Sundar Pichai is CEO of Google owner Alphabet.

Brandon Wade/Reuters

Google employees wrote an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai asking for better handling of layoffs.
They demanded laid-off staff be notified in person, allowing them to say goodbye to coworkers.
Read the letter that more than 1,400 workers have put their names to. 

Google employees have used an open letter to Sundar Pichai to demand better handling of its mass layoffs. 

They want the company to consider freezing new hires and prioritize laid-off workers for job vacancies, as well as let employees finish scheduled leave, such as parental and bereavement leave.

The letter, signed by more than 1,400 workers, said of the global layoffs: “Nowhere have workers’ voices adequately been considered, and we know that as workers we are stronger together than alone.”

Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, emailed staff on January 20 to say the company was cutting about 12,000 jobs and that he took “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

Since then, laid-off Googlers have shared their stories about losing their jobs. A husband said he and his wife stared at each other in “disbelief” after learning they’d both been laid off. And a former Google employee told Insider he lost his job while on carers’ leave looking after his terminally-ill mom.

One Googler who survived the cuts told Insider that some who kept their jobs cried during meetings the day the layoffs were announced.

Google and Alphabet Workers Union didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours. 

Here’s the text of the letter:

Sundar,

The impacts of Alphabet’s decision to reduce its workforce are global. Nowhere have workers’ voices adequately …read more

Source:: Businessinsider