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Google CEO Sundar Pichai says job cuts prevented ‘much worse’ issues

By Nithya Bose in US business news, posted January 24, 2023

Google chief Sundar Pichai has defended the recent layoffs by saying cuts were made in an effort to move decisively as the company's growth stalled.

Mr. Pichai said the decision to trim six percent of the workforce was made after consulting with the company's founders and board.

He said: “If you don’t act clearly and decisively and early, we can compound the problem and make it much worse.

“These are decisions I needed to make."

It was revealed all Google’s senior vice presidents and top leaders would face a “significant reduction" in their annual bonus this year.

Pichai said because bonuses were related to company performance, leadership must be held accountable.

Google announced 12,000 job losses on Friday, January 20, becoming the latest tech giant to cut back following years of rapid growth and recruiting.

Though layoffs had been rumored for months, they still came as a surprise to some staff.

Many found they had lost their jobs when they could not access company systems.

On the other hand, Pichai insisted that the cuts were the result of careful deliberation.

He added: “The process was far from random.”

Google CPO Fiona Cicconi said in the meeting with employees that the size of its workforce forced executives to keep the circle of decision-makers relatively small.

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She said: “In an ideal world, we would have given managers a heads up, but we have over 30,000 managers at Google.

“We wanted to give certainty sooner."

Another official said severance packages were designed to reward employees who have been with the firm for a long time.

In the meeting, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat emphasized the layoffs were planned to free up funds to continue investing in vital areas.

Source: Bloomberg

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