Facing the waves of job insecurity that are coming their way head-on, Google employees have signed a petition against layoffs at the organization, directly addressed to the CEO Sundar Pichai. More than 1,300 Google employees are protesting against the risk of layoffs at the organization, demanding some reassurance that the business will consider alternate measures before turning to organization-wide job cuts.
The “Googlers for Job Security” petition is being led by the Alphabet Workers Union, and it comes as a precautionary move during a month when the organization typically conducts annual performance reviews. The risk of cuts is particularly high right now as the result of the reviews might determine which workers are let go. The industry is also facing disruption from other businesses like ChatGPT and its expansion into search engines and the new Chinese AI platform, DeepSeek. Such changes to the industry offer employers to take severe measures like layoffs.
Image: Pexels
Google Employees Petition Against Layoffs—Will It Be Enough to Prevent Job Cuts in 2025?
Layoffs were a particularly unpleasant trend that spiked in 2024, and all signs suggest that it will continue to be a problem in 2025. Last year, from Boeing to Meta, organizations actively slashed off major chunks of their workforce in order to reorient the business and set new goals for the company as a whole.
Many roles and departments have been made redundant due to the evolution of AI and automation and the shifting priorities of the organization, such as the decline in the significance of DEI, have made it more likely that some workers will be eliminated from their teams moving forward. Some organizations, like Spotify for example, are still shedding the weight from the over-hiring they had indulged in during the pandemic, leaving them with an excess of workers who were no longer essential to the company.
In a recent survey, over 45% of employers stated that they were planning to cut jobs later this year, indicating that the trend was set to expand into 2025. The companies cited various reasons for the move which included economic struggles and the changing political climate, but regardless of the reasoning, the trend has left workers extremely anxious about losing their jobs and being released into a market that was not currently hiring.
Why Are Google Workers Demanding Job Security Now?
Over the last two years, Google has consistently participated in laying off workers at the start of the year in order to cut costs and reinvest the resources in other, more central, areas of development. Reportedly 12,000 jobs were cut in 2023, and multiple rounds of layoffs in 2024 saw employees ranging from the “core” team to the managers and VPs leave the workforce.
In October last year, the new CFO Anat Ashkenazi stated that one of her top priorities going into the new year would be to cut costs and expand the organization’s spending on artificial intelligence. Cutting costs often have a direct correlation with cutting the workforce. The company has not elaborated on how it intends to “push a little further” on its cost-cutting ever since.
With the annual performance reviews that are conducted in January, employees are unable to rid themselves of the anxiety surrounding the future of their roles. The petition includes an appeal to Google to eliminate any room for forced performance rankings that could be used to cut lower-ranking employees from the company.
Google has reiterated that it does not have any forced rating distributions for its annual review process (Google Reviews and Development, or GRAD), and that employees are rated based on their individual roles and the expectations set for it.
What Does the Google Employee Petition Against Job Cuts Include?
While employees can’t stop the organization from prioritizing its business goals over its workforce, employees are hopeful that Google will adopt a more humane approach to reorganizing its workers. The Google employees protesting the layoffs have requested that the organization consider offering buyouts to employees if needed, instead of showing them the door with a severance package in hand.
These employees believe that buyouts offer them some autonomy over the situation, ensuring that those who choose to leave do so in a way that is more suited to them. It also gives these workers some time to readjust and find work to continue on with their careers.
For those who have to be laid off, the Google employees’ petition against the job cuts includes appeals of reasonable severance packages similar to those that were offered to the employees during the January 2023 layoffs. Back then, employees had been provided 16 weeks of pay, along with two weeks of pay for every additional year they had worked at the organization.
“Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs. The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more,” the petition states. It’s true that despite competition, Google has seen great financial success, particularly in the last year, and it isn’t under any strain to conserve its resources. CEO Pichai even referred to the company’s growth as “extraordinary.”
Will the Petition Be Effective?
The Google employees’ petition regarding layoffs has been signed by over 1,300 employees in the U.S. and Canada. Google reportedly employs over 182,502 workers across its businesses so the number of workers who have signed the petition is admittedly small. It’s unclear if the petition will make a difference to the organization and if it will be able to open up a broader conversation surrounding mass layoffs.
Still, the Google workers’ demand for job security highlights the anxiety and uncertainty that workers are carrying around with them today. Google’s response to the situation may just set the tone for how other businesses will approach the matter of layoffs this year.
