Google may layoff over 400 employees in India

Google announced in January its plan to lay off about 12,000 workers worldwide. In the US, the first round of layoffs started after Sundar Pichai's public announcement. Employees in specific units in India have started receiving redundancy letters. A report shows that the company has laid off about 450 employees from the India division. Google India's main office hubs are located in Gurugram, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Several affected members also took to LinkedIn to announce their abrupt departure.

Rajneesh Kumar, a Google India staff member, said in a post, "Earlier today, we received news of some highly skilled and talented colleagues being affected by the recent layoffs at Google India."

Kamal Dave, an account manager at Google India, announced, "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 strategic Account Manager / Consultant."

Saptak Mohanta, another affected employee from the Singapore office, writes that he is "gutted to lose a lot of my brilliant colleagues and friends as part of Google's layoffs in Singapore and India last night." Mohanta was working as a program manager at Google.

We will likely see more posts from affected employees from India and Singapore in the coming days. Last month, after Google workers in the US, were laid off, many took to LinkedIn to share their stories. Several posts on LinkedIn indicated that employees, whether new or with 20 years of experience, were affected.

A post by Nellie, who worked on the Program Management and Learning & Development team, said Google fired her on her maternity leave. When she read the letter, her son was near her. One affected worker even claimed that the layoffs were "random" and that the employees were "blindsided" as the decisions were said not to be based on employee performance.

Google has said the company was forced to lay off employees due to over hiring in the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Added to the poor macroeconomic conditions, the company had to make difficult decisions. In addition, the company is streamlining processes, as it is prioritizing developments in AI (artificial intelligence). This is because the company wants to rival ChatGPT, which works closely with Microsoft.