‘Don’t Equate Fun With Money’: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Tells Employees Amid Cost Cuts, Layoff Conditions

It is important to note that Pichai’s statement comes at a time when Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, reported a second successive quarter of weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue in July.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Victor Dasgupta

Updated: September 25, 2022, 4:36 PM IST

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https://www.india.com/business/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-tells-employees-amid-cost-cuts-layoffs-conditions-5651702/ Copy

Google employees in the letter urged the CEO to make sure that will be no discriminatory effects based on gender identity.

Google News: Google CEO Sundar Pichai, at a companywide all-hands meeting this week, faced tough questions from employees related to cuts to travel and entertainment budgets and potential layoffs.

Reportedly, during the meeting, the Google boss was asked why the company is “nickel-and-diming employees” by slashing travel and swag budgets at a time when “Google has record profits and huge cash reserves,” as it did coming out of the Covid pandemic, according to a CNBC report. To which Pichai replied not to ‘equate fun with money’.

“I remember when Google was small and scrappy. Fun didn’t always…we shouldn’t always equate fun with money. I think you can walk into a hard-working startup and people may be having fun and it shouldn’t always equate to money,” said Pichai in response.

Talking about the uncertainty in macroeconomics, Pichai further added, “How do I say it? Look, I hope all of you are reading the news, externally. The fact that you know, we are being a bit more responsible through one of the toughest macroeconomic conditions underway in the past decade, I think it’s important that as a company, we pull together to get through moments like this.”

It is important to note that Pichai’s statement comes at a time when Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, reported a second successive quarter of weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue in July.

As per a WION report, earlier this month as well, Pichai talked about the company taking a more conservative approach when it came to hiring and simultaneously increasing the efficiency of the employees as the macroeconomics remained uncertain.

“We want to make sure as a company, when you have fewer resources than before, you are prioritizing all the right things to be working on and your employees are really productive that they can actually have impact on the things they’re working on, so that’s what we are spending our time on.”