Sundar Pichai, the head of Google and its parent Alphabet, told employees to “be more entrepreneurial” and work with “more hunger” in an email to all staff warning of consolidation, several news outlets reported.
Citing an “uncertain global economic outlook,” the CEO said Google would slow the pace of hiring in the second half of 2022. Google brought on a whopping 10,000 workers during the second quarter, according to Pichai. The Google chief continued that the company would consolidate “where investments overlap” and streamline its processes. In fact, Google encourages its staff to work harder, or else.
Tech companies of all shapes and sizes have been laying off workers in the face of the looming recession. These include Google, Microsoft, Tesla and other corporate giants, as well as relatively much smaller companies like Bird, Rivian and Coinbase. Pichai’s memo doesn’t mention layoffs, but phrases like “improvement” and “consolidation” tend to evoke such things.
Alphabet, for its part, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the memo. His net profit in the first quarter passed out 8% year to 16.44 billion dollars. The company will report its second quarter earnings on July 26.
