Tech layoffs 2023: Google, Microsoft, Swiggy give pink slips to staff

HYDERABAD: Flavour of the season – Employee layoffs. With giant companies like Twitter, Amazon, Meta and Google companies laying off thousands of employees, Microsoft announced a major layoff of around 11,000 of its employees. Google’s parent company Alphabet also announced to lay off 12,000 employees, almost 6 percent of its total workforce.

One can sense in the air that recession is taking a front seat as not just global companies, but small tech companies like Bengaluru-based Exotel, Share-Chat or CoinDCX are also laying off employees.

Corporate workforce, even people who have been loyal to their companies for several years, are also in distress as to if and when they would be given a pink slip. An Indian man, who worked with Microsoft for 21 years, was also laid off, leaving him shattered.

Reportedly, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email, warning about the layoff, to all of its employees. A tweet from an employee included a picture of the email.

According to layoffs.fyi, more than 38,000 people were removed from around 140 companies across the world till January 20. By January 21, the number shot up to over 55,000 employees laid off. It was also reported by several websites that companies are not just opting for layoffs, but have also freezed hiring.

On the other hand, people took to Twitter and said that the CEO of Apple would take a pay cut and would not lay off his employees.

On January 26, two other major companies announced huge layoffs. New York based International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announced that it would be laying off around 3,900 employees and Europian multinational company SAP said it would lay off over 3,000 employees worldwide.

This manager at Amazon and others employees who were not laid off from companies also sympathised with their colleagues through LinkedIn and other networks. A Manager at Amazon Pharmacy posted, "As many of you may already know, today is a tough day for many of my colleagues at Amazon. The unfortunate thing happened and some of most dedicated and talented people I got pleasure to work with and learn from were impacted. For my connections that might be impacted today or recently impacted elsewhere, please feel free to reach out if you need any support - resume editing, mock interview, reference or just a pair of listening ear. #layoff2022 #supportothers."

A social scientist and a media manager from the US Holly Watts, in a Tweet reply to the US Government, gave the list of few global tech giants and the number of employees they laid off. She wrote, “Just a few of the recent layoff's reported:

Google 12k

Microsoft 10k

Amazon 18k

Wayfair 1500

Meta 11k

Salesforce 8k

Goldman Sachs' 3k”