Google layoffs in 2023 have left everyone in shock throughout the tech industry. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Google’s parent company Alphabet, announced the company’s intention as Google fires 12000 Employees with early investments in AI on 20th January. Concerningly, the layoffs have touched employees across all disciplines, and people with over a decade of experience at Google who have made substantial contributions to the company have also been sacked.
The layoffs at Google are the highest in the company’s history, totaling 6% of the company’s worldwide workers, and come after a decision to defer a portion of employees’ January bonuses to be paid later in the year. Some Google employees from the organizations who were fired resorted to social media to express their displeasure.
Dan Russell, a former employee noted on LinkedIn;
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Many staffs were taken aback by the layoffs. People received an email informing them that they had been let go from the company. Some of them found this after their access to certain websites was restricted and their ID access was denied.
Sundar Pichai wrote in an email addressed to the terminated employers, “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”.
Google layoffs have begun in the United States and will be continued in the upcoming weeks by other regions, possibly including India. Pichai has stated that the layoffs were not arbitrary but instead were predicated on particular performance assessments. In a meeting, he pointed out that the company would have faced much bigger difficulties’ if the decision to lay off 6% of its workforce, or 12,000 employees, had not been made.
What the Future Holds for Tech Employees
After hiring in excess during the pandemic, tech companies throughout the world let off nearly 200,000 employees in 2022 and the first month of 2023. It’s generally speculated that as Google fires 12000 employees with early investments in AI, it is working on its own AI-powered ChatGPT replacement, which will be made official soon.
After laying off employees across all sectors, allegations surfaced that Pichai is planning to take a substantial reduction in pay in light of the challenging macroeconomic environment.
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