- Sundar Pichai added that he cannot make “forward-looking commitments.”
- Last week, a report claimed Google would fire nearly 10,000 employees.
- Twitter, Amazon, and Meta have fired thousands of employees in the last two months.
Google appears to be the next major tech giant to lay off thousands of employees to reduce operating costs in the face of uncertain macroeconomic conditions. Google parent Alphabet was reported to be laying off nearly 10,000 employees in the coming weeks last week. Following an all-hands meeting last week, things at Google have become tense.
According to Business Insider, CEO Sundar Pichai has hinted at layoffs soon and told employees that it’s “tough to predict the future.” He further added that he cannot make “forward-looking commitments” about the same.
This isn’t the first time Google has hinted at a possible layoff, as CEO Pichai wanted employees to be more efficient by the end of this year. He even paused unnecessary hiring, except for key roles. At that point, Pichai tried motivating employees by saying that they should not equate work with money and must have fun. However, Google employees are more worried as the company is reportedly planning to use a new performance tool, dubbed GRAD. The tool is intended to give “employees a more consistent flow of feedback on their performance, but some inside the company say it’s been off to a rocky start”, the report points out.
Following Elon Musk’s formal takeover of Twitter in late October, mass layoffs began in Silicon Valley. He cut half of Twitter’s workforce, which prompted other tech behemoths to follow suit. Amazon and Meta have both laid off over 20,000 employees. Some of the workers are also from India, and they are desperately looking for new jobs in the United States in order to keep their H-1B visa status. Other tech behemoths, such as Adobe and Salesforce, have also reduced their workforce. Companies like Byju’s and Josh are not immune to the country’s deteriorating economy.
