Time will tell. But it’s possible that this is being treated as a complete transformation/releveling of the business and how work is done. Was the rampant hiring even rational to begin with? Did the projects have any path to value? Profit? Google has had a hard time profiting off most of their portfolio of products over the years, so probably not. That’s not a reflection of the individuals working on those products. It’s also well known that inefficiencies are rampant in these companies. Maybe the intend to reevaluate how decisions are made and work is done so that the 20% productivity gain is from people actually being more productive with the hours they already are working.
You are right that “need” isn’t always a financial need. It’s doesn’t make it less of a need though. If the board told Sundar to trim $x million, and X is significantly large, he can’t do it without trimming headcount.
If you were working on some small product, your job was never guaranteed and likely highly reliant on the success of that product. If they decided to shut down the product, you’re likely laid off. Likewise, if their core/go forward products has reached a “maintenance mode” it makes sense to reduce headcount - Profitability isn’t even part of the equation, sure it’s a secondary effect.
Furthermore, the trend to remote/WFH was always going to accelerate the shift of labor to lower cost. It often makes no sense to pay someone 2-20x more to do the same job as another person in another region. The main reason was because the norm was meetings/collaboration that occurred in person.
Just pointing out how much armchair quarterbacking is being done. We know nothing about these things and their future strategies. But there are a lot of scenarios where these cuts make good and obvious business sense and the management team gets judged on that just like anything else.
I hear a lot of what sounds like rent seeking behavior on this topic. Like because they can afford it they should perpetually employ all these people forever. It’s hard for me to support. I’m aware capitalism isn’t perfect but nobody was complaining when they were making the Google compensation, which were/are inflated like a roughneck’s usually are (to use the oil industry analogy again).