at sites outside the United States will be supported by the company"in accordance with local practices".
