Google employees write an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai. See details

More than 1,500 Google employees have signed a letter sent to CEO Sundar Pichai highlighting the global impact of Alphabet’s layoffs and urging greater consideration of workers’ perspectives.

In an open letter to Pichai, employees asked the company to do a number of things, such as stop hiring new people, ask for voluntary layoffs before mandatory ones, give laid-off workers first choice for new jobs and let people finish paid time off, like parental and bereavement leave.

The workers also requested Alphabet not to fire people from countries where there are active wars or humanitarian crises, like Ukraine, and to help those who could lose both their jobs and their residency because of their visas.


The letter depicts how the consequences of Alphabet's decision to reduce its workforce are global.

The petition comes after Alphabet announced in January that it would lay off about 6% of its workforce in response to investor pressure to cut spending in the post-pandemic slump.

Alphabet’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to the petition. Pichai said in an email to employees on January 20 that the company hired for a “different economic reality than the one we face today” and that he accepted “full responsibility”.

A group of employees organised the letter, which was supported by unions such as the Alphabet Workers Union, United Tech and Allied Workers, and UNI Global. Before delivering it to Pichai at Google's California headquarters, the staff members intend to circulate the petition for a few more days.

Other tech titans that have also reduced their headcount in recent months include Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Microsoft Corp.

FAQs

Q1: Why is Google laying off employees?
Google has stated that it was forced to lay off employees as a result of over hiring during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. With poor macroeconomic conditions, the company was forced to make difficult decisions.

Q2: Is Amazon laying off employees?
The company recently completed a round of job cuts totaling approximately 18,000 employees.