Google Offers Voluntary Buyouts: What It Means and Why AI Is Behind It

After a series of layoffs, Google is once again letting go of its employees, but this time it is voluntary. The technology giant is giving some of its US-based employees money to quit their jobs, only if they want to. Called as “Voluntary Exit Program,” it was put in place by several teams of Google earlier this year and presently applies to only US-based Google employees. 

This is not a firing. It is more like a company saying, “Here’s a nice goodbye package if you don’t like where we are going.” According to a Google spokesperson, some of the teams started with this program for severance, and a few more teams are taking the same route to aid the company in securing only those employees who align with the company’s future goals. Many teams at Google are also Googlers working remotely to switch to hybrid mode to bolster employee interaction at the office. 

Google’s voluntary exit program is being offered to the team members of Search, Core Engineering, Knowledge & Information, Marketing and Communications. Employees working in these teams have been given the option to buy out. Google, in a silent communication, told them they had until the start of July to make a choice.  Employees who choose to leave will get more than 14 weeks of severance pay from the company. 

What’s happening with Google Now?  The word is AI. Google isn’t letting employees go because things aren’t going well.  The Cupertino giant is changing things up so that it can focus on AI instead.  The most important things right now are projects like Gemini, AI-powered Search, and new AI tools that are keeping the company busy these days. This exit program means that some employees don’t fit with how Google plans to take things ahead amidst the ongoing AI race. Google is offering buyouts, aiming to slim down its workforce and focus on its AI innovations. 

Google, in the past few months, has made several rounds of layoffs, but this is different. It’s not about saving money this time; it is about making the company ready for a future with AI. The company is not just making the teams smaller; it is also changing them. 

Google is offering a severance pay via its voluntary exit program. This comes after the company faced heavy criticism for suddenly laying off 6 per cent of its staff in January 2023, including high-performing employees, some even on medical or maternity leave. The move shocked almost every affected employee as their access to company systems was cut off without any prior knowledge. Google came under fire for the abrupt layoffs, which forced the company to change its approach to voluntary buyouts instead of abrupt layoffs.

In addition to the buyouts, Google is telling employees to come back to work.  If you live within 50 miles of a Google office, you have to come to the office at least three days a week, says the company, as it believes “face-to-face collaboration” helps teams come up with new ideas, especially those working on AI.