Google Expands Voluntary Exit Program to ‘Support Our Important Work Ahead’

Google has extended its voluntary exit program with severance to U.S.-based employees in more of its teams.

The program was made available Tuesday (June 10) to the company’s Core (central engineering), Marketing, Research, Knowledge & Information (K&I; Search, Ads, Geo and Commerce) and Communications teams, Google told PYMNTS Wednesday (June 11).

The voluntary exit program was made available earlier this year to Google’s Platforms and Devices, People Operations, Legal and Finance teams, the company said.

In addition, some Google teams have asked remote employees who live within 50 miles of an office to return to the office for in-person work three days a week, the company said.

“Earlier this year, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance for U.S.-based Googlers, and several more are now offering the program to support our important work ahead,” Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told PYMNTS in an email. “A number of teams are also asking remote employees who live near an office to return to a hybrid work schedule in order to bring folks more together in-person.”

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in January 2023 that the company was cutting 12,000 jobs across its product areas, functions and regions in response to the macroeconomic environment at the time.

“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” Pichai said in a January 2023 message to employees. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

Pichai also said in the message that the cuts would sharpen the company’s focus on key areas, including artificial intelligence.

A year later, in January 2024, it was reported that Google was laying off hundreds of workers in its ongoing cost-cutting campaign and as it was investing more in generative AI.

During that same month, it was reported that Pichai warned employees in a staff memo to expect more job cuts as the company continued investing in its priorities.

“The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices,” Pichai said in the January 2024 staff memo.