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Google Businesses

Google Cuts Managers and VPs in Efficiency Drive (businessinsider.com) 38

Google has reduced its senior management positions by 10% as part of an ongoing efficiency initiative, CEO Sundar Pichai announced during a company-wide meeting earlier this week.

The restructuring affected managers, directors, and vice presidents, with some roles eliminated and others converted to non-management positions, a Google spokesperson told BusinessInsider. The move follows Google's January 2023 layoff of 12,000 employees and Pichai's September 2022 goal to improve company efficiency by 20%.

Google Cuts Managers and VPs in Efficiency Drive

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  • by Ramirozz ( 758009 ) on Friday December 20, 2024 @10:07AM (#65028263)
    After Covid businesses knew cuts were going to happen, and now this has coupled with automation, inflation and other issues. Reaching my 50s and having tried both the corporate world and freelancing, I dont see the professional landscape healthy at all. At first I though it was because businesses preffer to hire younger people but now I dont know. It looks shrinking is the way to go to squeeze as much profit as possible (business as usual) but the underlying factors are making this a mess were salaries and opportunities are stagnant and we are only listening to the loud success cases. At some point I believed that it was people not willing to learn and jump into the automation train but now it seems the train is at 1000 mph and retraining and relearning is too much for the rate at which this is shifting (or shrinking).
    • by Bongo ( 13261 )

      There may be technological reasons, but I wonder about what banks and elites do to focus on asset bubbles and wealth extraction. I have nothing against elites or corporations, but maybe there's perverse incentives at play. Maybe the game is to create funny money rather than genuine things of value.

    • During and after COVID most business were growing by absolutely stupid amounts. We'll be seeing corrections for years. That's not the same as shrinking the business, it's not even a sign the business isn't doing well. It's just not growing like it was 2019-2021, which was insane.

      https://m.macrotrends.net/stoc... [macrotrends.net] https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]

      When you hear about cuts in the IT industry look at their headcount year by year from 2019. A 4% reduction makes the news but consecutive years of 15-20% growth don'

    • Shrink domestic jobs. Bunch of ingrates who think they deserve time off to say hello to the spouse. Just dump them and outsource everything. Outsource the hardware to the cloud, and outsource the people to Elbonia, and sublease all the buildings to crypto miners.

  • by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Friday December 20, 2024 @10:13AM (#65028281) Journal
    I'm sure that Google can do whatever it does cheaper if it fires some people; but it feels weird for a company as erratic and rudderless as they are to be talking about 'efficiency'. Maybe don't develop and then cancel products apparently at random if you want to feel more efficient; rather than immediately moving to develop and then cancel products apparently at random but with 10-30% fewer staff?
    • by hwstar ( 35834 )

      If anything the workload will increase post layoff. Fear will drive the employees to work longer hours in order to keep getting a paycheck. Since the job market isn't great right now, a lot of mediocre employees will not have any choice but to buckle down and do what management tells them to do.

      If you have the financial means, or are one are lucky enough to get another job lined up. Get out. The problem with quitting and working for someone else is it typically won't be much better anywhere else, and you us

  • by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Friday December 20, 2024 @10:19AM (#65028295)

    Cut Pichai's total compensation by 10%. That seems efficient.

    • by sloth jr ( 88200 )
      Er - this act was probably taken to justify Pichai's compensation. "Oh look, profit is up! See, me good! Need cookie!"

      Typical end-of-year short term thinking.
      • It's also the board and shareholders being insufficiently cutthroat. Cutting CXO pay is the next frontier in investor relations.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Given that he is in the process of slowly killing Google, it would be better to throw him out completely. That would also save a lot of money.

  • by zawarski ( 1381571 ) on Friday December 20, 2024 @10:54AM (#65028377)
    I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers dont have to. I have people skills.
    • super-l0l

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      While I deal with customers personally, having a good manager there to help, coordinate and organize things is _very_ nice and _very_ valuable. Good managers are facilitators.

  • 90% of managers feeling their positions under threat, up their game to ensure that they're able to prevent progress more than the original 100%.

  • Companies swing between extremes of having not enough managers to having too many. Don't worry they'll hire more managers in a year or so.
  • I like the euphemism of "improve efficiency" as in "terminate in the workforce" by some percentage. GM did something like this in the 1980s with "the frozen middle" of middle management.

    JoshK.

  • by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Friday December 20, 2024 @01:37PM (#65028827)

    There are good managers. Like the ones that discern what resources are needed and arrange for those resources. Like the ones that intercept useless meetings and requests. Like the ones that champion good work in their group so that the work is used in the company and is rewarded.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      I have met and worked with a small number of good managers. They try to understand what you want to do, then ask what they can do to help and keep all the bureaucratic BS from bogging you down. The very best can also find people for you to talk to when you need to do something specific or figure something out. A good manager realizes he/she is a _helper_ with specialist knowledge in how to deal with their organization. A bad manager is under the delusion of being a "leader".

  • It seems, for example, YouTube is getting ever more arbitrary in banning, demonetizing and otherwise harassing creators. The cases where not even the people inside Google can find out what happened seem to be mounting. Short-term, that may be good for profits. Long-term, that is deadly. Well, nothing of value will be lost when Google dies.

  • To overtaking jobs of humans in the strive for efficiency, meaning money for the board.

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." -- William James

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