Google is latest tech firm to put a ‘go slow’ on new hires as CEO sends all workers memo saying firm will need to work with ‘greater urgency and sharper focus’: Comes after similar staff shake ups at Meta, Twitter and Netflix
- Alphabet Inc’s Google said it will slow the pace of hiring for the rest of the year
- Google is the latest company to make such a move as decades-high inflation and the fallout from the Ukraine crisis continues to pressure businesses
- Hiring efforts at Google will be focused towards engineering and technical roles
Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday it would slow the pace of hiring for the rest of the year, the latest company to make such a move as decades-high inflation and the fallout from the Ukraine crisis pressure businesses.
The announcement aligns Google with other major tech companies including Uber Technologies Inc and Twitter Inc and comes a day after Microsoft Corp said it would eliminate some positions.
‘Like all companies, we’re not immune to economic headwinds,’ Alphabet said in a regulatory filing.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that the company will have to ‘be more entrepreneurial’ and work with ‘greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days’
Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday it would slow the pace of hiring for the rest of the year, the latest company to make such a move as decades-high inflation and the fallout from the Ukraine crisis pressure businesses. The company’s share price has plumetted
Hiring efforts will be focused towards engineering and technical roles, it said.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that the company will have to ‘be more entrepreneurial’ and work with ‘greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days’, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge.
Pichai said that the move will mean ‘pausing development and re-deploying resources to higher priority areas’.
A number of companies, including Uber and Meta, have scaled back their hiring whilst others – like Netflix – have laid off staff.
The announcement aligns Google with other major tech companies including Uber Technologies Inc and Twitter Inc and comes a day after Microsoft Corp said it would eliminate some positions. Pictured: Google HQ
Mark Zuckerburg has decided to get tough on staff as managers have been ordered to oust ‘coasting’ employees amidst a devastating downturn in value.
An internal memo sent on Friday by Facebook’s head of engineering, Maher Saba, directed engineering managers to report anyone who ‘needs support’ to human resources by 5pm Monday, according to the Information.
‘If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,’ Saba wrote in the scathing message, ‘As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.’
The move is a dramatic change of tone for the social media giant – recently rebranded as Meta – which was well known in its early days for setting the tone for the relaxed and laid-back corporate attitude that came to characterize Silicon Valley.
The news comes as Facebook’s value has plummeted in the past months – declining nearly 52 per cent since the start of 2022 – amidst an ongoing reckoning of the company’s privacy policies that has gutted its longtime method of making money by selling user data.
‘If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,’ Mark Zuckerberg told employees during a companywide call in late June
‘If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,’ Facebook’s head of engineering, Maher Saba (above), wrote
‘If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,’ Mark Zuckerberg told employees during a companywide call in late June.
The 38-year-old Facebook founder said during the call that he expected to reduce engineer hiring plans by at least 30 per cent as the company looks for ways to cut costs, according to Reuters.
On the call, Zuckerberg indicated that one of those cost cutting methods would be rooting out dead weight.
‘Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,’ he said.
It was not immediately clear what led Zuckerberg to believe there was dead-weight in the company’s staff.
The memo from Saba appeared to be one of the first steps in that process, with many employees expressing fear that their jobs may be on the line in the face of layoffs.
‘The reaction from folks that have seen this is that this will be used to create a bunch [of] ‘performance improvement plans’ that will result in mass layoffs,’ an anonymous individual close to the matter told The Washington Post.
Employees are also worried about a reduction in promotions and shrunken bonuses, according to the Post.
‘I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,’ Zuckerberg told employees on the June call.
Facebook employees are also worried about a reduction in promotions and shrunken bonuses, according to the The Washington Post
At the end of 2021, Facebook reported that it had lost daily users for the first time since it was started 18 years ago.
The downturn comes after Apple introduced privacy policies on its devices intended to curb outside parties’ ability to gather and sell user’s data. Apps – including Facebook – were forced to ask people whether they wanted their activity tracked so they could receive targeted ads. Many declined, and gutted Facebook of that cornerstone source of income.
The company has also faced growing competition from other social media apps like TikTok, despite leaning heavily into its own short form video platform, Reels.
Profits at Facebook have also declined since it was rebranded Meta, following Zuckerberg’s bet that the next era of the internet will be a virtual-reality based immersive experience known as the metaverse.
Meanwhile, in May, Uber said it will scale back hiring and reduce expenditure on its marketing and incentive activities after the company posted a $5.9 billion loss for the first quarter of 2022, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an email to staff.
Khosrowshahi said Uber’s change in strategy was a necessary response to the ‘seismic shift’ in investor sentiment, according to an email obtained by CNBC.
‘After earnings, I spent several days meeting investors in New York and Boston,’ Khosrowshahi said.
‘It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly.’
‘The least efficient marketing and incentive spend will be pulled back. We will treat hiring as a privilege and be deliberate about when and where we add headcount,’ Khosrowshahi added.
Uber will scale back hiring and reduce expenditure on its marketing and incentive activities after the company posted a $5.9 billion loss for the first quarter of 2022, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (pictured) said in an email to staff
The company’s revenues more than doubled to $6.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, but Uber also posted a $5.9 billion loss due to a slump in its equity investments.
The company will now focus on achieving profitability on a free cash flow basis, rather than adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, according to the CNBC report.
The ride hailing giant expects to generate ‘meaningful positive cash flows’ for the full year, according to its latest earnings report.
Khosrowshahi added in his letter that Uber’s food delivery and freight businesses need to grow faster, the CNBC report added.
In May, Netflix announced it was cutting about 150 jobs after losing 200,000 subscribers since the end of last year.
In May, Netflix announced it was cutting about 150 jobs after losing 200,000 subscribers since the end of last year. Above, the company’s headquarters on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood
Most of the employees being laid off are based in the US and work in creative positions across film and TV.
The California-based streaming service is even eliminating some executive positions in its original content departments, sources told Deadline. A few director-level executives may also be on their way out.
As of December, Netflix had about 11,300 full-time employees, meaning that the cuts represent about 1 percent of its global workforce.
A little less than half of the staff is based in Los Angeles, with many of the rest at the company’s headquarters in Los Gatos, in the Bay Area.
Source: Read Full Article
