Laying off or retrenchment is not a new norm in today’s world, not even for tech giants like Meta, Google, or Microsoft. Recently, Google fired a female employee, Nicole Foley, from her job during her maternity leave. This action from the organization is being strongly criticized on social media.
“The first thought that came to my mind was “Why me? Why now?”. It was hard to process and digest, especially the news that came after a positive performance review”, she posted on social media.
She was laid off just one week before her maternity leave and what she posted on LinkedIn was heartwrenching.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is eliminating its 12,000 employees in this lot of lay-off. As per Katherine Wong, her performance review was positive, and being laid off at this phase when she cannot even choose to be #opentowork owing to her last stage of pregnancy and childbirth was the last thing she expected as a Program Manager.
Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai took responsibility for this mass retrenchment. “These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities”, Pichai wrote in the mail.
Netizens reacted to her post and extended their full support however they felt miserable about how corporate giants are treating their employees.