Why Google Didn’t Lay Me Off as 1 of 12,000
How to avoid layoffs.
In January, Google laid off 12,000 employees. This was a result of over hiring and over spending during the pandemic that did not extend today. Due to pressure from both investors and ChatGPT, Google decided to layoff 6% of their +186,000 workforce to recover some of the costs.
Before I share why I wasn’t affected, here’s what happened that day.
2:00 AM Email.
The day of the layoffs, a company wide email was sent at 2:00 AM PST on January 20th. Unlike Amazon, there was no warning and no time to prepare for the company wide layoff. Everyone was suddenly told that 12,000 employees were affected.
The quickest way to find out you were affected was if you could still log into your computer.
Vice-Presidents and Below Were Affected
Let’s first define a senior vice-president. At Google, senior-vice presidents are CEO’s of Google products like Youtube, and Google Cloud, and Google Devices. Anyone below that is vice-president and below.
When asked during the internal townhall on “how many vice-presidents were affected”, Sundar Pichai responded by mentioning “that information is confidential and sensitive.” The number is likely very small and a very elegant way to dodge the question.
However, it is known the level most impacted were mid-level (L4) software engineers.
Severance Package
To the employees who were let go, they were given a package with the following details.
- 60 Day Notice Period
- 16 Weeks Paid Severance (+2 weeks for every year at Google)
- Paid Bonuses and Vacation
- 6 Continued Months of HealthCare
- Continued RSU Vesting
To those outside Google, this package seems unreal and is almost like a paid vacation. With 6+ months of paid leave, some internally have even asked to volunteer to be laid off, but that is outside of Google guidelines.
However, at the end of the day, the average Googler would like to still have their job instead of being 1 of 12,000.
Why I Wasn’t Affected
At Google, I’m employed as a mid-level (L4) software engineer. There were a large number of senior engineers and above who were affected. This detail explains that my level was not a deciding factor in being laid off.
I also only joined Google 6 months ago whereas other engineers have been at Google for years. The amount of time I was at Google was not the single factor in being laid off. Both employees who joined and have been here for years were affected.
My current role is in Google Cloud, but even my Google Cloud organization was not immune to the layoffs. The organization I’m in was also not a shield in being laid off.
This cycle, my Google performance was also deemed “average” or “meets expectations”. I am not outstanding by any means but that does exclude performance as being the only criteria dealing with layoffs.
What is interesting is that no one on my team was impacted by this round of layoffs. The product I work on is titled “Private Offers” and that has been a large investment by Google Cloud to compete with other cloud providers. Being part of 26 billion revenue for Google, it’d be hard to justify affecting a profitable team in that area.
Closing Thoughts
Google has layoffs in January 2023. These layoffs affected leadership, individual contributors and Googlers who have been here for months or years.
Working harder did not protect those affected, working on profitable teams did. This wasn’t a factor I considered joining Google, it was chance. And those chances bailed me out in 2023.
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