Amidst high instability in the labour market of the technology sector, American IT giant Google Inc has reportedly asked employees to increase their performance and produce results or face lay-offs in the next quarter.
According to official messages accessed by media platform Insider, a senior executive officer from the sales team of Google Cloud threatened employees in the sales team that there would be “blood on the streets” if the results doesn’t go up in the third quarter as expected.
The executive from Google also reportedly told the employees that the company would be evaluating the productivity of all the workers, with a special focus on sales productivity.
In July 2022, Google announced a two-week hiring freeze as the company did not perform up to mark in the second quarter. The hiring freeze which was supposed to end by the first week of August 2022 continues to be in place, as Google has not taken any action which would undo the hiring freeze.
The silence from the tech company regarding the matter of the hiring freeze and the latest warning from executive officers regarding lay-offs have left employees in a tough spot.
The New York Times reported that many employees are concerned regarding the possibility of many lay-offs in near future.
Google CEO – We need “better results faster”
Chief Executive Officer of Google, Sundar Pichai, reportedly told his employees that they would need to step up their focus and productivity. Sundar Pichai was taking part in a regular meeting with all employees on Wednesday while he made the statement.
In the meeting, the main point of discussion was productivity, and Google’s top leadership pointed out to employees the need to improve productivity and increase focus on customer service. The company also expects instability in the macroeconomic conditions of the economy.
Google posted a 13% revenue growth in the second quarter, which is lesser than the 62% revenue growth in the second quarter of the previous financial year. The 13% revenue was also lower than what was expected by the company and the market.
He also reportedly said that the productivity of the company was lesser than what should actually be with a workforce of, 170000 around the world.
The company has also begun an initiative named “Simplicity Sprint” in which the employees can pitch in ideas and thoughts about how to increase productivity and focus in the tech company. An internal survey would be conducted for this, which would then be analysed by top management.
