Google has been on an efficiency push and chopping down senior manager positions, CEO Sundar Pichai told his staff on Wednesday.
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  • Sundar Pichai said Google cut manager, director, and VP roles by 10% as part of an efficiency drive.
  • Google has sought to boost efficiency by reducing layers and reorganizing teams.
  • The company has been facing challenges from OpenAI and other AI rivals.
  • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    19 days ago

    Archive

    I wonder what the process was for choosing specifically 10%. Why not 8.7%? Or 13.9%? Surely an efficiency drive would have some sort of structured/analytical approach to it?

    • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      19 days ago

      After an engineer is there long enough, they’re likely to become a manager. They’re way more expensive to keep around. Google wants to lay them off and churn them for college grads. Looks better for PR if they say it’s an “efficiency push” rather than “we don’t like to retain employees because it’s expensive.” So this was definitely an arbitrary number

      • Odelay42@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        19 days ago

        This isn’t as true in tech companies as it was in traditional companies years ago. Most high level engineers take an individual contributor role that allow you to be promoted without becoming a manager. At Google it’s called a staff role. At Amazon it’s a principal role.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      19 days ago

      Surely an efficiency drive would have some sort of structured/analytical approach to it?

      LOL

  • batcheck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    19 days ago

    This seems pretty typical. Feels like Leaders only have one lever to pull. Things are going badly? Let’s ReOrg, that’ll fix it.

    Instead of doing the smart thing and identifying smart individuals within the company and putting them all in group letting them solution.

    My guess is the outcome of this will be google having an unofficial marriage with gambling companies as they are the last customers to pay for Ads and see a big positive result

  • SirBucksworth@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    19 days ago

    Imagine they did this that way: „hey Bob, I’ve some good and some bad news for you. The good one fist: you got promoted to Manager/VP/Whatever. The bad one: in order to make the company more efficient we’re letting go of some higher staff. So, you’re fired. Pack your stuff and fuck off until 12pm, manager Bob!“