Google’s headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, United States on Sept. 26, 2022. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Tech companies have laid off tens of thousands of workers in recent months as the industry struggles with investors’ reduced risk appetite and rising borrowing costs. Dismissed workers across the technology sector are entering an uncertain job market, with staff cuts across all experience levels and teams. Few companies, with the possible exception of Apple, have remained immune.
Dismissed employees receive severance payments of varying size and duration depending on where they work. Here’s what some of the biggest technology names have promised their employees.
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Alphabet
That’s what CEO Sundar Pichai said on Friday Google would lay off 12,000 employees in “product areas, functions, levels and regions”. Dismissed employees in the US will receive their pay during the notice period and receive 16 weeks of severance pay with two additional weeks for each year of service at Google.
Laid off employees would also get “at least” 16 weeks of stock vesting accelerated, Pichai said in a memo to employees. Employees would also receive 6 months of health insurance.
A filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Google parent company Alphabet shared Pichai’s memo but did not specify the cost of the layoffs.
CNBC previously reported that workers had anticipated layoffs with growing anxiety, and a heated September 2022 meeting where workers backed out against Pichai’s cost-cutting efforts.
Microsoft
On Wednesday, Microsoft said it was laying off 10,000 employees because the software maker expected slower revenue growth for the coming year. The cuts will take place through the end of March, with a spokesperson telling CNBC that sales and marketing teams would see deeper cuts than engineering.
CEO Satya Nadella said in an employee memo that some would learn this week if they lost their jobs.
U.S. workers who qualify for benefits receive severance pay, six months of health care and stock vesting, and 60 days’ notice, Nadella wrote. Microsoft’s CEO had already alluded to potential cost savings in an interview with CNBC-TV18.
“We’re also going to need to get our own operational focus to make sure our spending is consistent with our revenue growth,” Nadella said.
Microsoft is taking a $1.2 billion write-down as a result of its restructuring and layoff efforts.
Amazon
Amazon been facing layoffs since last year. In November, it began cutting jobs, particularly affecting departments like recruiting and appliances and services. At the time, the company offered its device and services employees severance pay, including severance pay, temporary health benefits, and job placement.
It began its latest wave of layoffs earlier this week, with the biggest cuts being felt in the Retail and Human Resources divisions.
For store associates in the US, Amazon offers full pay and benefits for a 60-day period, with Amazon continuing to keep them on the payroll, but they are not expected to continue working. After that period, Amazon will offer laid-off employees several weeks of severance pay, depending on length of time with the company, severance pay, transitional health benefits, and job placement benefits.
Amazon’s severance pay appears to be similar for affected workers in other units. Human Resources head Beth Galetti said the company will offer severance pay, health benefits as applicable by country and job placement.
It’s unclear whether Amazon’s severance package includes provisions that would allow employees to accelerate the vesting of stock compensation. This matters to Amazon employees, as the company’s compensation has historically been heavily weighted towards stocks. An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sales team
CEO Marc Benioff told employees on January 4 Sales team would reduce its workforce by approximately 10%, or more than 7,000 employees, in response to a challenging economic climate. Dismissed employees would receive a minimum of “almost” five months’ wages. Benioff’s letter to employees also stated that laid-off employees would receive health insurance and career benefits for an unclear duration.
Some employees who lost their jobs were notified the same day.
“Those outside the US will receive a similar level of support,” Benioff wrote. The company expected an impairment of one to $1.4 billion related to, among other things, termination benefits and “transfer of employees,” according to an 8-K filing.
Benioff told employees more layoffs could be coming just days after announcing the cuts in January.
meta
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this on November 9 more than 11,000 jobs would be cut as part of an effort to become a “leaner and more efficient company”. meta stocks had been badly bruised in the previous months, and investors began to be more active in criticizing Zuckerberg’s expensive pivot to virtual reality.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., center, departs federal court in San Jose, California, USA on Tuesday, December 20, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
At the time, Zuckerberg promised “each” laid-off employee 16 weeks of severance pay, plus two weeks for each year of service, as well as RSU vesting and health insurance for a predetermined amount of time.
In December 2022, some laid-off employees from a non-traditional learning program told CNBC that they received substandard severance payments compared to other recently laid-off employees. Instead of Zuckerberg’s promised 16 weeks, they received only 8 weeks of base pay, among other material differences.
Under the terms of Musk’s acquisition agreement, existing layoff agreements would be honored by the new management. But a group of Twitter employees filed a lawsuit in November, shortly after the layoffs were made, accusing Twitter of firing them in violation of California’s layoff notice law.
Musk had previously said that fired employees would receive three months of severance pay, but some Twitter employees claimed that in exchange for a non-disparagement agreement and a statutory waiver, Twitter would only offer them one month of severance pay.
The class action was updated shortly after filing with allegations that Twitter offered some laid-off employees half of what they were promised.
Twitter also fired more than 4,000 contract workers without giving them advance notice, CNBC previously reported.
CNBC’s Annie Palmer, Jonathan Vanian, Jennifer Elias, Jordan Novet, Lora Kolodny, Ashley Capoot and Sofia Pitt contributed to this report.