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Google offers 'voluntary exit' to all US platforms and devices employees

(www.theverge.com)
161 points unsnap_biceps | 3 comments | 31 Jan 25 23:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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jonas21 ◴[01 Feb 25 01:40 UTC] No.42894769[source]▶
This seems like a pretty bold and employee-friendly move. Google recently merged two large divisions, so there's going to be some redundancy. Most companies would resolve this with a layoff, but it sounds like they're trying a buyout at the request of their employees. From the article:

> Some employees at Google have recently been circulating a petition that calls for CEO Sundar Pichai to offer exactly this type of optional buyout before resorting to involuntary layoffs. “Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs,” the petition said, according to CNBC.

Conventional wisdom is that with voluntary buyouts, high-performing employees who have the most options will leave and lower-performing employees will stay.

We'll see how it turns out.

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1. randmeerkat ◴[01 Feb 25 02:34 UTC] No.42895095[source]▶
> This seems like a pretty bold and employee-friendly move. Google recently merged two large divisions, so there's going to be some redundancy. Most companies would resolve this with a layoff, but it sounds like they're trying a buyout at the request of their employees.

Or they’re afraid the union at Google will gain more traction. The employees should unionize now before the layoffs happen.

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2. SR2Z ◴[01 Feb 25 09:10 UTC] No.42897036[source]▶
The Google union, AWU, is a complete clownshow and more focused on TVCs than engineers. They suggest engineers pay insanely high dues so that they can spend it on other people.

It's a bunch of new college graduates LARPing as the leaders of a real labor movement and could not become a federally recognized union even if it tried. If I hadn't met some of the people in charge and seen how serious they were about it, I'd think that the whole thing was a plant designed to stop an actual engineers' union from forming.

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3. learningstud ◴[02 Feb 25 05:21 UTC] No.42906134[source]▶
True, unions, in general, hurt employees no matter how competent or incompetent said unions are. Unions are the privatization of governmental bureaucracy: more evil than "exploitative" big tech corps.