this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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  • Sundar Pichai said Google cut manager, director, and VP roles by 10% as part of an efficiency drive.
  • Google has sought to boost efficiency by reducing layers and reorganizing teams.
  • The company has been facing challenges from OpenAI and other AI rivals.
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[–] batcheck@lemmy.world 14 points 14 hours ago

This seems pretty typical. Feels like Leaders only have one lever to pull. Things are going badly? Let’s ReOrg, that’ll fix it.

Instead of doing the smart thing and identifying smart individuals within the company and putting them all in group letting them solution.

My guess is the outcome of this will be google having an unofficial marriage with gambling companies as they are the last customers to pay for Ads and see a big positive result

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 36 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

ooooh, cut the CEO roles by 10% next

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago

10% of 300k. Ooooo. But not the bonus, of course, which is the real salary.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 8 points 12 hours ago

Starting from the top.

[–] SirBucksworth@lemmy.world 16 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Imagine they did this that way: „hey Bob, I’ve some good and some bad news for you. The good one fist: you got promoted to Manager/VP/Whatever. The bad one: in order to make the company more efficient we’re letting go of some higher staff. So, you’re fired. Pack your stuff and fuck off until 12pm, manager Bob!“

[–] superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 14 hours ago

I mean I'd still put VP on my resume if I'm him

[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 29 points 21 hours ago (5 children)

Archive

I wonder what the process was for choosing specifically 10%. Why not 8.7%? Or 13.9%? Surely an efficiency drive would have some sort of structured/analytical approach to it?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 points 13 hours ago

Surely an efficiency drive would have some sort of structured/analytical approach to it?

LOL

[–] subignition@piefed.social 24 points 19 hours ago

Some nerd probably wanted to be able to say they literally decimated their management teams

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 18 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

After an engineer is there long enough, they’re likely to become a manager. They’re way more expensive to keep around. Google wants to lay them off and churn them for college grads. Looks better for PR if they say it’s an “efficiency push” rather than “we don’t like to retain employees because it’s expensive.” So this was definitely an arbitrary number

[–] pineapple_pizza@lemmy.dexlit.xyz 7 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

To be fair, it's totally possible that they just have too much management. Then you get into a case where a very large portion of everyone's job is endlessly trying to keep in any with various management and you end up with too many managers competing for not enough work which makes the environment more political

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Certainly possible, and I’ve definitely been a part of orgs with just too much management, but I’m wary of Google saying that, considering how many products they kill every year. I’m sure there would certainly be space for their employees to expand horizontally if their product lineup wasn’t so volatile

[–] Odelay42@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

This isn't as true in tech companies as it was in traditional companies years ago. Most high level engineers take an individual contributor role that allow you to be promoted without becoming a manager. At Google it's called a staff role. At Amazon it's a principal role.

[–] ownsauce@lemmy.world 26 points 21 hours ago

Sounds good to investors

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 3 points 20 hours ago

Or even 200% ¯\_(ツ)_/¯