Tech giant Google, which sacked 453 employees in India across departments late on Thursday night, has simultaneously rushed to reassure other existing employees in the country about support being extended to them in these “challenging times”.
Sources told businessline that a mass email was sent out by Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and Vice President, Google India, to employees confessing that “it’s been a challenging few weeks and on an especially difficult day”.
“There’s never an easy way to deliver news like this, but I wanted to share this note with you today so we can bring the uncertainty and wait surrounding this to an end. This evening, we notified all Googlers in India whose roles have been impacted, as of the workforce reductions announced in January. Managers will soon receive details of their impacted team members,” sources quoting Gupta’s mail said.
Gupta ensured that employees receiving this mail were not part of the job cuts. “If you are receiving this email, you can assume your role has not been impacted by these changes,” adding that “out of respect for privacy of those impacted, we will not be sharing a list”.
He mentioned in his mail that Google is doing everything to help employees who have been impacted. “We’ve shared detailed information, resources and FAQs on immediate next steps. Our managers and leaders will reach out to offer support and we’ll have our Pops (people operations) teams assist impacted Googlers in navigating through this time.”
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This is the first round of layoffs in Google’s India operations after Alphabet Inc, its parent company, announced the sacking of 12,000 employees or 6 per cent of its total headcount globally. The company is pressed against the wall with stiff competition emanating from Microsoft in the development of AI-enabled search engines. In India, Google is facing a potential threat to its existing business model after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed the tech giant to pay a penalty of ₹1,337.76 crore for “abuse of dominance” in the Android ecosystem from the company. CCI also ordered Google to lift restrictions imposed on device manufacturers, mainly those relating to the pre-installation of Google-owned apps. Google’s appeal against the order is being currently heard by the National Company Appellate Law Tribunal (NCLAT).
‘Not a trend’
According to analysts, a prolonged shrinkage in the number of employees is not expected in the immediate future. “I see this as a correction, not a trend. It perhaps reflects the moderation of Covid-related demand, recent economic troubles and other one-off factors. I expect IT majors to pick up in due course,” Mahesh Uppal, Director at ComFirst (India), said.
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