Sundar Pichai says Google layoffs are meant to ‘simplify execution’ & drive growth

So far, Google has made job cuts and reorganizations across hardware, Assistant, ads, core engineering, and YouTube. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the layoffs are about “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas.”

The Verge got hold of an internal memo from Sundar Pichai to employees today: “We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year.” The specific priorities and areas weren’t shared.

“The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.”

For example, Devices & Services switched to a functional organization model so that there’s one head of hardware engineering for the entire division. Previously, you had one engineering lead for phones, another for smart home, and a third for wearables. Google also got rid of its first-party augmented reality team to focus on software and the OEM partner model (with Samsung).

This round of layoffs, according to Pichai, “are not at the scale of last year’s reductions, and will not touch every team.” Google last year fired 12,000 employees, or 6% of its total staff. So far, it seems that 1,000 or so roles have been cut with those employees given 60 days to find alternate positions within the company.

Pichai said many of the job cuts have already been announced, but “some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted.”