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"I'm told this comes as a shock to my managers and other Chrome team leaders. I'm told it's not based on merit" If your manager is shocked by one of their team

"I'm told this comes as a shock to my managers and other Chrome team leaders. I'm told it's not based on merit" If your manager is shocked by one of their team being laid off, the manager is probably next. Of course the OP was told it wasn't based on merit, or any other arguable-in-court characteristic. But it was. Someone decided Google was better off this way, or that OP was better off working somewhere else.

silisili 2y ago
Managers often feign cluelessness because what else can they do? Tell you they submitted you for layoffs? Tell you they knew for weeks and said nothing? There's really no upside option here. I have no doubt that sometimes managers really don't know, but I'd wager that most who say they didn't know probably did.
- acjohnson55 2y ago
  From my personal experience, front line managers are often not privy to layoffs.
- DannyBee 2y ago
  I'd wager they didn't. Lowest person who generally will know will usually be a senior director. Sometimes director. Sometimes VP. Google is pretty careful about this. While it's true sometimes those people share stuff, it's definitely not en masse, and you can get yourself in significant trouble if you share it when you shouldn't, so it's less times than you think. At most other places i worked it was different.
DannyBee 2y ago
Eh - having had to do these myself at Google for large orgs over the past few years, i would not assume it was based on merit. The cost disparities can be huge between team members and locations, and a lot of time it's being done to hit some EOY or mid-year budget number. They are also slowly trying to clean up location strategy. So it's entirely possible it was based on cost and location, and not merit. It would still be merit "under the covers" if everyone was the same cost/location, but they aren't.
- readthenotes1 2y ago
  Isn't it merit if you're not earning value/dollar? If I got paid 5x someone else, shouldn't I be producing 5x?

silisili 2y ago

Managers often feign cluelessness because what else can they do? Tell you they submitted you for layoffs? Tell you they knew for weeks and said nothing? There's really no upside option here. I have no doubt that sometimes managers really don't know, but I'd wager that most who say they didn't know probably did.

acjohnson55 2y ago
From my personal experience, front line managers are often not privy to layoffs.
DannyBee 2y ago
I'd wager they didn't. Lowest person who generally will know will usually be a senior director. Sometimes director. Sometimes VP. Google is pretty careful about this. While it's true sometimes those people share stuff, it's definitely not en masse, and you can get yourself in significant trouble if you share it when you shouldn't, so it's less times than you think. At most other places i worked it was different.

DannyBee 2y ago

Eh - having had to do these myself at Google for large orgs over the past few years, i would not assume it was based on merit. The cost disparities can be huge between team members and locations, and a lot of time it's being done to hit some EOY or mid-year budget number. They are also slowly trying to clean up location strategy. So it's entirely possible it was based on cost and location, and not merit. It would still be merit "under the covers" if everyone was the same cost/location, but they aren't.

readthenotes1 2y ago
Isn't it merit if you're not earning value/dollar? If I got paid 5x someone else, shouldn't I be producing 5x?