Google sacks employees in India, cuts 450 jobs across verticals

Engineering, customer support roles affected in Microsoft's 3rd round of sackings

Google is said to have laid off over 450 Indian employees as part of its global plan to reduce its workforce by 6 per cent or 12,000 employees. The email to Indian employees started coming in early on Monday and people across verticals have been affected, sources said.

According to a post on professional networking app Grapevine, 70 per cent of the Simsim team, the Delhi-based social commerce start-up that was acquired by YouTube in 2021, was laid off.

An email sent to Google India did not elicit a response and its team pointed instead to the company’s blog on layoffs posted on January 20.

Meanwhile, some of the employees who were laid off took to LinkedIn. “I was a part of Google India layoffs yesterday. At Google, my energies were focused on delivering digital marketing goals for multiple industries at the top of their food chain in India as a key account manager/consultant. I am looking for a new role and would appreciate your support,” a former Google employee wrote in a LinkedIn post. The account manager had served at Google’s Gurugram office for just under three years.

Jyotish Bhaskar, a software engineer at the company, wrote: “I have been closely observing this situation and the uncertainty over the past 4-5 weeks has been painful.”

“It’s disheartening to see how many talented individuals have been affected and only those who are directly impacted can truly comprehend the hardship. I kindly urge everyone to offer their support during this difficult time,” Bhaskar added.

In January, Google confirmed that it would lay off 12,000 employees or 6 per cent of its employee base. Sundar Pichai, CEO and chairman of the tech giant, had taken responsibility for the company’s action. “We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices,” he had said.

Microsoft

Meanwhile, Microsoft, which had announced 10,000 job cuts or about 5 per cent of its employees in January, has been extremely guarded about layoffs in India. Though the India numbers could not be confirmed, sources in the know said a third round of layoffs had just begun, impacting roles like engineering, customer support, customer pre-sales, sales and architect.

“The layoffs here are happening very quietly, even managers sometimes are not told. In some cases, people who are really good performers have also been asked to leave and no explanations are being provided,” said a person aware of the matter.

An email sent to Microsoft also remained unanswered.

Employees impacted by the layoffs across platforms were confused about the parameters used. Across social media several said employees with experience and who were good performers had also been asked to go. “200 people in Singapore’s Google office laid off. Pattern isn’t clear: some tenured folks and apparently good performers were also laid off,” said a Grapevine user, who goes by the name Wryexile38.

Other tech giants like Amazon and Facebook’s parent Meta have also announced global job cuts of 18,000 and 11,000 positions, respectively.