Google: Pixel and Android developers can give up their jobs voluntarily

It could be a precursor to further redundancies: Google is offering employees in its "Platforms & Devices" team the opportunity to voluntarily leave their jobs in exchange for severance pay. The offer, reported by 9to5Google, applies to employees in the USA.

The "Platforms & Devices" team works on Android, Chrome, Fitbit and Pixel phones, among other things. This broad version is desirable: Google only merged various teams last April in order to create a larger department. Because of this merger, employees had feared for some time that jobs could be cut.

According to 9to5Google, the option of voluntary redundancy was therefore an explicit wish of many Google employees, which their employer is now fulfilling. "There is tremendous momentum" on this team, writes Google manager Rick Osterloh in an internal email published by 9to5Google. "And with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency."

Thousands of employees made redundant

In January 2024, Google laid off several hundred employees. This mainly affected the hardware team at the time, which was later moved to the new "Platforms & Devices" department. According to 9to5Google, many employees complained at the time that Google had not offered them the option of voluntary redundancy with severance pay in advance.

Google had already laid off employees in various areas in 2023 to get a grip on the rapidly expanding workforce. For example, Google had increased its global workforce from around 119,000 to 187,000 employees between 2019 and the end of 2022. The first major wave of redundancies then followed in January 2023, when Google cut 12,000 jobs. This was followed by redundancies in Google's recruiting team in September 2023.

(dahe)