''Why Me?'': Google India Lays Off Employee After Awarding Him 'Star Performer' Of The Month

The past few months have been gloomy for the technology sector as several big tech firms have carried out massive layoffs. Tech giant Google is also learnt to have sacked around 450 employees across various departments in India. The sudden layoffs have prompted several employees to express their grief and share their stories about their time at the tech giant.

Impacted by the job cut, a Google India employee, hailing from Hyderabad, who worked as Digital media senior associate at the company, shared his ordeal on LinkedIn. 

In a lengthy post, the employee said how he ''skipped a heartbeat'', on Saturday when he received the mail informing him that he had been laid off. He further wrote that Google fired him even after rewarding him with a ''star'' performer of the month badge. 

His post reads, ''Saturday Morning I skipped a heartbeat when I got a pop-up email notification on my phone stating email was from Google Operations Center. I have been affected by a layoff - workforce reduction at Google Operations Center. One of the most valuable esteemed companies. I was a proud #Googler and will always be... I had a very first question why me though I was star performer for month still why me? And I see there was no answer at all!''

Sharing how the layoff has affected him, he wrote, "My salary is half for 2 months! My financial plans are completely ruined! This took place on Saturday and it took me two days to get the strength to jot this down and now I have to fight back for survival."

The former Google employee also urged people on LinkedIn to suggest a better opportunity available for him. He said, ''If my connections could react to this it would help me reach out any better opportunity. May all the people fighting the battle of layoff find a way to fight the inner battle and also survival battle.''

Aakriti Walia, a Google Cloud program manager based in Gurugram, who recently celebrated her 5-year-Googleversary at the firm was also laid off. She expressed how the "access denied" message on her computer left her numb. 

In January, Alphabet Inc announced that it was eliminating about 12,000 jobs or six per cent of its workforce. Some of the staff realised they lost their jobs when they were unable to access the systems. CEO Sundar Pichai told staff in a memo that the firm had reviewed its products, people and priorities, leading to job cuts across geographies and tech.

Earlier in January, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts or nearly 5 per cent of its workforce. Amazon also is cutting 18,000 jobs. Meta let go over 11,000 workers last year, 13% of its workforce, in its first major layoff.