Sundar Pichai defends ‘aggressive’ cost saving, job cuts at Google

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has defended the company’s move to save costs of the company and advised employees not to see earning money alone as fun as little things in life can bring more joy than what money can do.

In a reply when asked why the company has shifted from “rapidly hiring and spending to equally aggressive cost saving,” he said: “”I’m a bit concerned that you think what we’ve done is what you would define as aggressive cost saving. I think it’s important we don’t get disconnected. You need to take a long-term view through conditions like this.”

Pichai plans to make the company 20 per cent more efficient, hinting at job cuts and going by reports, Google and its parent Alphabet are giving some workers 60 days time to apply for a new role at the company if their jobs are set to be cut.

in August, Google fired more than 50 workers at its incubator Area 120 and gave them extra 30 days to find another job at the company and a Google spokesman said that nearly 95 per cent of those employees found new roles within the notice period.

Pichai said the company is “still investing in long-term projects like quantum computing.” He added, “We’re committed to taking care of our employees. I think we’re just working through a tough moment macroeconomically and I think it’s important we as a company align and work together,” said Pichai.

Earlier, at the Code Conference, Pichai said that the more the company tries to understand the macroeconomic conditions, the more uncertain it is about it. “The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on,” he told the audience.

Google has suspended hiring new employees and reportedly told some existing employees to “shape up or ship out” if they fail to meet expectations.