Tech companies were in their heyday not too long ago. Everywhere you looked, there was an abundance of jobs, and tech stocks were also doing well.
That was until a major stock market crash and multiple layoffs gripped the tech world. Seemingly powerful giants like Meta, Amazon and Microsoft were not spared by it, and as of last week, neither was Google.
Last week, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced it would cut 12,000 jobs across the company. The news came as a surprise to many staff, some of whom took to social media to describe the process as “accidental” and said they felt “100% disposable”.
The announcement comes at a time of economic uncertainty and turmoil for tech companies everywhere. Nearly 60,000 jobs have been cut in 2023 so far from 174 tech companies, according to Layoffs.fyi, a layoff-tracking website.
As questions piled up over the weekend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed a company-wide meeting on Monday to answer questions, and then announced that top executives would take pay cuts this year as part of measures to reduce company expenses, Business Insider reported.
Pichai said all roles above the senior vice president level would see “a very significant reduction in their annual bonus,” adding that for senior roles, compensation is tied to company performance. It was not immediately clear how big Pichai’s pay cut would be.
Google didn’t immediately call back Happiness‘with request for comment.
Pichai’s move to slash senior executive pay comes just weeks after Apple’s Tim Cook announced his pay would be cut by 40% under pressure from shareholders. The iPhone maker had a strong 2022 and remains one of the few tech giants yet to announce layoffs.
And last week, the board of JPMorgan Chase, an investment bank, announced it would eliminate the “special award” component of CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay. Dimon’s lump sum payment last year was nearly $50 million, and this year he will make $34.5 million.
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