Logged out at 11pm, received layoff email at 2am, employee shares Google layoff experience
Amid the grim outlook for the global economy in the coming months, there is no end to the news of layoffs from major tech giants and other multinational corporations. The unprecedented job losses have left many professionals with an uncertain future. One of those Indian-American techies shared his story about sudden dismissal and the lessons learned from it on Linkedin. Engineer Vishal Arora worked at Google for over a year and a half. He got the news of his firing as he was preparing for his office meeting at 7am.
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Vishal Arora shared his layoff story on Google where he told that he was one of 12,000 employees laid off by Google. He said the firing process was more shocking than the news itself.
“What surprised me most was how unexpected this was. And every unexpected failure deserves a flawless post-mortem, so here’s mine, along with my lessons learned: https://lnkd.in/gjB7Yscc,” Vishal Arora said in his Linkedin post.
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In the document link he shared with his post, he mentioned how it started with an email, which he thought was spam, and ended the next morning when he couldn’t log into his laptop.
Receives an e-mail about his resignation at 2 a.m
Months ago, Vishal Arora received an email from ‘Direct report in India’ that the message was the last chat message. He received the mail at 2 a.m. on January 20. Vishal thought it was a spam email. When he tried to log into the computer for his meeting at 7:00 the next morning, he was denied access by the system. It was then that he realized that he had been fired from the company.
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Expected smoother outage with better communication
The process of laying off a large number of employees “could have been smoother through better communication and transparency.” He also mentioned how other organizations have fired employees with a personal notice, along with a limited ability to say goodbye to close colleagues. He also pointed to creative options used by other companies to avoid layoffs, such as “temporary pay cuts for employees or temporary cuts in benefits.”
Lessons learned from layoffs
-Vishal Arora also shared some things that he will take care of in his next job. He said how his wife turned down the opportunity to join Google some time ago. The decision has helped the couple diversify their income. Vishal also mentioned how his stock portfolio was heavily skewed against Google stock. He also mentioned the importance of building a financial buffer for such situations as there is no guarantee of severance pay. Employees should also work on improving their skills and not be limited to their jobs as they can be taken from them at any time. It is important to give equal priority to family, personal health, friends, etc.
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