A Google employee of 16 years that was laid off as part of the tech giant’s massive staff cuts says the “faceless” company sees its staff as “100% disposable.”
Business Insider reports that tech giant Google recently laid off 12,000 workers or 6 percent of its global workforce. Some of the affected employees have criticized the decision, with one, in particular, speaking out about his experience on LinkedIn.
Before being laid off, engineering manager Justin Moore had worked for Google for more than 16 years. Moore wrote on LinkedIn that he learned about the layoff in a grossly impersonal way — through an automated account deactivation at 3:00 a.m. He added that he had not received any additional “information” or “communication” regarding his termination and that his access to any such communications had been disabled as a result of the deactivation.
Moore continued by stating that his time at Google had been “largely wonderful” and that he was pleased with the work he had accomplished internationally. He added that “employers, particularly large, faceless ones like Google, see you as 100% disposable.” “Live life, not work,” he urged others.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, announced the job cuts on Friday. Pichai acknowledged “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here” in an email to the staff. The layoffs “cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels, and regions,” he added.
Google isn’t the only tech giant taking flak over how it handled laying off employees including those with long tenures. Microsoft recently announced its own massive layoff, but hosted a private concert featuring musician Sting for top executives the night before the layoff was announced. As Breitbart News reported:
The Wall Street Journal reports that on Tuesday evening, Microsoft played host to an event attended by its highest-ranking executives featuring a performance by Sting. On the other hand, the company announced the following day that they intend to lay off 10,000 people, which will be the largest round of layoffs since 2014. According to a blog post written by the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, this move reflects the necessity for the company to adapt to a slowdown in the global economy.
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Many Microsoft employees felt that this announcement’s timing was inappropriate, particularly given that the topic of discussion at the event was sustainability. When thousands of employees were being let go, some people believed that it was not the appropriate time for a company to sponsor a concert.
This decision by Microsoft is part of a larger trend among top technology companies, which have been cutting thousands of positions in recent months as the business climate has worsened due to concerns regarding an economic slowdown, high inflation rates, rising interest rates, and other factors. Microsoft’s decision is part of a larger trend among top technology companies.
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan