A man recently found out he was laid off from Google when he went to office at 4 AM to finish some important work and his access card failed to work.
He took to LinkedIn and shared: “Well… I’m also one of the 12,000 people laid off from Google today. I found out when I went to work at 4AM to finish up an important analysis, and my badge didn’t work.”
Isn’t that shocking? Here is the entire post:
This isn’t the only case, the VP of UX, Bobby Nath took to Linkedin and shared his experience:
“I woke up this morning to our Google Nest Hub in a locked state asking to link my account. I don’t recall ever seeing it in this state before, but it’s an older prototype unit with bugs from time to time, so I didn’t think much of it. When I went to check my work email, I was still in a waking state and couldn’t make sense of why I was getting so many emails asking if I was OK. Scrolling further down, there was a form email from PeopleOps indicating, as you may have surmised by now, that my employment at Google has been terminated.”
We find this is borderline insulting (and, we’re being nice when we say that), but both these talented personnel only went ahead to thank their colleagues and the wonderful time they have had at Google. Says a lot about them as professionals!
It also says a lot about how jobs have become as unstable. Just as unstable as how most people view businesses or freelancing even now.
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Other Employees Share Their Experience Of Being Laid Off At Google
Jeremy Joslin took to twitter to share about his layoff via an email.
It’s hard for me to believe that after 20 years at #Google I unexpectedly find out about my last day via an email. What a slap in the face. I wish I could have said goodbye to everyone face to face.
#layoffs— Jeremy Joslin (@jcj) January 20, 2023
Justing Moore, who worked for over 16 years in Google, found out about his lay off via an automated account deactivation at 3AM. He says:
“This also just drives home that work is not your life, and employers — especially big, faceless ones like Google — see you as 100% disposable. Live life, not work” shares Justin Moore in the post above. Something we all need to understand in today’s world.
“Waking up to my laptop wiped and corp access cut off seemed a bit harsh, but I guess a disgruntled engineer can get up to some mischief” shared Alan Skelley on Twitter.
Kenneth Rubenstein, after 15 years at Google and now an Xoogler, shared how to he realised about lay offs when he lost his company access rights. Read his entire post:
Mathhew Nuzum took to Twitter and shares
“For the curious, here’s what it was like to be dismissed by Google as a remote employee:
7:45 Brush teeth, open calendar app Calendar gives error
7:50 Open Gmail app. Gmail app closes, deletes itself. Me: “Huh.”
7:52 Check news. Sees the headline.
8:10 Open work computer. “There was a problem w/ your password.” Me: “Huh.”
8:11 Computer reboots. Now there’s no way to log in.
8:12 Open personal Gmail account on my own computer. There’s an email in a small font.
8:14 Print email. Use map to find my wife to see if she’s driving. She is—two blocks from home. I text her, “Call when you get home.” (I rent an office nearby) I wait to read the email.
8:17 Wife calls, panicked. “Guess what honey…” I read the email with her on the phone. Email is very personal and considerate. “We have some difficult news to share…” Healthcare paid for 6 months. Nice severance, including stock awards. Bonus will still be paid. Job placement help, immigration help, mental health help, a phone number to call. I have seen and experienced cuts before.
They did this very gracefully compared to some (*cough* Twitter). I work remote, so did not have to deal with finding out when my badge didn’t work. That would not have been graceful. I’ll be OK. I’m thankful for my time at #Google.”
It is surprising how grateful people are about not having to find out about layoffs when their badge didn’t work. However, do you think this was respectful enough? I say, no.
Bjorn took to Twitter to share about her friend who worked at Google, says
“Last night I heard about Googler who got laid off. They had been there for 19 years. First job out of college. No one called them. No one thanked them for their service or their blood, sweat and tears. Just terminated their access and that was it. Do better. #googlelayoffs”
Layoffs Are Becoming More And More Commonplace:
We hear about layoffs every single day and since the last few days, that’s all there is. Google laid off 12000 employees, Amazon laid off 18000 employees, Microsoft cut 10000 jobs, and many others have made the headlines.
In any case, it is time to change the mindset and realise that corporate jobs cannot be full proof. If you want to give your best, go beyond the 9-5 jobs and create multiple income streams for security.