Big Tech Culls Its Herd

I suppose back when our technocratic overlords were shadow-banning people, removing or hiding search results, censoring social media, and helping pesky laptops fade into obscurity, they figured they had it made in the shade and were in like Flynn. They must have felt like the future was bright and secure and that their businesses would be lucrative.

Too bad they were so busy kowtowing to Biden and his buddies that they did not see the potential thunderheads of a financial crisis gathering on the distant horizon. Or maybe they did and thought they and their industry would somehow be granted immunity. Or they thought that the tech industry could never find itself on shaky ground. Whatever they thought, they were wrong. When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. And when you hang out with donkeys, you’re liable to get a hoof in the backside.

A story in The Wall Street Journal notes that Alphabet, the parent company of Google, YouTube, and other ventures, is set to cut 12,000 jobs as the economic landscape grows bleaker. These cuts will be across the board and are expected to affect the “recruiters” and those involved in projects that fall outside of the company’s “core businesses.” Cuts are reportedly coming at Google and other subsidiaries. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent a message Friday to employees that read in part:

Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

According to CNN, Pichai added, “These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.”

Those employees destined for the unemployment line in the U.S. will receive two months’ notice, 16 weeks of severance, plus two weeks’ pay for every year that they worked for Alphabet. Overseas workers will be subject to the local termination processes. Alphabet is looking to protect its profits and revamp its spending.

While the news made employees nervous, it was greeted a little more warmly by investors. The Journal reports the company’s shares rose 4.5% to hit $97.24 during morning trading on Friday.

Granted, those 12,000 Alphabet jobs account for six percent of the tech giant’s workforce. But the Journal also adds that the announcement comes closely on the heels of a move by Microsoft to chop 10,000 positions and Amazon’s decision to axe 18,000 people. Meta also recently announced layoffs.

Barron’s reports that while Alphabet is cutting back on employees, it is “doubling down on investment in artificial intelligence which could eventually cause much larger disruption in the world of white-collar jobs.” Alphabet is already working on self-driving cars, so why not a self-driving company? Big Tech went on a hiring spree when times were good. Now that the Democrats are back in power and the “adults are in charge” again, the very people Big Tech supported have created a financial environment that is forcing them to scale down. Unfortunately, their employees will bear the brunt of these decisions, while the execs will be free to continue to support the same policies and candidates that got them here in the first place. It should be a teachable moment, but no one is going to learn any lessons. As for the rank and file? So much for learning to code.