Google Has Fired Nearly a Thousand Employees From Different Departments

Since the very beginning, the year 2024 has continuously haunted the world with employee layoff news as the world’s largest search engine, Google, has confirmed the details. According to the details from the New York Times, the company has laid off around 1000 workers. It is one of the most significant moves taken by the company and is aimed at reducing operational costs as much as possible. Amazon Twitch has also taken a similar step just before this announcement along with shutting its services in South Korea for the same purpose as narrated by Google.

Google Fired Around Thousand Employees

Since the pandemic, Google has continuously struggled to get its operational tendency back on track and has made similar moves in the past as well. In this new layoff, the company has fired workers from numerous departments. The affected ones are the hardware Voice Assistant team, which is currently working on Pixel phones, Fitbit watches, and Nest thermostats. On the other hand, other departments include Google’s core engineering team and Google Assistant team. 

Implications

After the announcement, several professionals working in the core engineering department have lost access to their corporate accounts. Also, they have received notifications confirming that they are no longer part of Google. Eliminating the employees from the core functioning team may also pose question marks on the latest development of AR systems. However, the company has clarified that it is not abandoning AR completely.

Google has revealed that its efforts are always directed toward software development, with its ARCore platform providing AR experience to a larger number of Android users. Additionally, the tech giant has signed partnership deals with major OEMs, resulting in a wider audience reach. Also, these signings will increase the speed of AR adoption, making it more accessible.

A spokesperson from Google has narrated the whole incident and nipped the details by saying that the company is investing responsibly in some other departments to improve its services. Therefore, they have made a significant cut in the total employees’ number to reduce operational costs and grab other significant opportunities. 

Google has also laid off its employees in the latter half of 2023, and the spokesperson described that some teams are continuously making such organizational changes, which lead to eliminating important roles on a global basis.

Impacts of Layoff

Laying off around a thousand employees is a significant decision. Furthermore, the major sectors affected by this move are the hardware and engineering divisions. The company is hopeful to find a huge cut in its total cost and looking for long-term advantages. On the other hand, workers who have lost their positions could be in serious trouble along with their families. Ultimately, it will have a great impact on Google’s reputation. Also, it will create extra pressure on the remaining workers, which may result in non-compliance with labor regulations. Nevertheless, it is too early to predict the exact impacts as the search engine giant has all the resources to fight it.