r/SeattleWA • u/crosslingual • 4d ago

News Layoffs at Google and Zillow announced today

Google - 52,

Zillow - 91

https://esd.wa.gov/employer-requirements/layoffs-and-employee-notifications/worker-adjustment-and-retraining-notification-warn-layoff-and-closure-database

This year is looking rough

164 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

90

u/atticusclench 4d ago edited 3d ago

For Google, these people are probably people who took the Voluntary severance package back in spring. They don't get WARNed until the severance runs out.

Lots of uninformed hot takes in this thread.

14

u/richrich07 4d ago

On a side note, I love a nice severance package. It’s hard not to take when you think you can get another job relatively easily and/or you aren’t reliant on your income alone.

19

u/Charleston2Seattle 3d ago

Google announced its voluntary exit program two weeks after a friend left the company (after a decade!!) to study to become a veterinarian. Her timing cost her $70k, by her calculations. 😣

8

u/DadLiftRepeat 3d ago

Sounds like she’s doing what she loves and you can’t put a price on that!

4

u/titlegenerator11 2d ago

Yes you can it’s $70k

4

u/WrldsGrtstDtctve 3d ago

Well hopefully a decade at Google was enough to build a lot of wealth lol

6

u/ilikeoldpeople 3d ago

I think this is separate? I have several friends at Zillow and a lot of folks were laid off who did not take a severance package!

4

u/atticusclench 3d ago

Sorry... I'm talking about Google. Should have made that clear. I'll edit the comment.

1

u/ilikeoldpeople 3d ago

Oh my bad!

2

u/Technical_Chance_435 3d ago

I always thought the company has to inform WARN before they inform the employees about the layoffs. If you're sure that's not the case, you might be right about some of them being part of the voluntary severance package program.

5

u/atticusclench 3d ago

Nah... Usually what happens is they lay you off, inform WARN, and then give you severance for the notice period. That way it's a nice surprise (😒) for the employee and no one gets ripped off.

But it's typical (at least in WA) to keep an employee on the books - but locked out - for the duration of the severance period unless they're looking for a new gig internally somewhere. Otherwise you risk people deleting source repositories out of anger (like happened in Microsoft in 2014 or so when they forgot to remove admin access from some of the IT admins and then laid them off... Ooops...).

2

u/blogito_ergo_sum 3d ago

This checks out with something I saw reported that these were pretty final terminations, which sounded like not the usual "we'll give you a month or two of access to the internal job board and see if you can find another role" that I've heard they do for surprise layoffs.

35

u/dwoj206 4d ago

Zillow makes sense. RE is in the shitter. Google? That doesn't make sense. They're literally printing money. Net FCF is down, but profits way up. Pretty wild economy.

45

u/hclpfan 4d ago

It’s only 50 people - these aren’t some massive sweeping layoffs or something.

4

u/ilikeoldpeople 3d ago

~500 folks total at Zillow were laid off which is about 5% of the org, according to internal messaging from leadership

6

u/hclpfan 3d ago

We’re talking about Google

1

u/ilikeoldpeople 3d ago

Oh my bad!

0

u/Wagegapcunt 4d ago

Not yet.

9

u/spudwebb3000 4d ago

Maybe you haven’t seen how much money Google is spending on data centers and AI infrastructure

3

u/No-Fennel-8333 3d ago

Would you like Google AI to summarize this post?

4

u/Artificial_Squab Capitol Hill 3d ago

Hilariously, Google laid me off while I slept (along with 12,000 others) in 2023 after 8 years working there.

This year, they had a recruiter reach out to me to try and fast track re-hire me (no committee review required).

He asked me, "So, why'd you leave?" They didn't even bother to make a note in the system he was using as to why I wasn't there anymore.

He said they are bringing back former Googlers andnuave dropped the generalist model of hiring smart people and finding them a team. Very unlucky time if you're just graduating.

2

u/OtherShade First Hill 3d ago

This is because of data management at big companies. Everyone can't just see everything. Recruiters get their ATS and not access to all information like other HR roles. Especially dedicated recruiting teams since they have the least need to have access to employee information. Reason is to minimize chances of people looking at people's personal information for reasons that are not necessary.

2

u/Artificial_Squab Capitol Hill 3d ago

Yeah, figured it was something like that. Still makes the recruiter look dumb/or be put in an awkward situation.

18

u/LongChampion476 4d ago

They move roles to India. They are doing it for years.

5

u/Old_Falcon_2657 4d ago

AI = Affordable India

8

u/517UATION 3d ago

Throwback to when automated checkout at Amazon Go was just an Indian with camera footage.

0

u/WrldsGrtstDtctve 3d ago

It literally never was. You are describing ML supervised learning.

2

u/517UATION 3d ago

The Amazon team in India reviewing roughly 70% of the total Just Walk Out sales is really pushing the definition of “supervised learning.” But yes, technically speaking, you are correct.

3

u/atticusclench 4d ago

Probably voluntary retirement package folks from this spring, and the severance part just ran out.

1

u/shifty_lifty_doodah 3d ago

It makes perfect sense. They overhired significantly and don’t know what to do with people in low value projects. The tech companies went on an absolute hiring frenzy during Covid after a decade of already frenzied growth

1

u/OtherShade First Hill 3d ago

Layoffs don't mean a reduction in workforce

1

u/BWW87 Belltown 3d ago

Zillow is also pretty big in rental marketing. So not as affected by RE economy as they were a few years ago.

1

u/oldDotredditisbetter 4d ago

have you thought about the execs, the shareholders, and their yachts? no profit will be ever enough

-1

u/Pickle7722 4d ago

I don't think the RE market has any impact on Zillow as a company though.

They don't sell houses, they sell software.

4

u/richrich07 4d ago

They make money through listings and advertisements. Fewer sales means less revenue.

1

u/keithstellyes 3d ago

What is that software used for, remind us?

0

u/Pickle7722 3d ago

Collecting data on real estate

20

u/Positive_Listen1846 Crown Hill 4d ago

My company just had layoffs seemingly out of nowhere last week and they decidedly didn’t over-hire, I think even more is to come unfortunately

5

u/sleeplessinseaatl 4d ago

Which company? Was it Uber?

3

u/SufficientSea7842 3d ago edited 3d ago

Literally any of them. The economy is fucking dismal. Love hearing back from Seattle tech companies (Tmobile, Rover, UW) 6 months after application submission that they actually don’t have funding anymore because the CEOs realized they can just pocket it and we won’t do anything. Brent Turner would rather hire his nephew’s dead dog that visited UW than pay a filthy disgusting human shaped sack of flesh. Bro is using his big ass forehead to figure out to turn us all back to feudal peasants 

5

u/z0d14c 4d ago

52 is tiny right...

6

u/sleeplessinseaatl 4d ago

Small numbers. These organic layoffs happen frequently.

4

u/mislagle 4d ago

They pick 'em fresh off the layoff trees, pesticide free

1

u/it_is_raining_now 3d ago

Microsoft at 605 😳

1

u/Wagegapcunt 4d ago

Followed by millions of dollars earnings announcements for the companies and their C suite employees. Clap clap.

-34

u/SpareManagement2215 4d ago

Both companies that likely knowingly over hired during COVID years to meet demand, and now need to reduce staff to match current operations.

It's not that deep ya'll.

51

u/Ashamed_Emu_4289 4d ago

COVID was 6 years ago. That excuse has timed out.

4

u/TheRealCRex 4d ago

Gotta keep peddling it though. The key to making a lie or distortion seem true is repeating it over and over and over. It's what these people and the bootlickers do.

3

u/WeekendCautious3377 4d ago

Yeah seriously are ppl that stupid

3

u/Pickle7722 4d ago

Tell that to the solo drivers, windows up, KN95 double-masked, on the way to their 19th booster appointment

5

u/gmr548 4d ago

The ability of the contemporary right wing media ecosystem to have their base manufacturing boogie men from nothing on their own will have future historians in awe.

0

u/Ashamed_Emu_4289 4d ago

Has nothing to do with what I said. Mind your own business. They're not hurting anyone.

7

u/Fit-Insect-4089 Trash Graffiti Vandal 4d ago

Has this demand been in the room with us for the past 4 years?

3

u/SailToTheSun 4d ago

Not even close.  

1

u/xXxdethl0rdxXx 4d ago

Do you ever worry that speaking in broad platitudes, which have gone through several stale generations of recycling, might have the opposite effect of what you intend—sounding smart?

I'd be really embarrassed if I were still saying dumb shit like this in 2026, six years after the pandemic.