I got laid off from Google today. Like how they say in Godfather, "it's just business".
The mechanics of how this was done was very swift. I got an email saying that I no longer have a job at Google at 2am in the morning. Given that there was no warning of any layoffs coming beforehand, this could have been a phishing email, but I knew I was in denial because if I were to lay off people, I would tell them immediately after cutting them off, and that's exactly what Google did.
I went to work anyways, because I still need to get some personal stuff from work. My badge no longer works, as expected. I found that I could still get on the corp wifi network with my corp laptop, although every internal website redirected me to offboarding instructions about how to get W2 and things. That lasted a few minutes before the laptop abruptly rebooted, after which I no longer have corp wifi access. A few friends immediately sent me emails offering their condolences. One coworker kindly retrieved some things for me, and gave me a hug as we part our separate ways. And just like that, I am no longer a Googler.
The official announcement said I would get ~60 more days of pay, plus 16 weeks of severance, plus 2 weeks for every year worked, and any unused PTO. I was at Google for 17 years and 9 months and still had 300 hours of vacation left, so it seemed like I would get over another year worth of pay. I think if I sold all my Google stocks now, I could realistically retire. Maybe that's why I am among those who got laid off -- I was too expensive for my job, and I am in good financial state to survive unemployment. I would like to think that for every person like me that Google sacrificed, 10+ others get to keep their jobs. That sounds like very good business sense.
I certainly would have preferred to choose retirement dates on my own, like, work until the day I die, but this is not the end of the world. To all my comrades who remained, my apologies for not having automated everything that I was responsible for, and I wish you best of luck. There is no other place I would rather be than working with you.
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