Google May Layoff 10,000, Begins Identifying ‘Low Performers’: Report
In a continuation of the layoff saga, Google has asked its managers to identify 6 per cent (10,000 employees) of ‘low performers’ in the workforce. Reports suggest that the move to identify the staff is a step towards cutting employee count as outside pressure mounts on the BigTech company to take action along similar lines of Meta and Twitter.
Google has introduced a new review system that requires its managers to identify 6 percent of low-performing staff as opposed to 2 per cent earlier. As per The Information, the cuts could begin after a review in early 2023.
The Mountain View, California-headquartered company has so far managed to not slash any jobs even as other companies such as Meta, Twitter and Snap have announced big cuts.
As the world prepares for a potential recession in 2023, most of the BigTechs have made moves towards streamlining their workforce. This has included Meta’s 11,000 and Microsoft’s possible 1,000 job cuts in recent times. During its Q3 earnings, Intel too said that it would cut 20 per cent of its staff over the next year, while Google has introduced a hiring freeze in most areas of its business.
Meanwhile, Twitter has cut over 3,700 jobs and Cisco announced USD 600 million in severance to begin "restructuring" in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023.
In July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had written to employees announcing that the company was slowing its hiring for the rest of 2022. In the internal e-mail, Google CEO had also stressed on the need for being entrepreneurial and “working with greater urgency”.
In the Q2 alone, Google has added 10,000 people to its workforce despite the economic headwinds. But it looks like even a behemoth like Google is bracing itself for a possible recession.
