from the something-drastic-must-be-done-now-that-profits-dropped-to-only-$14B dept.
Google workers in Switzerland sent a letter this month to the company's vice president of human resources, outlining their worries that a new employee evaluation system could be used to cull the work force:
"The number and spread of reports that reached us indicates that at least some managers were aggressively pressured to apply a quota" on a process that could lead to employees getting negative ratings and potentially losing their jobs, five workers and employee representatives wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.
The letter signaled how some Google employees are increasingly interpreting recent management decisions as warnings that the company may be angling to conduct broader layoffs. From the impending closure of a small office and the cancellation of a content-moderation project to various efforts to ease budgets during 2023 planning meetings, the Silicon Valley behemoth has become a tinderbox of anxiety, according to interviews with 14 current and former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
[...] The worries have grown as Google's tech industry peers have handed out pink slips amid a souring global economy. Last month, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, purged its ranks by 11,000, or about 13 percent of its work force. Amazon also began laying off about 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs, or about 3 percent of its corporate employees.
Even Google, which is on track to make tens of billions of dollars in profits this year, has had to come to terms with a slowdown. In October, as the digital advertising market slumped, Google's parent company, Alphabet, reported that profit dropped 27 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, to $13.9 billion.
Related: Amazon Will Reportedly Lay Off 10,000 Employees
Related Stories
It's a bad month for layoffs in tech
The big tech layoffs are continuing apace, and it seems nobody is safe. Following this month's massive staff cuts at Twitter and Meta, the New York Times reports that Amazon is now planning to let go of approximately 10,000 employees. Happy holidays, I guess.
Amazon's upcoming job cuts will reportedly impact its corporate employees, specifically its retail division, human resources, and the team working on the company's devices (which includes voice assistant Alexa).
Considering that Amazon employs over 1.5 million people across the globe, 10,000 workers laid off may not seem like a significant percentage from the company's perspective. It amounts to about 0.7 percent of Amazon's employees, which is a considerably smaller relative reduction than Twitter's Elon Musk-induced layoffs that cut its workforce by around 50 percent.
A reduction in force, or perhaps they're making room for picking up some of the high performing Twitter talent who were let go? [hubie]
Amazon.com Inc. is laying off more than 18,000 employees — the biggest reduction in its history — in the latest sign that a tech-industry slump is deepening:
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy announced the cuts, which represent about 1% of Amazon's employees, in a memo to staff Wednesday, saying it followed the company's annual planning process.
The eliminations began last year and were previously expected to affect about 10,000 people. The move is concentrated in the firm's corporate ranks, mostly Amazon's retail division and human resources functions, like recruiting.
[...] The first wave of cuts landed heaviest on Amazon's Devices and Services group, which builds the Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speaker, among other products. The group's chief told Bloomberg last month that layoffs in the unit totaled less than 2,000 people, and that Amazon remained committed to the voice assistant.
Previously:
- Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
- Amazon Will Reportedly Lay Off 10,000 Employees
Due to a changing economic climate, tech companies like Google and Apple have been laying off employees to cut costs and prepare for a potential recession. Meanwhile, automakers like GM have been taking advantage of this influx of talented workers by hiring them to develop the new age of digital vehicles:
According to a report from Detroit Free Press, GM has loosened up its hiring freeze to exploit the new surplus of skilled workers. This makes sense given that The General had a goal to hire 8,000 employees last year to help it focus on the development of the technology needed for electric vehicles. In fact, GM was looking to hire a number of software developers and engineers for its new end-to-end software platform, Ultifi. As a whole, this incursion of digital-focused employees will help the Detroit-based automaker further develop its EVs and self-driving technologies, like Super Cruise and Ultra Cruise.
"While this isn't a major growth year from a hiring standpoint, we're continuing to hire tech talent," said GM spokeswoman Maria Raynal. "This includes some of the talent in the market due to the tech downsizing, particularly in areas such as EV development, software development and defined vehicle."
The auto industry is not immune to the nationwide problems of too few applicants and employees who just stop showing up. Also, I'm wondering how motivated Silicon Valley tech workers will be to move to Detroit.
Previously: Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
In the latest lay off round hit to tech, Yahoo has announced they will be releasing around 1,600 workers, including half their Business unit, with 1,000 of the cuts coming by the end of the week:
The layoffs are part of a broader effort by the company to streamline operations in Yahoo's advertising unit. The Yahoo for Business segment's strategy had "struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack," according to a Yahoo spokesperson.
"Given the new focus of the new Yahoo Advertising group, we will reduce the workforce of the former Yahoo for Business division by nearly 50% by the end of 2023," a Yahoo spokesperson told CNBC.
Yahoo said the company would shift efforts to its 30-year partnership with Taboola, a digital advertising company, to satisfy ad services.
Those losing their jobs will be provided severance packages.
Related:
- Open Source Teams at Google Hit Hard by Layoffs: Was It the Algorithm?
- Amazon to Slash More Than 18,000 Jobs in Escalation of Cuts
- Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
As layoffs ravage the tech industry, algorithms once used to help hire could now be deciding who gets cut:
Days after mass layoffs trimmed 12,000 jobs at Google, hundreds of former employees flocked to an online chatroom to commiserate about the seemingly erratic way they had suddenly been made redundant.
They swapped theories on how management had decided who got cut. Could a "mindless algorithm carefully designed not to violate any laws" have chosen who got the ax, one person wondered in a Discord post The Washington Post could not independently verify.
Google says there was "no algorithm involved" in its job-cut decisions. But former employees are not wrong to wonder, as a fleet of artificial intelligence tools become ingrained in office life. Human resources managers use machine learning software to analyze millions of employment-related data points, churning out recommendations of whom to interview, hire, promote or help retain.
[...] A January survey of 300 human resources leaders at U.S. companies revealed that 98 percent of them say software and algorithms will help them make layoff decisions this year. And as companies lay off large swaths of people — with cuts creeping into the five digits — it's hard for humans to execute alone.
[...] These same tools can help in layoffs. "They suddenly are just being used differently," [Harvard Business School professor Joseph] Fuller added, "because that's the place where people have ... a real ... inventory of skills."
Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
Related:
- Yahoo to Lay Off 20% of Staff by Year-End, Beginning This Week
- Open Source Teams at Google Hit Hard by Layoffs: Was It the Algorithm?
- Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
- Amazon Will Reportedly Lay Off 10,000 Employees
(Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Monday January 02, @10:03AM
I don't exactly blame them, but the wording is unethically biased. Internal communication is confidential and leaking confidential information is a breach of the employment contract, so getting fired is entirely expected. It would also be grounds for a civil lawsuit to reclaim damages. You can't just leak info willy nilly, a fact that has clearly been forgotten in the crazed social justice/cancellation culture of today.
Before you ask, whistleblowing laws cover illegal activities, not actions that violate your brand of social justice or your personal values. Planning to lay off workers is not illegal, nor is stack ranking (assuming that such allegations are true and irrespective of whether it is a good business decision or not).
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @02:20PM (1 child)
- make a list, give employees nothing to do
- put them on corrective action for non-performance
- give them tasks they have no experience in
- give them the option of resigning or being fired for failing corrective action
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 04, @10:16AM
- Have the surprise they actually have enough experience and common professional sense to carry it to the end. And you'll still need to fire them, even if they're better than you could imagine.