An Engineering Manager at Google, who claimed to be one of the 12,000 workers let go by Alphabet Inc, the parent company of the Mountain View-based company, claimed that “big, faceless” companies see employees as “100% disposable”.
Justin Moore, the fired employee, in his LinkedIn post called his more than 16 years at Google as a ‘largely wonderful’ time.
“So after over 16.5 years at Google, I appear to have been let go via an automated account deactivation at 3am this morning as one of the lucky 12,000. I don’t have any other information, as I haven’t received any of the other communications the boilerplate ‘you’ve been let go’ website (which I now also can’t access) said I should receive,” Moore wrote while also expressing his pride in the work he and his colleagues have done over the years on LinkedIn.
“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,” he added.
Moore concluded the post with a quote from Sir Andrew Barton’s Ballard, “I’ll lay me down and bleed a-while, And then I’ll rise and fight again.” He claims that his father considered this to be one of his favorites.
Googles plans
Google on Friday announced its plans to lay off nearly 12,000 employees with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announcing the news to employees over an email.
“The company has been hiring for periods of dramatic growth over the past two years but that was a different economic reality than the one we face today,” Pichai said in the company’s news blog.
“I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. 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 said.
“This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” Pichai added.