Big tech layoffs, whether at Google or Amazon, have been brutal as most employees were informed abruptly, and in some cases, on a Friday right before the start of the weekend. The layoff has also affected many Indian workers in the US who now have to find a job in less than two months to save their H1-B visa. After getting laid off from Google last week, Indian worker Monambigha M penned a heartfelt message on LinkedIn. Monambigha, who worked as a Technical Programme Manager at Google, writes that the sudden layoff has been “very difficult” and that her entire team was sacked. The former Google employee adds that she didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to her team members. She was a part of the company for only ten months.
In the post, Monambigha adds that she spent most of Friday searching for affected team members’ LinkedIn profiles to see if they are okay. The post notes, “It’s been a very difficult 48 hours, and I was one of the impacted people by the recent Google Layoffs. I’m clueless as to where this journey might take me from here on out, but I’m ever so grateful for the generous outpouring of love and support from the wonderful people that I’ve known in the last 10 months.”
Google fired roughly 12,000 employees last week after the company overhired workers during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a message to workers, Pichai said that the company is laying off employees to streamline the workplace as per priorities.
After getting laid off, many workers took to LinkedIn and other platforms to show support to other impacted workers. Many also took this opportunity to look for new roles. Some of the posts also revealed the harsh reality of working at big tech companies.
For instance, an ex-Google employee named Justin Moore says that the company sacked him “in the middle of the night.” Moore worked at Google for over 16 years. In his LinkedIn post, another staff engineer named Richard Hay said that he worked at the company for 15.5 years, and got fired in the same manner.
Not just Google, Microsoft recently sacked over 10,000 employees for a similar reason. Many tech companies are feeling the heat due to uncertain macroeconomic conditions, a fall in the hybrid work model, and overhiring in the last two years. Apple is the only tech company that has not announced any major layoffs. However, more will be learned in February during its earnings call for the last quarter.