Job cuts at Google: CEO Sundar Pichai has no ‘reassuring words’ for employees – Times of India

It was a tense all-hands meeting at Google last week. The Google parent Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly declined to reassure employees that job cuts aren’t under consideration. According to a report in Business Insider, Pichai offered no assurance to worried Google employees that layoffs won’t happen. “It’s really tough to predict the future, so unfortunately, I can’t honestly sit here and make forward-looking commitments,” said Pichai during a companywide meeting with all employees.
When asked about job cuts Pichai said that what the company is trying hard to do “is to make important decisions, be disciplined, prioritise where we can, rationalise where we can, so that we are set up to better weather the storm, regardless of what’s ahead”. “I think that’s what we should focus on and try and do our best there,” Pichai added.
Google ‘brings in’ GRAD
A recent report in The Information claimed that Google may cut as many as 10,000 jobs. The company has reportedly introduced a new performance rating metric called ‘Googler Reviews and Development’ (GRAD). Under this, Google managers have been reportedly asked to rank 6% of employees, making for some 10,000 employees, as low performers, compared to the traditional 2%. Earlier, supervisors were told to cut down on the inflated ratings. Alphabet had a workforce of nearly 187,000 at the end of the last quarter.

Google on GRAD
In an email to Forbes, Google spokesperson Chris Pappas confirmed the new rating system. He said that the program has been implemented to “help employee development, coaching, learning and career progression throughout the year.” He further added, “The news system helps establish clear expectations and provide employees with regular feedback on their performance.”
Google investor wants the company to cut jobs and reduce salary
Last month, the UK-based investor Christopher Hohn wrote an open letter to Alphabet asking the company to cut jobs and trim salaries. In the letter, Hohn said that Google has too many employees and it pays too high. Quoting Google’s Securities and Exchange Filing (SEC), Hohn said that the median compensation for an Alphabet employee last year was around $295,884. This is nearly 70% more than what Microsoft paid its employees. It is also 153% higher than what competing tech companies pay their employees.