Google employees send open letter to Sundar Pichai ask for better management of layoffs

Google parent Alphabet earlier this year announced close to 12,000 job cuts with CEO Sundar Pichai taking responsibility for it. The job cuts were global and many of the impacted employees took to social media sites to share their stories. Recently, some Google employees wrote an open letter to Pichai asking for better handling of these layoffs. In the letter with 1,423 employees signatures the employees write five things that they want the company to do.

Workers come together from across the world

The letter begins with the employees telling Pichai that the workers' voices from across the globe have not been considered but now they are all coming together to be heard as they are stronger together than they were alone.

Freeze new hires

The first requirement from the employees is to freeze new hires during the layoff process and to ask for voluntary redundancies and voluntary work time reduction before the decision for compulsory layoff.

The letter then talks about giving priority to Alphabet employees for rehiring and prioritizing internal transfer options.

Protect employees from countries with active conflicts

The employees have also asked for protection of employees from countries with active conflicts or humanitarian crises. They also asked for support for workers with a risk of losing their residence permit.

The next point mentioned in the letter is respect for scheduled leaves. As many employees share stories of being fired during maternity leaves, the letter to the Alphabet CEO asks the company to not give notice until the leave is completed as it will give them an opportunity to say a good-bye to their coworkers.

The employees also asked the company to ensure that there is no discrimination based on sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, racial, caste, veteran status, religion and disability.

The letter in the end asks Sundar Pichai to not be so evil.