Amid ongoing layoffs, Google employees in the US and Canada are pushing back, launching a petition addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai, demanding job security. Titled “Job Security,” the petition reflects growing concerns about the company’s future workforce policies.
According to CNBC, more 1,250 employees have already signed it, urging leadership to provide clarity and stability.
“We, the undersigned Google workers from offices across the US and Canada, are concerned about instability at Google that impacts our ability to do high quality, impactful work,” the petition states.
In the petition, the employees have argued that Google is financially stable, so the layoffs don’t make sense. According to them, the layoffs seem unnecessary and unfair.
“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,” it read.
The petition comes amid Google’s cost-cutting stance as the tech giant shifts its focus to the ongoing AI wave. The company’s new chief financial officer (CFO), Anat Ashkenazi, has called cost-cutting a major priority, especially as the company invests more in AI infrastructure in 2025. She mentioned that there are still more ways to reduce expenses, which made employees nervous about further layoffs. Google hasn’t provided any specific details about the cost-cutting measures it intends to undertake.
The Google employees’ demands
Through the petition, the employees have asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai to offer voluntary buyouts before laying people off, guarantee severance pay for laid-off employees, and not use performance reviews as an excuse to fire workers.
The employees believe that the company might be giving low-performance ratings just to use them as a layoff excuse. However, Google denied those allegations and said performance reviews are fair and based on individual roles and expectations.
