Big tech, the ruthless ways they fire employees

For a Google employee, the signal was there red light on the badge reader out of the New York office. For a Twitter staff member, the password changed remotely and an unusual gray screen showing that the his company Macbook had been blocked. For Zac Bowling, who had been working at Google for nearly eight years, the confirmation came as much as he was denied access to all devices.

In recent months the so-called big tech they fired tens Of thousands of workers, an industry downsizing that executives blamed on a hiring glut during the pandemic. Almost always, these companies have handled the situation terribly, giving evidence of cruelty and indifferenceas is the case with Microsoft, which has organized a private Sting concert in Davos the night before firing 10,000 people.

The disparity between high spending and the callousness with which they are firing their employees is tarnishing the reputation of the tech giants, reminding staff that their needs are subordinate to those of the shareholders.

Cruelty and coldness

“Finding out via email or auto-logout that you’ve lost your job is cruel and free – explains Gemma Dalelecturer at Liverpool Business School and author of books on employee welfare and corporate flexibility –. It also runs counter to what many of these organizations say about the value of people.”.

Bowling confirmed that he had been fired from Google in an email that arrived two hours after he was logged out of the company’s systems on the morning of January 20. The manager of him had to use LinkedIn to contact him and apologize, because his access to Google Meet and other internal communication tools had been disabled. The news was one cold shower: Gods had recently arrived in Bowling new business cards corporate, printed in December. Others had just receivedor they waitedglowing assessments of their performance.

The remaining employees fear they could be next. Former colleagues who still have access to company systems told Bowling that 8,000 names have disappeared from employee records. Google has announced that it has fired 12,000 people worldwide. “Everyone waves, just to be safe, because they don’t know if they’ll be cut Bowling says. Morale is broken. They handled it very badly”. The layoffs appear to have taken employees of several big tech companies by surprise lack of communication it has worsened the sense of anguish of those who find themselves out of work.