Following the company’s introduction of a “voluntary exit program” to employees across several teams earlier this year, Google expanded its offer this week to several more sectors. According to CNBC, Google has extended offers to its marketing, communications, and knowledge and information (K&I) teams. K&I is the division of Google that houses the Google Search team. The buyout program, which offers US-based employees the ability to leave the company with a severance package, is part of the company’s broader, multi-year effort to downsize its numbers.
“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 commented to CNBC.
The following was originally published February 3, 2025:
Google sent out a memo late last week to all US-based staff across several verticals, including Pixel, Chrome, and Android, offering a “voluntary exit program” to any employee that wishes to leave the company. In the memo, the tech giant offers a buyout, offering guaranteed severance to employees willing to leave their job.
“The Platforms & Devices team is offering a voluntary exit program that provides US-based Googlers working on this team the ability to voluntarily leave the company with a severance package,” the memo says in part. “This comes after we brought two large organizations together last year. There’s tremendous momentum on this team and with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency.”
According to 9to5Google, the author of the memo is platforms and devices SVP Rick Osterloh.
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The memo comes shortly after Google workers filed a petition demanding that CEO Sundar Pichai offer employees this kind of voluntary buyout before resorting to layoffs. According to CNBC, the petition has over 1,250 signatures, and reads in part:
“We, the undersigned Google workers from offices across the US and Canada, are concerned about instability at Google that impacts our ability to do high quality, impactful work,” the petition says. “Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs. The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more.”
