Last Friday, Google announced that it would be cutting 6 per cent of its workforce, which is equivalent to 12,000 jobs. After he announced the biggest job cuts in the history of the search giant, Sundar Pichai said the cuts were made in a bid to act decisively.
Sundar Pichai, said in an internal meeting on Monday that he had consulted with Google's founders and board members before making a decision. The details of the meeting were revealed by Bloomberg.
Pichai said, If you don't act clearly and decisively and early, you can compound the problem and make it worse. He said these are decisions I needed to make. Pichai assured that the cuts were not abruptly made after careful consideration and were not done abruptly in the internal meeting. He assured the company's leadership that they would see a reduction in their annual bonus this year.
Fiona Cicconi, Google's chief people officer, explained why they had to announce layoffs without issuing warnings to managers at the meeting. Cicconi claimed that the size of Google's workforce forced executives to keep the circle of decision-makers relatively small.
We wanted to give certainty sooner. Ruth Porat, Alphabet's Chief Financial Officer, announced on Wednesday that the layoffs were done to allow the company to invest in key priorities. Porat said, Act early, and you create the capacity to invest for long-term growth. Following the layoff announcement, a number of Google veterans posted how abruptly they were removed from the company. An Alphabet executive said in the internal meeting that the severance package was designed to reward workers with long tenures at the company.