After miscalculating the number of shares that were to be distributed as part of their severance settlement, Google sent out an email of regret to the people it had let go. After learning that they will receive less stock than they had anticipated, several employees become anxious. Google made the decision to fire 12,000 employees globally last month, which sent people affected into a frenzy. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of the business, took “full responsibility” for the decision and promised that the organisation would support the fired workers completely through this difficult period.
The affected US employees will be paid their full salary during their notice period and receive a severance package that starts at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for each subsequent year of employment, as well as bonuses and other benefits in accordance with their contracts. Employees who work outside of the US will get compensation following local legal requirements.
Google employees were upset after learning the news
According to recent reports, however, a number of ex-Google employees are upset after learning that the stocks they would receive as part of their severance package are far less than they had anticipated. This is due to Google’s earlier error in calculating the number of shares that would be awarded to the laid-off workers as part of their severance settlement.
According to an article by a news panel, the email regarding the revised stock value arrived three weeks after the news of the layoffs. It felt like a “second kick in the stomach,” one of the employees who learned that they would receive about 40% less stock than they had initially anticipated told the publication.
“Admittedly, I had done my own rough calculations. I thought to myself: huh, that number [of stocks] seems pretty high. But then I thought: Maybe this is them saying, ‘Hey, we’re taking care of you because we did a shitty thing to you at the last minute’,” the ex-Google employee, working in the US, told Business Insider. The employee went on to say that the revision announcement had stressed out the entire family and kept them up till 2 am.
The employees received the revised email
The email revision that acknowledged the calculation error stated, “First, we want to apologize for an inaccurate calculation that appeared in the initial notification email. The severance package that we explained in the support site, detailed documentation and publicly was correct, but it was inaccurately reflected in the email we sent.”
Since Google’s layoffs were announced, LinkedIn has been swamped with stories from those impacted. Others had to test their passes and wait for them to change colours to determine if they still had their employment, while some employees were let off right before their maternity and paternity breaks.
