Google employee fired after 15 years of service, says she was abruptly disconnected from video call
An ex-Google employee, who worked at the tech giant for 15 years, shared her layoff story on LinkedIn and revealed that she got abruptly disconnected from an on-going video call. When she tried getting back in the call, an 'access denied' page showed up that confirmed her layoff.
Divyanshi Sharma
New Delhi,UPDATED: Feb 20, 2023 12:53 IST
In Short
Google employee laid off after 15 years of service
The woman, who was working in Google's Singapore office, shared her story on LinkedIn and wrote that she started working at the company as an intern. Despite being loyal to the company for fifteen long years, however, she was abruptly laid off from Google and got to know about the same when she was disconnected from a video call and wasn't allowed to join back in.
She wrote, "Having spent (almost) half my life (!) here, Google is the only employer I’ve ever known (such is the loyalty that even my internship was here
). When I was abruptly disconnected from my video call only to realise I was staring at a ‘access denied’ page, I was in denial. I kept refreshing the page hoping it was my internet that was acting up. When the page refreshed I was now looking at an email informing me that my time here was up. An image that’ll likely stay with me for a long long time."
Emotional upheavel is hard to describe, says ex-Google employee
Continuing her post, the woman said that even though she thought that she was prepared for the news, it still felt 'unreal' and the feeling of going through something like this was hard to describe in words.
"As much as I thought I was prepared for it, at that moment, things felt unreal. A feeling of having to break up from a 15 year long relationship in a matter of seconds. The emotional upheaval that followed is hard to describe in words. From the smallest of things triggering you to not knowing how to introduce yourself anymore when you meet new people, from realising you no longer have an inbox full of emails the next morning to watching the Google shuttle go past knowing you can no longer ride in it, the next few hours were likely the hardest hours of my life," she wrote.
Concluding the post on a rather positive note, the woman says that she will now get the time to spend more quality time with her husband, whom she met through Google, and that she is leaving as a 'proud Googler' who will fight ' folks who claim Google maps is inaccurate or that Youtube has too many ads'.
Google fired as many as 12,000 employees and the same was announced by CEO Sundar Pichai last month. In a letter to all employees, Sundar Pichai announced the layoffs and took ‘full responsibility’ of the same. He also said that the company will fully support its employees during this difficult transition.
The impacted employees in the US will be getting full salary for their notice period, a severance package starting at 16 weeks' salary plus two weeks for every additional year at the company, and bonuses and other benefits as per their respective contracts. As for employees outside the US, they will be compensated as per their country's laws.
An ex-Google employee, who worked at the tech giant for 15 years, shared her layoff story on LinkedIn and revealed that she got abruptly disconnected from an on-going video call. When she tried getting back in the call, an 'access denied' page showed up that confirmed her layoff.
Divyanshi Sharma
New Delhi,UPDATED: Feb 20, 2023 12:53 IST
In Short
- An ex-Google employee, who worked at the tech giant for 15 years, shared her layoff story on LinkedIn.
- She got abruptly disconnected from an on-going video call.
- She also said that the emotional upheaval is hard to describe.
Google employee laid off after 15 years of service
The woman, who was working in Google's Singapore office, shared her story on LinkedIn and wrote that she started working at the company as an intern. Despite being loyal to the company for fifteen long years, however, she was abruptly laid off from Google and got to know about the same when she was disconnected from a video call and wasn't allowed to join back in.
She wrote, "Having spent (almost) half my life (!) here, Google is the only employer I’ve ever known (such is the loyalty that even my internship was here
). When I was abruptly disconnected from my video call only to realise I was staring at a ‘access denied’ page, I was in denial. I kept refreshing the page hoping it was my internet that was acting up. When the page refreshed I was now looking at an email informing me that my time here was up. An image that’ll likely stay with me for a long long time."Emotional upheavel is hard to describe, says ex-Google employee
Continuing her post, the woman said that even though she thought that she was prepared for the news, it still felt 'unreal' and the feeling of going through something like this was hard to describe in words.
"As much as I thought I was prepared for it, at that moment, things felt unreal. A feeling of having to break up from a 15 year long relationship in a matter of seconds. The emotional upheaval that followed is hard to describe in words. From the smallest of things triggering you to not knowing how to introduce yourself anymore when you meet new people, from realising you no longer have an inbox full of emails the next morning to watching the Google shuttle go past knowing you can no longer ride in it, the next few hours were likely the hardest hours of my life," she wrote.
Concluding the post on a rather positive note, the woman says that she will now get the time to spend more quality time with her husband, whom she met through Google, and that she is leaving as a 'proud Googler' who will fight ' folks who claim Google maps is inaccurate or that Youtube has too many ads'.
Google fired as many as 12,000 employees and the same was announced by CEO Sundar Pichai last month. In a letter to all employees, Sundar Pichai announced the layoffs and took ‘full responsibility’ of the same. He also said that the company will fully support its employees during this difficult transition.
The impacted employees in the US will be getting full salary for their notice period, a severance package starting at 16 weeks' salary plus two weeks for every additional year at the company, and bonuses and other benefits as per their respective contracts. As for employees outside the US, they will be compensated as per their country's laws.
