Pichai said that latest “role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions, and will not touch every team”….reports Asian Lite News
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly warned employees to brace themselves for more job cuts this year.
Google, which has let go over a thousand employees across various departments in the last one week or so, is likely to go for more job cuts, reports The Verge, citing an internal memo.
“We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,” Pichai told employees in the memo.
“The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices,” he added.
In the memo, Pichai said that latest “role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions, and will not touch every team”.
“But I know it’s very difficult to see colleagues and teams impacted,” the Google CEO added.
The layoffs this year are about “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas”.
“Many of these changes are already announced, though to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted,” Pichai further wrote.
After laying off nearly 1,000 employees last week, Google is also reportedly slashing “a few hundred” more jobs in its advertising sales team as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise.
Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, told staff in a memo that the fresh job cuts “were the result of changes to how Google’s sales team operated”, Business Insider reported.
A Google spokesperson also confirmed that “a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated” as part of the restructuring.
In January last year, Google cut its workforce by 12,000 people, or around 6 per cent of its full-time employees.
The layoffs will primarily affect Google’s Large Customer Sales (LCS) unit, a team that sells ads to large businesses.
The Google Customer Solutions team (GCS), which sells ads to smaller clients, will now become the “core” ad sales team.
Google laid off some employees on its LCS team in October last year.
“Every year we go through a rigorous process to structure our team to provide the best service to our Ads customers,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.
“We map customers to the right specialist teams and sales channels to meet their service needs. As part of this, a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated and impacted employees will be able to apply for open roles or elsewhere at Google,” the spokesperson added.
Google had recently laid off workers in several departments, including hardware, central engineering teams, and Google Assistant.
In January last year, Google cut its workforce by 12,000 people, or around 6 per cent of its full-time employees.
The tech giant also made other job cuts to its recruiting and news divisions later in the year.
YouTube Trims Teams
Google-owned YouTube is reportedly laying off at least 100 employees from its creator management and operations teams.
YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe announced the layoffs internally, reports Tubefilter. “YouTube will bring its content creator management teams together under dedicated central leadership in each individual country,” the report noted.
YouTube’s music and support teams are also being reportedly reorganised. In an internal staff memo, Coe said that these changes are intended to streamline YouTube’s business.
She, however, did not divulge how many employees are being affected. “As we have seen the past few years, our creator base is broadening and diversifying, from our most experienced creators to a new generation of casual creators posting on YouTube for the first time,” Coe wrote.
“Gen AI tools will further fuel new forms of creativity and bring even more creators to the platform,” she added. At the same time, “our subscription businesses have momentum, powered by partnerships with music, sports and media companies”.
“As the business evolves, we have an even greater need to ensure we’re running the business effectively and meeting the needs of all of our users,” Coe told the employees. Those being laid off will have a chance to apply for other roles at YouTube. However, “it was not clear if they are guaranteed new positions within the company”.
“Each one of you has been a valued and meaningful part of our team, and we’ll be here to support you as you consider next steps,” said Coe.
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