Google in January laid off 12,000 people and recently it also announced that it will cut down perks of the existing employees in order to save costs. Ever since the tech giant laid off employees many have come forward on LinkedIn and shared their stories. One such story shared on LinkedIn a few days back was of Brittany Lappano who lost her means of livelihood while she was on maternity leave.
Lappano was working with Google since October 2021, but was laid off when she was 14 weeks pregnant and is still looking for a job. The situation has become very stressful for her as she is on payroll only until April 28 and after that she will be out of work.
In her LinkedIn post she said, "๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฉ. I lost my dream job at 14 weeks pregnant. The calendar became an urgent equation: โMy babyโs due 7/13, but Iโm on the payroll until 4/28. If I don't find something that starts then, ๐ฐโ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐.โ This post is my Hail Mary pass.
Losing a six-month paid maternity leave and a three-month โramp back" period, as well as the ability to qualify for FMLA and state leave benefits elsewhere due to required service timelines โ and potentially having to sit out from work for a full year โ are ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ด๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด to pay for a non-performance, algorithm-based layoff. My days are spent wrestling thoughts that Iโm already failing as a mom by bringing my baby into such ambiguity."
She also gave out five ways to help her out. These included introduction to someone who can help, offer or suggest a six-week contract or freelance project, hiring managers that are pregnancy-friendly, create a support system and creating laws to ensure women are not put in a similar situation.
Employees claim Google denies payments for maternity leaves
Last month some employees claimed that the tech giant had denied payment for maternity leaves.
According to the report by CNBC, some of the ex-employees that were fired when they were on medical or maternity leaves claim that Google is refusing to pay them for their approved leaves. Over 100 such employees have come together to form a group named, 'Laid off on leave', in order to pressure the tech giant to pay them for the time they took off that were approved before the job cuts were announced. This group consists of employees that were on maternity leaves, caregivers leave, baby bonding leave, medical leave and personal leave.
The employees that were let go said that company is only paying them until their specified end date along with other standard severance.
Google employees ask for better treatment for employees during layoff
Google in January announced that it will layoff close to 6 per cent of its workforce due to slowing sales growth after an extended period of expansion. After this mass layoff over 1,400 employees wrote an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai asking for better treatment of employees during the layoff process.
