Google hasn’t even stated whether or not they’d uphold the workers’ promised leave. For many, this could be incredibly dangerous for their health and safety, as well as that of their families. These ex-Google employees want answers, but Google has remained silent.
Leave is a Promise
Leave is a promise from a company to an employee, “Get better, your job will be here when you get back.” It’s not some benevolent action, it’s a money game. The cost of hiring a new employee and training them is greater than the cost of losing a good employee. Still, employees don’t take leave lightly. They use it for serious unforeseen medical issues, either that of themselves or family members, or for parental leave. Having a child is tough work, as is planning for it and the first months of the baby’s life. America offers no guaranteed parental leave, unlike better-developed nations, but many workplaces, especially for highly specific labor, still give employees time off to grow their family.
People sometimes get laid off during leave. It happens. While companies usually try to avoid it, it’s certainly a possibility. Usually, however, they honor leave. The employee will have until the end of their agreed-upon leave before severance starts. Amazon, who has terminated tens of thousands of employees in the past year, did just that. Yes, Amazon. The company that allegedly coerces employees to pee in bottles and whose disregard for employees may have lead to serious, debilitating injuries and deaths. Amazon even offers severance after leave. Google hasn’t promised that.
It takes some serious effort to come off as more evil than Amazon.
Parents, Healthcare, Left in Lurch
Google typically gives 18 months for parental leave, and 24 weeks for birthing parents. However, the severance they’re giving out is only 16 weeks, plus two weeks for every year the now-former employee has been at the company. In a normal situation, that would take place after leave. Asking employees to find a job while they’re sick, dealing with a newborn, or taking care of sick family is unconscionable. Imagine finding a job while dealing with a cancer diagnosis, or a new life-changing injury. Imagine trying to go back to the often more than full-time job while also doing the full-time job of being a new parent.
Adding to the issue is where employees at Google get their healthcare. Not content with taking over the internet, Google also weaves its way into its employee’s lives. It’s quite common at large companies. Many employees of Facebook, for example, eat all of their meals at the office because the cafeteria food is free and shockingly good. Well, Google had on-site healthcare services, and people receiving treatment through Google found their healthcare abruptly inaccessible at 7am one morning in January. Imagine suddenly having to find a new primary care physician, oncologist, gynecologist, pediatrician, or other specialists. Birth plans disrupted, cancer treatments thrown into the lurch.
One employee was just a week away from her due date. Another was laid off a week after her maternity leave was approved. People will delay healthcare, like lifesaving cancer treatments, to make sure they can secure a new job. In a functioning democracy, this would be illegal. In fact, in nations that protect citizens from such wicked layoffs, Google has struggled to cut the cord. In Switzerland, employees still haven’t been entirely laid off, the nation requires companies give their employees advance notice. After finding out who would be terminated, workers walked out of the office. In a functioning society, someone wouldn’t have to delay chemo or surgery for a job.
What is it all for? What does Google get out of treating their workers like trash? Google laid off a surprising number of people on leave, screwing them over and damaging their image, for what? What do they get out of it?
Google: Just Be Evil?
You know who you don’t see doing massive layoffs, despite sales slumps? Apple. Apple hasn’t had to do massive layoffs. Consumer luxury goods have seen a slump in sales as consumers just don’t have the money for eggs, let alone iPhones. Inflation skyrocketed, rent skyrocketed, CEO wages skyrocketed, and yet, wages for most people haven’t changed at all. Consumers have less money, and they’re not wasting it on things like a new iPhone when their current one is just fine. Let alone the disappointingly small upgrade in the iPhone 14. Why hasn’t Apple laid anyone off? Sustainable growth. They hire who they can not just for short term projects, not just to dump at a moment’s notice, but to finish projects and move on to new ones. They invest in employees for the long term, not as a pump and dump scheme.
Some tech companies quickly hire a bunch of engineers for a large project, then dump them when shareholders get antsy about the number of employees a company has. Some shareholders have even called out the 12,000 lives uprooted by Google’s layoffs, saying the corporation should be ruining more than twice as many lives! The greed of these shareholders who have only the purpose at Google of having money to uproot the lives of families starting off or sick people seeking treatment is… well, again, evil.
But it’s legal, and it’s Google’s way now.
Google’s original founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, stated, “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.” They set up their stock with a two-tier plan, to ensure they wouldn’t be held to the whims of shareholders outside of the company. It seems now, with the founders gone and Pichai and the reins, Google has become the tool of whatever shortsighted gains large shareholders demand. You know, like a conventional company.
Meanwhile, workers wait to figure out if they’ll have to delay cancer treatment, go back to work after having a baby, or find someone else to take care of their sick loved ones. But, hey, Google’s shareholders are happy, so maybe we should be too?
Sources:
- Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, [2]
- Aditi Bharade and Stephanie Stacey, Business Insider
- Jennifer Elias, CNBC
- Jon Fingas, Engadget
- Kevin Hurler, Gizmodo