Google employees brace up for massive layoffs as CEO hints on staff retrenchment

Recall there have been speculations about the future of thousands of workers in Google’s parent company, Alphabet and its subsidiaries.

When the big tech companies, Meta, Amazon and most recently, Twitter fired over 20,000 of its workers in the space of two months, the news went around that Google may be next but the company had kept information about layoffs under wraps ever since.

Google first gave the hint about laying off some of its staff in July this year when it announced it would slow down recruitment for two weeks in order to review its headcount needs and decide on the future course of action. 

The embargo on recruitment was, however, extended till the end of 2022 and according to Pichai, "it's clear we are facing a challenging macro environment with more uncertainty ahead."

Late last month, Pichai reminded employees of the need to improve productivity due to the fierce global economic downturn. "There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the headcount we have," he was quoted as saying.

The company's Q2, 2022 report (April-June) revealed that Alphabet reported weaker-than-expected earnings as revenue growth slowed from 62 percent reported in the same quarter last year, to 13 percent.

With the tech industry experiencing layoffs and inconsistencies in revenue, Google employees once again, reached out to the CEO to get his reassurance that the layoffs would not be coming any time soon.

According to a report by Business Insider, when inundated with questions from Google employees on their future in the company, CEO Sundar Pichai had replied by saying it was "tough to predict the future."

He further added by saying he cannot make "forward-looking commitments" about the issue thus heightening the fears of the already tensed staff over the looming uncertainty as regards their employment status in the company.