Google is planning a hiring slowdown through the rest of 2022 with the exception of “critical roles,” according to a letter from CEO Sundar Pichai to employees across the company.
To say that the economy is in flux would be putting it lightly, and it seems that even the biggest tech giants are not bulletproof. Bloomberg got a hold of a letter from Alphabet Inc. and Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed to employees company-wide (who are cheekily called “Googlers”) that describes the company’s hiring plans moving forward, and urges employees to be “more entrepreneurial.” The letter does not address any potential for layoffs, but does indicate that the company will shift its focus to hiring “critical roles” after hiring 10,000 employees in Q2. Pichai writes:
The uncertain global economic outlook has been top of mind. Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds. Something I cherish about our culture is that we’ve never viewed these types of challenges as obstacles. Instead, we’ve seen them as opportunities to deepen our focus and invest for the long term…Because of the hiring progress achieved so far this year, we’ll be slowing the pace of hiring for the rest of the year, while still supporting our most important opportunities.
Tech companies across the board have taken a labour hit over the past few months, from layoffs to hiring freezes. Meta is also allegedly instructing managers to show poor performing employees the exit door, with Vice President of Remote Presence and Engineering Maher Saba reportedly saying “they are not who we need.” Netflix has been steadily laying off employees since a group of writers for its blog TUDUM were let go in April. Bird, a popular ride sharing service specializing in electric scooters plans to lay off 23% of its workforce.
The labour force in tech is changing, but it seems that in an industry with so much cash flow, corporations would (unsurprisingly) rather axe their workforce than invest in their development and retention. But with all the talk of layoffs, some companies are looking to forge a new path, like Microsoft that has been willing and open to employee unionization efforts.