CAPE CANAVERAL: On Monday, the chief executive officer of Google informed employees that job cuts had been made in an effort to take decisive action as the growth of the company slowed.
According to remarks reviewed by Bloomberg, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet Inc., stated in an internal meeting that he had consulted with the company's founders and board before deciding on 6% cuts.
Pichai stated, "We can compound the problem and make it much worse if you don't act clearly, decisively, and early." I needed to decide these things. “Google made the announcement on Friday that it would lay off approximately 12,000 employees, becoming the latest tech giant to cut back after years of rapid expansion and hiring. Even though there had been rumors about the cuts for months, some employees still found the layoffs shocking. When they were unable to access corporate systems, some realized they had lost their jobs. However, Pichai emphasized that careful consideration went into the cuts.
He stated, "The process was far from random." He went on to say that all senior vice presidents and above would see a "significant reduction" in their annual bonuses this year because bonuses were tied to how well the company did and leadership needed to be held accountable.
In the meeting with employees, Google's chief people officer, Fiona Cicconi, stated that executives had to keep the circle of decision-makers relatively small due to the size of Google's workforce.
Cicconi stated, "We would have given managers a heads-up in an ideal world, but we have over 30,000 managers at Google." We wanted to provide assurance sooner.
According to a different executive, severance packages were designed to reward employees who had worked for the company for a long time.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet's chief financial officer, made it clear in the meeting that the cuts were made so that the company could continue investing in important areas.
Porat stated, "Act early, and you create the capacity to invest for long-term growth." Those were the lessons learned, no matter how difficult this was.