Google Layoffs: Alphabet Reported To Lay Off 10,000 Employees
Alphabet, Google’s parent company is reported to fire 10,000 employees. Read on for more details.
Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. has joined the layoff craze as the pressure for shrinking the workforce continues to be a source of concern for almost all Silicon Valley organisations including Twitter, Amazon, and Meta. According to reports, approximately 10,000 low-performing employees, or 6% of Alphabet's staff, would apparently be laid off.
According to media sources, the company will implement a ranking system to carry out the same, and the lowest 10,000 poor-performing employees in the analysis report would be dismissed away. Previously, under the old approach for performance reviews, managers were asked to take into account and classify only 2% of the workforce as low-performing employees. The new ranking system, supposedly implemented by Google in May, will also help managers refrain from giving bonuses and stock grants to underperforming employees. Similar to this, the new strategy will also lower the proportion of employees who received high scores. Adverse market conditions, activist hedge fund pressure, and the desire to cut costs all contributed to the decision.
In total, Alphabet employs over 187,000 people. The CEO of the company, Sundar Pichai, reportedly that layoffs may be necessary to achieve Alphabet's 20% efficiency boost. According to earlier rumours, if their jobs are going to be reduced, Alphabet would give some employees 60 days to seek a new position with the company. Further, Google has also stopped employing new workers and urged some current workers to shape up or ship out if the expectations are not fulfilled.
Christopher Hohn, a billionaire hedge fund manager, reportedly stated in a letter to Alphabet that the company needs to hire fewer people. The UK investor also complained to Google's parent company about how highly paid its staff members are in comparison to those at other online businesses. Hohn claims that the company's workforce is enormous when compared to prior hiring patterns and does not meet the requirements of the current economic environment. He claims that significantly fewer highly compensated specialists are needed to manage the search engine properly.
Most companies reported their largest-ever layoffs a little more than a month ago. Amazon is reportedly planning to fire 10,000 workers. A total of 11,000 employees from Meta and roughly 60% of the over 7,000 employees from Twitter have already been let go.
While Twitter experienced layoffs as a result of Elon Musk's contentious acquisition, Meta layoffs were reportedly a precautionary strategy to reduce costs and maintain the company's financial health.