Google employees ask for 'psychological safety' amid massive layoffs 

Google employees are demanding that the company’s executives provide them with “psychological safety” and assure them that their positions will not be the next ones to be cut off.

“How are we supposed to ever feel safe again?” asked one employee after Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., let go of around 6% of its full-time workforce—12,000 employees. The employee noted that many of those who were let go were high performers or people on immigration visas. 

“The layoffs seem random,” said another employee. “I am pro-Google, but I’m pretty shook right now. Help me understand.”

“Should I keep working super hard? Does it matter?” wondered yet another disgruntled employee. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has denied that the layoffs have been random and is urging the employees to stay focused on their jobs as the company goes through a hard time. 

“I understand you are worried about what comes next for your work,” Pichai said, adding that he was very sad for the loss of some really good colleagues across the company.”

Research suggests that psychological safety is critical to a healthy work environment: it helps drive creativity, improve decision-making, and build resiliency and team success. However, experts claim that being ensured psychological safety does not necessarily mean that an employee will be protected from being fired.

"It's so important to be clear that psychological safety is not the same thing as job security," Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School told Business Insider.

The demands come as other technology companies have also laid off large numbers of employees, including Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, and Microsoft. At least 25,000 tech workers have been laid off around the world so far in 2023 and the numbers are expected to increase.