More than 1,300 Google employees have reportedly signed a petition calling on the tech giant to provide stronger job security measures as anxiety over potential layoffs grows.
Lead by the Alphabet Workers Union, the move comes as the company’s annual performance reviews take place in January, historically a period of workforce reductions.
The sudden arrival of Chinese AI platform DeepSeek has further disrupted the sector and heightened fears around job security, as US tech firms ponder how it will affect their long-term outlook.
The petition, addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai, urges Google to offer voluntary buyouts before resorting to layoffs, maintain severance benefits at prior levels, and avoid using performance reviews as a means to justify job cuts. Employees argue that the unpredictability of recent layoffs has significantly impacted morale.
Layoffs and workforce concerns
The timing of the petition follows two consecutive years of major layoffs at Google. In January 2023, the company eliminated 12,000 jobs, and another wave of over 1,000 layoffs followed in early 2024. CEO Pichai has justified the cuts as part of broader cost-saving measures to fund Google’s priorities, including artificial intelligence development.
Employees are particularly wary of changes to performance review processes. In the petition, they request that Google refrain from implementing forced rankings that could push out lower-rated employees - a move similar to Meta’s recent announcement that it will “move out low-performers faster.”
Google has denied imposing fixed rating distributions, however, stating that employee evaluations are based on individual roles and expectations.
Calls for voluntary buyouts
One of the petition’s key demands is the implementation of voluntary buyout options, which organizers describe as a more humane alternative to involuntary layoffs. Employees argue that buyouts provide workers with greater autonomy, allowing those who are ready to leave to do so on their own terms.
The petition also requests that any future layoffs come with severance packages equivalent to those offered in the company’s major January 2023 workforce reduction, where affected employees received at least 16 weeks of salary.
Google’s workforce reductions are part of a broader trend in the tech industry, where companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have aggressively cut jobs after pandemic-era hiring sprees. The growing emphasis on performance management as a justification for job cuts signals a shift in corporate HR strategies, placing pressure on workers to meet rising expectations.
As the push for job security gains traction, HR departments across the tech sector may face increased scrutiny over layoff policies, severance structures, and employee performance evaluations. For Google, the response to this petition could shape its workforce relations at a time when employee trust in long-term job stability is waning.