Rumored Google Layoffs Set for January According to Online Message Board

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Google Employees Anticipate Potential Layoffs in 2024

Anxiety is sweeping through Google as employees express concerns regarding potential layoffs in the upcoming year. Alleged posts on an employee forum indicate that the company has raised its threshold for identifying lower-performing staff, a decision that seems surprising given reports of rising productivity among its engineering teams.

Similar to its industry peer Microsoft, Google is facing challenges in keeping pace with stock market performance amid ongoing regulatory scrutiny of its search engine operations. These revelations come in the wake of Alphabet’s recent earnings call, where CFO Anat Ashkenazi emphasized the need to further re-engineer the organization’s cost structure.

Details on Layoff Concerns from Team Blind Posts

Google’s primary revenue streams—its search engine and advertising sectors—remain robust; however, they are overshadowed by ongoing legal disputes with the Justice Department. This has resulted in heightened investor caution. Adding to this uncertainty, initial investments in artificial intelligence seem heavily tilted towards hardware firms, particularly NVIDIA.

Despite exceeding analysts’ projections for the third quarter in terms of revenue and earnings, Alphabet reported traffic acquisition costs (TAC) of $13.72 billion, surpassing analyst predictions of $13.53 billion. This occurrence unfolded in a context where advertising revenue had grown by 10% year-over-year, with search revenue experiencing a significant jump of 12.3%.

During the earnings call, Anat Ashkenazi, now in her new role as CFO after two decades with Eli Lilly, articulated plans to enhance organizational efficiency using AI technologies. This was a pivotal moment for Ashkenazi to share her vision for Alphabet’s financial strategy moving forward.

Image shows an online message board user claiming purported incoming layoffs at Google — A screen grab from a post on the message board Team Blind claiming that Google will start laying off employees in January. Image: Team Blind

Employee Reactions and Market Realities

As concerns grow, a discussion on the Team Blind platform suggests layoffs may commence in January, with claims that the company’s target for lower performance personnel has escalated from 8% to 10%. The employee posting the message insinuates that due to an increase in the average code modifications—now hitting around 500 annually—identifying underperformers has become more manageable.

However, the notion of simply being labeled as a low performer might not suffice for termination; the poster noted that factors such as assignment to less favorable projects or prior negative assessments could also influence layoff decisions.

While skepticism surrounded these claims, other Google employees contributed to the discussion. For instance, a worker from Google’s Cloud division mentioned a target layoff percentage of about 6%. Comparatively, employees at other firms, including Amazon and Capital One, indicated their respective percentages ranged from 6% to 15%. Additional conversations among Google staff expressed apprehension over the possibility of layoffs, with some even poking fun at the unverifiable nature of the information circulating online.

During an all-hands meeting in November, following the earnings call, employees raised their concerns directly. CNBC reported that Google’s Vice President of Recruiting, Brian Ong, confirmed a significant reduction in hiring compared to prior years. The layoffs initiated in 2023 had already stirred considerable outrage, particularly as longstanding employees were reportedly let go without advance notice.

For more insights and discussions around these developments, you can refer to the original sources.

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