The layoffs are all across the board, from Chrome to Cloud to AI to Fuchsia to their research division, so it's not like there is a specific role they don't nee

The layoffs are all across the board, from Chrome to Cloud to AI to Fuchsia to their research division, so it's not like there is a specific role they don't need anymore. The employees also woke up to the news the same way everyone else did; they might have even seen the HN article before finding the email in their corporate inbox. It's a confusing situation, as the article describes, and the company seems to be handling it as smoothly as all the projects in its graveyard. In the grander scheme of things, I am sure companies will use this and the other layoffs as an excuse to stifle raises, lower bonuses, and squeeze more out of the workers who are presumably on a spree of unproductivity scratching their hairy balls at home. The article also touches a bit on this.