Google has reportedly fired the entire Python team, marking the latest job cuts in the tech giant ahead of its annual developer conference in May.
Google has laid off staff across key teams like Flutter, Dart, Python and affected employees have shared their stories on social media. A few employees on Hacker News and Reddit have claimed that the entire Python team was fired by Google. Python is a major code used in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The tech giant has not eliminated its Python team but has replaced the existing team with another group based in Munich.
Some users suggest that Google is looking for a cheaper option elsewhere outside the US.
"As we've said, we're responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead," said Google spokesperson Alex Garcia-Kummert told TechCrunch.
"To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers, and align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Through this, we're simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities while reducing bureaucracy and layers," he added.
A product manager at Google's Dart and Flutter language said on X, "The layoffs were decided at least a couple of layers above our team and affected a lot of teams. (I think I can say that). Lots of good folks got bad news and lots of great projects lost people."
An employee took to LinkedIn and described the night he learnt about his layoff along with his manager and some members of the team. Matt Hu has been working as a Software Engineer at Google for the last two years. He is staying on an H-1B visa in the US and originally hails from China.
Google said it would support all affected employees, in line with local requirements, by providing them with time to search for different roles at Google or elsewhere, access to outplacement services and severance, TechCrunch reported.
