12,000 Google employees lose jobs: CEO Sundar Pichai reveals reason behind massive layoffs

On Tuesday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai defended the company's decision to lay off 12,000 employees, stating to employees that it was necessary to prevent "much worse issues" according to Bloomberg.

Pichai explained, in an internal meeting, that he had consulted with the company's founders and board before making the decision to cut 6% of the workforce. He added that the company risked compounding the problem if it hadn't acted decisively and that the decision was taken as the company's growth had slowed.

On January 20, Google parent Alphabet announced mass job cuts. The organization-wide role eliminations at the Mountain View, California-based company impacted 12,000 employees across product areas, functions, levels, and regions.

Pichai, in an email addressed to Google employees, said the decision was taken after a rigorous review across product areas and functions. He took responsibility for the job cuts, explaining that Google had hired aggressively to match the dramatic growth of the last two years, recruiting for a different economic reality than the company now faces.

“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI. To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, we’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions,” Pichai wrote in the email.

The decision led to an uproar, with sacked employees sharing their struggles.

In 2022 and the first month of 2023, tech companies including Amazon, Twitter, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and many more have fired over 200,000 workers, according to Layoffs.fyi, a platform that documents role eliminations across sectors and geographies. The mass layoffs trend is not limited to tech companies as companies from media, banking, FMCG, and auto sectors have also announced role eliminations.