'Took a stroll with my son': Google employee on what she did after reading layoff mail

The world of tech has become fickle and uncertain and no one knows this better than a former Google employee, who recently lost her job after six years of dedicated service.

Instead of being sad after reading the email, she chose to stay strong and took her son for a walk. Writing about her layoff, the woman wrote, "Last week, I was impacted by Google layoffs, alongside hundreds of my brilliant colleagues and friends in recruiting. After the layoff announcement, my husband and I, with our one-year-old son in tow, took a stroll around the neighborhood and named things we were grateful for."

In 2017 when the woman joined Google, she deeply questioned her own skills, leadership, and worth. She was riddled with self-doubt, unsure about her capabilities to add any significant value to her team. However, her journey with the tech giant marked a transformative turn. In retrospect, the woman shared that joining Google became a turning point in her life, changing her journey from self-doubt to self-assurance.

"Six years later, I am struck by how much Google has changed me. I joined as a contractor, landed a full-time role, became an Associate Lead, and got promoted to be a Lead. I was managed by, and had the privilege of managing and promoting, incredible humans. If you had told me six years ago that I’d get to do all this at my dream company, I would have never believed you. Google helped me to regain my self-assurance, my self-confidence, my self-worth. And for that, I am eternally grateful," she wrote on LinkedIn.

Prior to recently laying off people from the recruiting team, Google announced its decision to fire 12,000 staff in January of this year. Google sacked employees from its Waze mapping app section a few months later when it began merging the programme into Google Maps products. Google's Geo unit is led by Chris Philips, who informed staff of the layoffs through email.

Major tech giants like Meta, Google, Twitter (now called X), Microsoft, and Amazon laid off thousands of employees at the beginning of this year. This has led to the tech job market becoming more competitive and volatile.

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