Layoffs at Google? Employees ‘warned’ to prepare for blood on the streets

According to a report by The New York Post, sales leadership has threatened employees with an “overall examination of sales productivity and productivity in general.” In a company message viewed by Insider, it said that if next quarter results “don’t look up, there will be blood on the streets.”

The warning was first reported by Insider. Google has already extended its hiring freeze this month without making an announcement. The development made existing Google employees “fearful of layoffs”. Now, the tech giant has reportedly warned employees with layoffs if the results are not productive.

In July this year, Google announced to slow down hirings for two weeks to review its headcount needs and decide on future course of action. The freeze, however, was extended till the rest of 2022. According to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, “it’s clear we are facing a challenging macro environment with more uncertainty ahead.”

Pichai told employees late last month that they must improve productivity due to fierce economic headwinds. Pichai said that he wanted to solicit ideas from his employees on how to get “better results faster.” “There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the head count we have,” he was quoted as saying.

Google parent company Alphabet reported weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue for the April-June period (Q2). Revenue growth slowed to 13 per cent from 62 per cent in the same quarter last year. Google is not the only one to slow down the hirings or to lay off employees. LinkedIn, Meta, Oracle, Twitter, Nvidia, Snap, Uber, Spotify, Intel, Microsoft and Salesforce, are among others to lay off employees amidst the economic slowdown worldwide.

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