Not offering people the option to leave in advance was a complaint about how Google handled past layoffs.
Guess we know what’s coming.
Very interesting that this only applies to US based employees. I wonder how long before Google completely moves overseas and drops most of their domestic employees.
Voluntary exits are generally more humane, and have been used across Silicon Valley for decades before layoffs became common, so hopefully it minimizes suffering of layoffs.
Also, I’m surprised the title just calls out Pixel and Android, because this also affects most of their hardware efforts (Fitbit, Nest, Chrome, VR, etc)
Edit: I’ve heard from people there that the buyout is worse than previous rounds of severance from layoffs - namely, no stock vesting
They're not doing "voluntary exits" out of the goodness of their hearts, they're doing it because their accountants determined that the cost of paying employees to quit outweighed the reputational damage of doing another round of mass layoffs.
Of course! But it’s better than randomly laying people off. At least it lets people who are ready to quit take the accounting impact instead of others.
Layoffs cause huge emotional trauma to people who are affected. People often slide into serious mental health issues, financial issues, etc. Often people get laid off while their peers were eyeing the door. This at least allows people to quit and take the heat off their coworkers.
Or, the accountants determined that the overall cost of voluntary exits is expected to be lower than a mass layoff. It's possible that voluntary exits make more financial sense.
"Android (Auto, TV, Wear OS, XR), Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Photos, Google One, Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest."
It's a way to avoid 3% or 5% layoffs. That's a big group. With how fast their AI Labs group is moving, I could see some employees not being fans of the direction this group is taking.
Comments
Guess we know what’s coming.
Very interesting that this only applies to US based employees. I wonder how long before Google completely moves overseas and drops most of their domestic employees.
Voluntary exits are generally more humane, and have been used across Silicon Valley for decades before layoffs became common, so hopefully it minimizes suffering of layoffs.
Also, I’m surprised the title just calls out Pixel and Android, because this also affects most of their hardware efforts (Fitbit, Nest, Chrome, VR, etc)
Edit: I’ve heard from people there that the buyout is worse than previous rounds of severance from layoffs - namely, no stock vesting
They're not doing "voluntary exits" out of the goodness of their hearts, they're doing it because their accountants determined that the cost of paying employees to quit outweighed the reputational damage of doing another round of mass layoffs.
Of course! But it’s better than randomly laying people off. At least it lets people who are ready to quit take the accounting impact instead of others.
Layoffs cause huge emotional trauma to people who are affected. People often slide into serious mental health issues, financial issues, etc. Often people get laid off while their peers were eyeing the door. This at least allows people to quit and take the heat off their coworkers.
Or, the accountants determined that the overall cost of voluntary exits is expected to be lower than a mass layoff. It's possible that voluntary exits make more financial sense.
"Android (Auto, TV, Wear OS, XR), Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Photos, Google One, Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest."
It's a way to avoid 3% or 5% layoffs. That's a big group. With how fast their AI Labs group is moving, I could see some employees not being fans of the direction this group is taking.