Google has always been seen as a notable exception in terms of the laying off trend. This could change soon though. The giant is set to identify 6% among its employees in terms of poor performance or ‘noob-lers’. Using the combination of a stack rank system and more performance improvement strategy, employees labelled as poor performers will be shown the exit.
A pressure-building situation
This news comes in after Christopher Hohn, owner of UK-based fund holding of $6 billion worth Alphabet stock, wrote in a letter to Alphabet, “We are writing to express our view that the cost base of Alphabet is too high and management needs to take aggressive action.” Besides the pressure from this manager of hedge fund Alphabet is reeling under excessive hiring side effects since the last few years. From the year 2017 itself, Alphabet has doubled the workforce. Around 15% hiring happened in 2020. Google already had seen some heat in August earlier, when Sundar Pichai undertook an all-hands style meeting and asked employees to buck up on their productivity. He had stated, “There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the head count we have.”
An end note
While it is very common knowledge how Google is a tough company to crack as a job seeker, it is also well known for being among the best places to work at! It has always been one of the most stable workplaces. Then again, with pressure on the main company to execute such layoffs and more cut costs occurring around employees, Google, might simply wear off its own sheen.
