Only recently were tech companies at their prime. There was employment everywhere you turned, and tech company stocks were doing fantastically. That is until a significant stock market decline and a wave of layoffs took over the IT industry. It affected even supposedly strong giants like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google as of last week.
Last week, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said it would eliminate 12,000 positions throughout the organization. Many employees were shocked by the announcement, and some resorted to social media to complain about how “random” the process was and how they felt “100% disposable.”
The announcement comes amid economic unpredictability and turmoil for all digital companies. According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks layoffs, 174 IT businesses have already cut close to 60,000 jobs in 2023.
CEO of Google announced a pay cut this year
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, addressed the whole workforce on Monday in a meeting to address issues accumulated over the weekend. He also revealed that top executives would receive a pay cut this year as part of the business’s cost-cutting initiatives, according to Business Insider.
All positions above the senior vice president level will see a “very significant reduction in their annual bonus,” according to Pichai, who also noted that compensation was based on company performance for senior roles. How much of a pay cut Pichai will receive is just now known. Google did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment right away.
A few weeks before Pichai’s decision, Apple’s Tim Cook stated that his compensation would be 40% lower due to shareholder pressure. The iPhone manufacturer had a successful year in 2022. Moreover it is one of the few tech goliaths that hasn’t yet disclosed layoffs.
The board of JP Morgan Chase which is also an investment bank. It declared last week that it would eliminate the “special award” component of CEO Jamie Dimon’s compensation. Dimon received a one-time payout of about $50 million the year before, and this year he will receive $34.5 million.
Employees were informed through mail
“The decision to cut 12,000 jobs is a step in the right direction, but it does not even reverse the strong headcount growth of 2022. Ultimately, the management will need to go further… The management should aim to reduce headcount to around 150,000, which is in line with Alphabet’s headcount at the end of 2021. This would require a total headcount reduction of 20 percent.”
The 12,000 impacted employees and techies were caught off guard by Google’s decision to fire them. They are currently using social media to criticize a choice made by one of Silicon Valley’s tech giants. In a communication to staff members, Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed regret for the action. Adding to it he accepted full responsibility for the decisions that brought the firm to this point.
On January 20, Pichai sent an email to Google staffers informing them of some distressing news. He asserted that the company has decided to cut 12,000 jobs from its staff.