Pichai on why Google job cuts are being done in phasesGoogle is among the top tech companies that have laid thousands of employees.
After a significant reduction of 12,000 employees in 2023, the Alphabet-owned company is continuing job cuts in 2024.
He said it will continue to be “very, very disciplined about managing headcount growth throughout the year.”“There’s a lot of demand to do new things and, in the past, we would have just done it reflexively by growing headcount.
We can’t do it now through the transition we are in,” Pichai said.Recently, Pichai shed light on the approach of laying off employees in multiple rounds.
It’s about the conduct of how they went about it,” he said.
Pichai on why Google job cuts are being done in phases
Google is among the top tech companies that have laid thousands of employees. After a significant reduction of 12,000 employees in 2023, the Alphabet-owned company is continuing job cuts in 2024. During a company-wide all hands meeting, CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed the ongoing downsizing but he has also indicated a reduced impact in the latter half of the year.Reposting to a question, “When can we expect an end to the uncertainty and disruption that layoffs create?” Pichai said the company will see a majority of job cuts in the first half of 2024.“Assuming current conditions, the second half of the year will be much smaller in scale,” Pichai said, referring to job cuts. He said it will continue to be “very, very disciplined about managing headcount growth throughout the year.”“There’s a lot of demand to do new things and, in the past, we would have just done it reflexively by growing headcount. We can’t do it now through the transition we are in,” Pichai said.Recently, Pichai shed light on the approach of laying off employees in multiple rounds. When responding to a question, “Why not cut once and cut deep?” in an interview with Bloomberg, Pichai said that the company is reallocating people to our highest priorities.“There are cases where you're simplifying teams, you're moving people to focus on newer areas, removing layers so that you can improve velocity. So that's why we have taken the time to do it correctly and well,” he said.On why the company fired employees that protested against Google’s cloud contract with the Israeli government, Pichai said it was an unacceptable disruption of daily business.“It has nothing to do with the matter or the topic they’re discussing. It’s about the conduct of how they went about it,” he said.
