Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly told employees on Monday local time that the recent decision to cut jobs was a decisive move during a period of slowing growth at the company.
Internal meeting minutes show that at a recent staff meeting, Pichai, who is the chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said he had discussed the decision to cut jobs by 6 percent with the company’s co-founders and board of directors. He said, “Without early, clear and decisive action, the problems we face could be even more complex and serious.”
Google announced on Friday that it would be laying off about 12,000 employees, the latest tech giant to announce plans for massive job cuts. Despite months of speculation about layoffs, the cuts are still hitting home for some employees. Some employees even found out they had lost their jobs only after they were unable to access the company’s systems. But Pichai stressed that the job cuts were the result of careful consideration. He stressed, “The process of layoffs is not random.”
Fiona Cicconi, Google’s chief talent officer, told the staff meeting that the size of Google’s workforce dictated that the decision could only be made in a relatively small circle. Ideally, we would give each manager advance notice, but at Google we have over 30,000 managers,” she said. We want to be sure of that as early as possible.”
Another executive said the layoff compensation package was more inclined to give back to employees who have been with the company longer.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, stressed at the conference that the layoffs would free up resources for the company to continue investing in key priorities. By acting early, we can create the ability to invest in long-term growth,” she said. As tough as the decision to cut staff was, these are the gains we are making.”
