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Google employees express concern about lay-offs

Google executives are telling their employees to shape up or ship out, warning that lay-offs are coming if results don’t meet expectations.

Employees who work in the Google Cloud sales department said that senior leadership told them that there will be an “overall examination of sales productivity and productivity in general.”

If third quarter results “don’t look up, [then] there will be blood on the streets,” according to a message conveyed to the sales team. The warning was first reported by Insider.

Employees told the news site that they are fearful of lay-offs after the company quietly extended its hiring freeze this month without making an announcement, the New York Post reports.

The Post you have sought comment from Google.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told his employees in an all hands meeting late last month that they needed to improve their focus and productivity due to fierce economic headwinds that have forced widespread belt-tightening all throughout the technology sector.

Mr Pichai said that he wanted to solicit ideas from his employees on how to get “better results faster.”

“It’s clear we are facing a challenging macro environment with more uncertainty ahead,” Mr Pichai said.

“There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the head count we have.”

The search engine also announced a two-week hiring freeze last month, but so far it has not reversed its decision — prompting employees to fear the worst, according to Insider.

Since Mr Pichai’s comments, “everyone has been talking about the company tightening its belt,” one employee told Insider.

Google isn’t the only tech company that has put its employees on notice.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook’s parent company Meta, blamed “one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history” for a series of cost-cutting measures, including a hiring freeze.

Mr Zuckerberg also made it clear that the company will part ways with employees who do not perform up to par.

“Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Zuckerberg told an all hands meeting in late June.

Facebook’s social media rival Twitter recently rescinded a job offer to a Palo Alto man as part of the San Francisco-based company’s cutting back on hiring.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal informed employees of the hiring pause in a message earlier this year, citing a recent lag on growth and revenue targets.

The company has been thrown into turmoil since Tesla CEO Elon Musk agreed to buy it for $US44 billion — only to back out of the deal. Twitter is now suing Musk in an effort to enforce the terms of the agreement.

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission

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HyperSocial CEO Braden Wallake mocked for crying selfie after staff cuts

The CEO of an online marketing firm was lambasted on social media after he posted a “cringe-worthy” selfie on LinkedIn that showed him crying as he announced cuts to staff.

Braden Wallake, CEO of marketing services firm HyperSocial based in Ohio, US, took to the professional networking site to announce the firings in a lengthy post to employees, the new york post reports.

It is unclear how many employees were let go by the company.

“This will be the most vulnerable thing I’ll ever share,” he wrote. “I’ve gone back and forth whether to post this or not. We just had to lay off a few of our employees.”

Mr Wallake then wrote that the dismissals were “my fault” because of a decision that he made in February. I have admitted that I am “stuck with that decision for far too long”.

“Now, I know my team will say that ‘we made that decision together,’ but I lead [sic] us into it,” he wrote. “And because of those failings, I had to do today, the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.

“We’ve always been a people first business. And we always will be,” he said.

“Days like today, I wish I was a business owner that was only money driven and didn’t care about who he hurt along the way,” Mr Wallake wrote. “But I’m not. I’m sure there are hundreds and thousands of others like me.”

According to HyperSocial’s LinkedIn page, the company, which was founded in 2019, has up to 50 employees.

“The ones you don’t see talked about,” he continued. “Because they didn’t lay off 50 or 500 or 5000 employees. They laid off one or two or three. One or two or three that would still be here if better decisions had been made.”

Mr Wallake continued: “I know it isn’t professional to tell my employees that I love them. But from the bottom of my heart, I hope they know how much I do.

“Every single one. Every single story. Every single thing that makes them smile and every single thing that makes them cry,” he wrote. “Their families. Their friends. Their hobbies. I’ve always hired people based on who they are as people.

“People with great hearts and great souls. And I can’t think of a lower moment than this,” Mr Wallake wrote.

The post by Mr Wallake generated more than 30,500 reactions, with more than 5,800 comments, and nearly 500 shares as of Thursday morning. Most of the reactions were negative.

“Why don’t you cut your salary or don’t take one until the company is back where you need it to be?” one commenter wrote on LinkedIn. “I mean, if you really care about your employees and the hardship you just dropped on them.”

Another LinkedIn user posted a screenshot of an Instagram post by Mr Wallake from June in which he announced that he adopted a sea otter.

“Maybe it’s not a great idea to adopt a sea lion at the beginning of a recession?”

Mr Wallake pushed back, saying that the adoption was a result of a “donation made on my behalf as a birthday present to me” and that he doesn’t “actually have a sea otter running around our van”.

Another LinkedIn user wrote: “Are you being serious here? Perhaps you think all publicity is good publicity.

“For goodness sake show some humility or some dignity.”

Another critic wrote: “I am sorry, your post causes bad feelings at me. This is more about YOUR feelings and not about the feelings of the people you had to lay off. That looks a bit like self-pity.”

But others on LinkedIn defended Mr Wallake – and clapped back at those who ridiculed him.

“What about this post in which he admits his faults, failures and expresses his anguish at the hurt he’s caused made you feel the need to pile on?” one defend wrote.

Mr Wallake posted another message on LinkedIn on Wednesday in response to the backlash. He defended his decision to post the thread and pushed back on suggestions that he publicly named the fired employees.

“Hey everyone, yes, I am the crying CEO,” he wrote.

“No, my intent was not to make it about me or victimize myself. I am sorry it came across that way.”

Mr Wallake continued: “It was not my place to out the employees’ names publicly.

“What I want to do now, is trying to make better of this situation and start a thread for people looking for work,” he wrote.

This post first appeared on the New York Post and has been republished with permission

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