Google Employees and Layoffs

They thought it would never happen to them. Or something. And they have no appreciation for how these things are done, because that's what they're complaining about. Former Google employee's videos show shift from free office snacks to tears and layoffs

First off, I can tell you from personal experience, that there is no good way to be laid off. But this is sort of how it is done.

With more than 200,000 tech layoffs in the past few months—affecting employees at Twitter, Amazon, Facebook-parent Meta, and now, Google, there has been ample opportunity to do so. Terminated tech employees have gone online to detail their dismissals, from receiving unannounced midnight emails to finding out they had been fired when their access badges failed to open the office door.

What do they think should happen? That the company should notify you that you will be laid off in 2 days, so that you have time to steal intellectual property, plant back doors in web systems, sabotage projects, or get up to the things that your average disgruntled employee would do? No. They pull the rug out from under you because to do anything else is not responsible from a corporate/fiduciary point of view.

I realize that these people are not familiar with the concept of "responsibility," but I would believe that HR and legal are.

Google’s sudden reversal from massive hiring and spending to the chaos and confusion of last week’s layoffs was encapsulated in video diaries of Nicole Tsai, a former employee who worked in partner services for Google’s cloud unit since 2021. Tsai posted vlogs depicting her daily life at the company on her TikTok channel before and after the layoffs were announced.

YouTuber It'sAGundum has a great video on this from the end of November: The End of Adult Daycare? │TikTok Cringe. It's 12 minutes of people at tech companies showing how disconnected from reality they are.

Seeing privileged, entitled tech workers show off their fabulous lifestyle, their easy lackadaisical laissez faire days, and their wonderful meals...

Even if you just watch the first 2 or 3 minutes you get a feeling for the level of cringe, but if you watch more you will actually see the life of tech "workers." In quotes because it didn't seem like much of what I would call work was getting done.

The first TikTok is from someone at Meta. You have to get to the second, about 8 minutes in, to see "a day in the life" of a Google employee.

Look at this place! Mark Zuckerberg is throwing all this money at Meta and this is where it's going. For privileged white girls to make videos showing off how great their life is. This is how disconnected you have to be from reality...

And it is adult daycare. Google has nap rooms. When was the last you had "nap time?" It was in kindergarten for me. But then that is the way "adults" are treated today. There is a freaking Harry Potter conference room, which as It'sAGundum notes, must be canceled due to J.K. Rowling's wrongthink.

A Harry Potter conference room? Really? Grow the Fuck up!

But back to the linked article at the top:

“The worst part is no one was consulted on this decision and everyone is finding out about the layoffs at the same time. It just felt like a really bad game of Russian roulette and there was no consistency around who was let go,” Tsai said in the video.

No, honey, you weren't consulted. You were laid off. And the purpose of layoffs/downsizing is to save money on salary, and get rid of people who are doing jobs the company has decided they don't want to pay for. I've seen whole divisions shut down, and locations closed. So the next bit is also not surprising.

Google’s layoffs were algorithmic and not performance-based, Tsai said, meaning many terminated employees were chosen randomly as the company sought to cut costs. Long-tenured employees with two decades of experience at the company as well as high earners with annual salaries of up to $1 million were reportedly also targeted by the layoffs.

I should mention, I guess, that I've worked for companies that have been taken over, and whole divisions - including the one I worked for - were let go. I've also worked on the committees deciding who would be laid off. And before I got into management I worked on automation systems that closed whole divisions - many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of employees were let go. There are old sayings: Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. You should save for a rainy day. There are probably more that apply.

Layoffs, downsizing, and the like are part of the business cycle. And yes, tech companies are subject to the laws of nature and the economy. Welcome to The Real World™.

It'sAGundam gets the last word:

I only hope that the people that get fired make TikTok videos about being fired, so that I may profit off their misfortune...