Google offers 'voluntary exit' to all US platforms and devices employees
18 comments
·January 31, 2025jonas21
0xbadcafebee
If I'm a highly-paid, high-performing employee, I'm not walking away from a big paycheck and lots of clout. If I was a middling employee without a big paycheck, looking at the prospect of months of job searching once I get laid off, I'd take the buyout and use it to start searching full time.
JKCalhoun
Seems like the opposite happens. The high-performing employee is getting unsolicited job offers all the time — can skip off to a higher salary somewhere else. Middling employee knows a bird in the hand when they see it.
refulgentis
The trick is knowing you're in the second group (and conveniently, this came roughly a week after everyone got their performance review results)
refulgentis
> Google recently merged two large divisions, so there's going to be some redundancy
I don't see why - it was corporate games of thrones stuff, the hardware VP got the software VP's toys. (disclaimer: worked 7 years in P&E until I left in 2023)
thevillagechief
Perhaps you can help me answer a question I've had for a long time. How is that hardware VP still there? It seems to me from the outside much better fits have been pushed out, but he's still hanging on. Is he really that good that these games?
ericd
Off topic, but The Verge's bottom cookie banner is truly absurd:
"Privacy Notice We and our 868 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device."
dylan604
at that point, calling them partners is beyond perverted. they are essentially saying that they are willing to sell your data to body that knocks on their door
ycombinatrix
I'm embarrassed for Verge employees
jey
Hm. Why create this environment where the people with the most options will preferentially be induced to leave? Also the impact on the company project seems less predictable. Aside from avoiding the extreme difficulty involved in doing layoffs and choosing folks to let go, what are the upsides of this approach?
throwaway13337
I feel like this is a cynical take on an admitedly hard reality. It's becoming a meme here in response to these creative fires so I'd like to give a different perspective.
I can say from my own experience that when you hate your job, you're usually not very productive, either. Maybe selecting for people who want out is more efficient than it seems.
The take that only those who can get a new job will take the offer implies that people working there are only there because of a calculation that involves money and nothing else. I don't think it's realistic and I hope others don't live in that world - it sounds pretty miserable.
In a non-cynical world, a great exit package would allow those that wanted to do something else to do so.
Those that wanted to keep at it - because they're engaged with their work - would have colleagues that also want to be there. The company would have a happier, more productive culture. Everyone wins.
It might be that there is an element of this calculation wherein low performers stay, but those people are definitely more desperate than most at FAANG.
User23
If an exit package increases your agency, then take it!
If an exit package doesn't increase your agency, then increase your agency in your current role!
danso
> Aside from avoiding the extreme difficulty involved in doing layoffs and choosing folks to let go
Preventing massive emotional turmoil and political conflict sounds like a pretty huge upside, I'd even go so far as to argue that it's precisely the reason why everyone would prefer this situation. What alternative approaches are you thinking about that have more upsides?
jey
That's true. I happily concede!
dullcrisp
Enough rounds of layoffs and I bet that would happen anyway, but across the whole company.
vkou
> Hm. Why create this environment where the people with the most options will preferentially be induced to leave?
Because the alternatives are all worse, and also result in the same thing.
guiambros
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42880529 (53 comments, 110 points)
OnionBlender
Does this mean I shouldn't bother apply?
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.