Oops. Google Wakes Up.
Looks like the party’s over at Google – they laid off 100 recruiters, and it’s a sign that the excess is ending.
Earlier they had laid off 6,000 of their 10,000 contractors, closed the free food cafeterias, and cut tech support to almost nothing…
The surprise is that they now see the light…
…100 Jobs Cut
Larry Page and Sergey Brin made grand promises about treating their employees well.
But the pain of the economy has at last hit Google’s staff. (Google has only had one previous staff layoff of note, eliminating superfluous employees after acquiring DoubleClick.)
The recruiters are surely the first wave of layoffs. Some analysts estimate that Google, which has spent freely on frivolous side projects, could run its business with a quarter of the employees it has now; the sheer profitability of its search-advertising monopoly has hidden its inefficient experimentation for years. Google’s first real layoff will not be its last.
Makes me think of a famous Calgary bumper sticker -”Please God, give us another oil boom. This time we promise not to piss it all away“.
Also, check out this hot site for tech news – bringing back the days of the dot com bust.. check it out here. Bonus points if you can remember the name of the site that did the same in 2000-2005.
photo credit: dinimueter
January 26th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Google might have cutbacks, but they are still the leader in innovation. They seem to be always in the process of rethinking their core business.
Years ago, search firms helped people find things. Google saw the potential for a business centered around those companies being searched.
They were the first to have the insight to know that the people searching also provided a revenue stream.
So, I’m not concerned about their pullbacks and cutting a cafeteria, I’m waiting to see the next Big thing they’re going to put forward in their bag of tricks.