Google recently laid off 12,000 employees worldwide and about 453 employees in India. An employee who survived the terminations has claimed that the layoffs were not based on performance, given that most of the high performers he knew were laid off
Google recently laid off 12,000 employees worldwide and about 453 employees in India. An employee who survived the terminations has claimed that the layoffs were not based on performance, given that most of the high performers he knew were laid off
Layoffs in the tech sector have been rampant, especially in India. One thing that anyone who has ever been laid off keeps on telling themselves is that maybe, their performance wasn’t what it needed to be and that they need to work harder.
For anyone who believes top performers and highly rated employees are safe from being terminated, Google India’s most recent terminations, where they laid off over 400 employees should serve as an eyeopener.
According to a LinkedIn post put up by a Google India employee, the recent layoffs in the company, including those in India, were not based on how well an employee did, as individuals with the best ratings and recent promotions were also fired.
Also read: Google fires 453 employees in India, CEO Pichai takes responsibility
The employee goes on to say that those who were able to retain their positions were not inherently better than those who were let go by Google.
If not performance, then what was the metric?
In his message, the employee states, “A gentle reminder that the Google layoffs, including over 450 in India, were not based on performance. People who were able to remain (including me) are not inherently superior to those who were laid off. People I know who have the best scores and have recently been promoted are among those laid off. And, sure, they will benefit your squad.”
The terminations, in such a scenario, seem completely arbitrary. This revelation comes just days after a former Google employee sued the company for wrongful termination, claiming he was fired for he refused to entertain the advances of one of the senior management employees working at Google.
Also read: Google shuts down ‘Everyday Robots’ project, amid global market downturn
Cases such as these seem to indicate that managers and team leaders were free to fire anyone they wanted to, and for any reason whatsoever, as long as they fired a certain number of people from their team.
Google’s golden handcuffs
A former Google employee recently described the company’s financial rewards as “Golden Handcuffs” that made it difficult for her to leave. The lady had been with Google for over 15 years when she awoke one morning to learn she was no longer a part of the internet giant.
Jennifer Vaden Barth, another of the company’s 12,000 layoffs, posted her tale on LinkedIn about a month ago. Recently, Jennifer spoke to Business Insider and said that the cuts were like ‘breaking out of gilded shackles’.
Jennifer told the newspaper that, while cutbacks were difficult to deal with, she was ‘partially to blame’ because she had been with the business for over 15 years, which is a very long period. She also claimed that Google was restraining her and gave her ‘golden handcuffs’ to make leaving her work more difficult. According to the Insider story, Jennifer is alluding to the different financial incentives that Google provides its workers.
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