can't speak for everyone else, but it seems like a canary. They grew really fast the last few years, so many people joined google recently, with all their reput

can't speak for everyone else, but it seems like a canary. They grew really fast the last few years, so many people joined google recently, with all their reputation for tons of perks. Their new perks are going away, that they just joined for. That's probably a bit of a shock as well. > they simply don't understand the belt-tightening when they think the company is doing well, or something else? When you make a median of $300k, being told you need to cut a $50 sweatshirt this year out of the budget, its pretty confusing and concerning. > is it because the travel was fun, or effective for project success, or effective for personal advancement, or something else? Probably all of the above. With COVID, lots of teams (at lots of companies) became more distributed, and meeting in person is important occasionally (IMO). Travel is fun, and google tends to be in the fun cities with fun offices (SF, NYC, etc) so traveling to those cities is probably an enjoyable trip compared to flying to eg. Milwaukee. With a "fun budget" even if you have to work, you'll probably enjoy those trips beyond the work. > How concerned are people about possible layoffs, possible declining TC, and/or possible changing nature of the work lifestyle? I imagine considering the the earlier claims of "20% productivity increase", product cuts and stalled hiring, layoffs probably feel around the corner for many people. Having to output 20% more is no easy feat unless you really weren't working very hard. > Are there any pre-existing concerns that talks of belt-tightening are adding to? I think its just that lots of people are new to this lucrative perk-filled rich company and its an affront to their expectations and potentially reason for joining.