During a recent all-hands meeting held by Google, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and Google, addressed the significant impact that the extensive job cuts in 2022 had on employee morale. Pichai defended the decision to lay off 12,000 employees, which accounted for 6% of the company's workforce, during the meeting on Tuesday, December 12, as reported by Business Insider.
According to the report, Pichai admitted in an obtained audio that the company could have handled the layoffs more effectively. During the meeting, one of the employees inquired about the effects of this decision on the company's growth and morale. Pichai responded by stating that it had a significant and evident influence on morale.
Pichai justified the company's choice by stating that to adapt to evolving economic circumstances and prepare for future expansion, they had to implement a reduction of 12,000 jobs, as reported by CNBC."It became clear if we didn't act, it would have been a worse decision down the line. It would have been a major overhang for the company. I think it would have made it very difficult in a year like this with such a big shift in the world to create the capacity to invest in areas,” Pichai said, as quoted in the report.
The Business Insider reported that the executives were questioned about their thoughts on the execution of the layoffs. In response, Pichai admitted that the company could have handled the job cuts better. The 51-year-old emphasized that it was an extremely tough decision to abruptly revoke access to the work accounts of laid-off employees.
Pichai emphasized that notifying all affected employees simultaneously, regardless of their time zone, was not a wise approach. “It's not the right way to do it. I think it's something we could have done differently for sure,” he said
(With Input from the agencies)
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