An eight-months pregnant Google employee said her hand continued to shake after discovering she had lost her job following mass layoffs announced at Google on Friday. Katherine Wong said she has been working as a program manager at Google since November 2021 and she will go on maternity leave this week.
A Google engineer who was fired after more than 16.5 years at the company said in a LinkedIn post that the tech giant considers its staff 100% disposable. Justin Moore, Google’s chief engineering officer, was also one of 12,000 people affected by Google’s layoffs last week. Moore wrote that he found out he was fired via an automatic account deactivation at 3:00am
You specify that you have not received any other information or communications regarding your dismissal. And even though she had received an email, she couldn’t access it due to the deactivation. It also makes clear that work is not your life, and employers, especially big, faceless ones like Google, see you as 100 percent disposable,” Moore said.
Job cut figures fell in a recent company briefing to the public: 12,000 jobs or 6% of the total number of employees. The reason: The company is adapting to investments during the coronavirus pandemic. Sundar Pichai had made the decision to increase them significantly given the company’s revenue growth. The reversal suggests that the Google CEO admits he was wrong in his prediction that the trend continued after the end of the pandemic.
In the last two years we have experienced periods of spectacular growth. To accompany and fuel this growth, we have assumed an economic reality different from the one we know today,” writes Pichai.
We will pay employees for the entire notice period (minimum 60 days). We will also provide a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary, plus two weeks for each additional year spent at Google, and expedite the provision of at least 4 months of health coverage. We will pay the bonuses for the year 2022. We will offer 6 months of health care, job placement and immigration assistance to those concerned, says the CEO about the treatment of employees in the United States. Workers from other parts of the world will be accommodated according to local laws and practices.
Google is following in the footsteps of other major tech companies. The tech sector has seen a severe downturn in recent months, following a successful spike as the world closed in on itself during the pandemic. The slowdown in the global economy, rising interest rates and regulatory battles have caused tech companies, including Alphabet and Amazon, to slow or stop hiring. As of the end of August 2022, Snap has laid off 1,300 people and reduced its investments. In early November 2022, Twitter laid off half of its workforce following Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the company.
Microsoft laid off about 1,000 employees across multiple divisions in October last year and then proceeded to lay off 10,000 people, or 5% of its global workforce. The team behind AltSpaceVR and the Mixed Reality Tool Kit team have been shut down completely. AltSpaceVR used to be a leading social VR platform, with the company acquired by Microsoft in 2017, but is now expected to shut down in March and appears to be burying Microsoft’s metaverse ambitions. Microsoft Mesh will apparently take its place, but how committed the company is to the metaverse concept remains to be seen. Either way, these layoffs cast grave doubt on the future of HoloLens, which is currently struggling to maintain its military contract with the US government.
8 months pregnant employee fired after positive performance review
Program manager Katherine Wong noted in a detailed LinkedIn post that she was also fired after a positive performance review. Below is an excerpt from her post on linkedIn
#GoogleLayoff when I’m 8 months pregnant and only a week away from my maternity leave
It has been wonderful to hear that I am close to a week away from seeing my baby after completing all relocation paperwork before taking leave as program manager. However, the moment I checked my phone, my heart sank. I am one of 12,000 people affected.
The first thought that came to my mind was Why me? What time ? . It was difficult to process and digest, especially the news that came after a positive performance review. As a PgM, my first instinct was to make a plan, but it’s clearly one of the hardest projects I’ve ever handled because the timing is so bad. It’s nearly impossible for me to look for a job when I’m 34 weeks pregnant and about to go on maternity leave for months.
Messages and calls poured in all day. People care about my baby and my well-being. I didn’t let my negative emotions get the best of me because I had a little inside to take care of, but I couldn’t control my shaking hands. It’s such an easing feeling. I love #Google and especially my team, #GoogleDomains because I feel like we are family. I am grateful that my team still supports me today. I am proud to work in a team that feels like a start-up and is one of the few to generate positive business growth in these challenging times.
I want to be able to be open to work. But the reality is, I need to focus on the latter part of my pregnancy journey and making sure my baby comes into the world safely. I know everything will be fine and I will do my best to make it happen. Thanks for all the support and checking in. I continue to appreciate the opportunities and growth I’ve had during my time at Google. I hope our paths cross again with the people of Domains*!
Always open to conversation about work and eager for opportunities.
#tech layoffs #layoffs2023 #layoffs
100% disposable staff, says Justin Moore, hit by layoffs at Google
So, after more than 16 1/2 years at Google, it appears I was fired via automatic account deactivation at 3am this morning as one of the lucky 12,000. I have no further information, as I have not received any of the communication other than the standard “you have been let go” website. [ndlr. vous avez t libr] (which I can’t access now) it told me that I have received.
It’s been a (largely) wonderful 16 years and I’m really proud of the work my team and I have done over the years. I got to work with some amazing people and really help many of our users around the world with civics and elections. I was incredibly lucky.
It also hints that work is not your life and that employers, especially big, faceless ones like Google, consider you 100% disposable. Live life, don’t work.
One of my father’s favorite quotes for moments like this was from The Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton:
I’ll lay down and bleed for a while,
And then I’ll get up and fight again.
Job cuts affecting everyone
On Friday, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, sent an email to staff saying Google was laying off about 12,000 employees, or about 6% of its global workforce. Pichai said he took full responsibility for the decisions that brought us here.
He added that people have been fired across all Alphabet teams, regardless of product areas, functions, levels and regions.
The layoffs have hit workers across the company, including some on seven-figure salaries, those with positive performance reviews and some in management positions, reported The Information.
Google officials told media that some of those who lost their jobs were making between $500,000 and $1 million a year.
Sources: post by Katherine Wong, post by Justin Moore
And she ?
What do you think ?
See also:
Mark Zuckerberg has hinted that Meta may be developing an operating system for its metaverse and expects the metaverse to generate hundreds of billions of revenue by 2030
Microsoft reportedly laid off employees as part of structural adjustment, new hires are expected
Microsoft partners with Meta to bring Teams, Office, Windows and Xbox to virtual reality. A surprising partnership as the companies were competing in the field of the metaverse
With Mesh for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft would like to make collaboration in the metaverse fun. The company wants to bring 3D workspaces to remote workers in 2022
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