Google wants to lay off 10,000 of its underperforming employees

Like those of Meta, Twitter or Amazon, Alphabet employees would also be under the threat of massive layoffs.

The era seems placed under the sign of the dismissal on the side of the digital giants. In recent weeks, Meta, Amazon and Twitter have announced the dismissal of several thousand employees. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is also preparing to sparse its ranks: the company could well lay off about 10,000 of its employees deemed “inefficient”.

Managers will have to designate 6% of “bad employees”

According to several sources, the firm has modified its performance management system, which will come into effect at the beginning of next year. One of the mechanisms invites managers to no longer define 2%, but 6% of “low-performing employees”. Such a threshold would encompass approximately 10,000 people.

You will agree, this depreciation has all the sorting for future massive layoffs, especially in the current context. In addition, this ranking system would have a more general impact on the allocation of bonuses and other bonuses.

Lazy and overpaid employees, according to a billionaire

In fact, Alphabet’s stock price has been declining for several months and the company’s third-quarter earnings fell 27% year-on-year. This summer, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, urged his troops to step up and improve their productivity.

©Google

On the shareholder side, some are now openly calling for cuts in the workforce. This is the case of Christopher Hohn, a British billionaire. Speaking on behalf of TCI (The Children’s Investment Fund Management), a hedge fund management firm, he sent a letter to Sundar Pichai and the board of directors on November 15, in which he wrote that ” the company has too many employees and that these are too expensive. He adds that ” conversations with former Alphabet executives suggest the business could be run more efficiently with far fewer employees “.

If for the moment nothing is decided at Alphabet, a wave of layoffs would, alas, be nothing new. As reported at the start of the article, Amazon will be laying off more than 10,000 employees and is reportedly considering further layoffs in 2023. A downsizing is also underway at Meta. Finally, on the side of Twitter, Elon Musk, new owner of the social network, also takes pleasure in improving the ranks.

Sources: The Independent, Christopher Hohn