Layoffs 2024: Google announces mass layoffs in ad sales team

Google recently announced the sacking of over 1,000 employees globally across its digital assistant, hardware, and engineering teams globally. The tech giant has now confirmed that “a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated” from its ad sales team, reported The Verge.

As per a memo by Google senior vice president Philipp Schindler, the layoffs will primarily affect its Large Customer Sales (LCS) unit, a team that is responsible for selling ads to large businesses. It further added that the Google Customer Solutions team (GCS) that sells ads to smaller businesses will become the “core” ad sales team.

Google spokesperson Chris Pappas told The Verge that every year Google goes through a rigorous process to structure the ad sales team. He stated, “We map customers to the right specialist teams and sales channels to meet their service needs. As part of this, a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated and impacted employees will be able to apply for open roles or elsewhere at Google.”

Earlier this week, Google announced to layoff of hundreds of employees as a part of the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce expenses. In a statement, a Google spokesperson explained, “In the latter half of 2023, several of our teams changed to improve efficiency and better align resources with our top product priorities. Some teams are still implementing these organizational changes, which unfortunately involve job cuts worldwide.”

This layoff hints that job cuts will continue this year, as companies look to adopt artificial intelligence software and automation to lighten workloads. As per a recent report by The Information, Google is likely to make 30,000 job cuts in 2024 as it will rely more on AI-powered tools that can automatically suggest and create new ads and might even perform well for customers with little human intervention.

Not just Google, Amazon also announced to make several hundred employees in its streaming and studio operations. The staff facing exit at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios in the Americas will be informed this week. As per a report by Business Insider, Amazon is reportedly asking managers to assign lower performance ratings to employees who fail to comply with the Return to Office (RTO) policy. It is being speculated that it is a part of a larger strategy, akin to a "quiet firing" plan.

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