The next wave of layoffs is coming: Mass layoffs continue at Google Switzerland

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It’s been a year since Google announced it would cut 12,000 jobs worldwide. Switzerland was also affected: 300 of the approximately 5,000 jobs at Google’s Zurich location were lost at the time.

Now a new wave of discounts is coming. Blick research shows: 160 positions are on the cancellation list at the Hürlimann-Areal and Europaallee locations in Zurich, where work is done on services such as Google Maps, Search and YouTube. A consultation process for collective redundancies is currently ongoing. A Google spokesperson confirmed this without going into the full extent of the layoffs. Your choice of words: Switzerland as a location may be “affected to a certain extent”.

Blick asks employee representatives. Syndicom is also low-key on the number of those affected, but promises the consultation process will be completed by mid-February. “It is incomprehensible that Google is laying off a large number of employees again, as the company continues to make very high profits,” says Syndicom central secretary Miriam Berger (38).

Why dismantling?

Armin S.*, 40, works at Google in Zurich. He wishes to remain anonymous for fear of being fired. Google is currently sending “signals to employees and shareholders that jobs at Google are not safe and that the company is investing in new markets.” In public perception, the US tech giant has lagged behind when it comes to the mega-topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which can create new texts, images, video or audio clips. Now the company needs to fix this.

A Google spokesperson uses public relations slang: The company “invests in the top priorities,” so “resources are focused on the top product priorities.” As a result, “some roles are disappearing.”

S. laments the lack of internal communication: “It can affect everyone, there is a lot of uncertainty.” Google’s Swiss management bears little blame for this fiasco: “Major decisions are made at headquarters in Mountain View, California.” It seems as if some research departments are concentrated in separate locations. It looks like some Google jobs in Switzerland will be moved to Poland, as S. confirmed to Blick.

No understanding about layoffs

S. is also troubled by the cultural change at the company: Google staff were always expected to be well-educated and adaptable, so employees could be deployed flexibly during the many changes in the technology world. In these days of restructuring, there is often no other job in the Google universe. “There is no longer an internal understanding of the current measures,” S. adds. In particular, according to his observations, Switzerland is more affected than others.

And above all on the anniversary of 2024: 20 years ago Google opened its branch in Zurich. The Swiss location quickly grew into Google’s largest research facility outside the United States. Waves of fragmentation and measures are tarnishing the image of the ideal symbiosis between Google and Zurich. At the same time, an office building on Zurich’s Müllerstrasse is being converted into a third Google location. Is this still necessary? “In this context, there will be no changes to Google’s real estate portfolio in Zurich,” the spokesman said.

Today, Google Switzerland retains little of its former pride in its status as the flagship subsidiary of the US tech giant.

*Editor’s name known

Source :Blick