According to allegations from impacted employees posted on social media, Google has made layoffs across major teams like Flutter, Dart, Python, and others ahead of its annual I/O developer conference in May. Google would not disclose to TechCrunch the teams, positions, or number of employees that were let go, although it did confirm the layoffs.
Less than ten people are thought to be on the US-based Python team, all of whom were in charge of managing the Python ecosystem for the tech giant, which included third-party software maintenance.
“As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” said Google spokesperson Alex García-Kummert. “To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers, and align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Through this, we’re simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and layers,” he added.
In one X post, a PM from Flutter and Dart said the layoffs had affected “a LOT of teams,” and that “lots of great projects lost people.”
“We’re sad, but still cranking hard on I/O and beyond,” wrote Google PM Kevin Moore in the Flutter development community on Reddit, where he added that Flutter and Dart weren’t affected any more or less than other teams. “We know ya’ll care SO MUCH about the project and the team and the awesome ecosystem we’ve built together. You’re nervous. I get it. We get it. You’re betting on Flutter and Dart. So am I. So is Google,” he said.
Others posted on Hacker News on Y Combinator, where a member of the Python team described their precise technical responsibilities and mentioned that, for many years, most of the work was completed by fewer than ten people. An further commentator on Hacker News stated that their initial years on the Python team were devoted to clearing internal technical debt that had accrued as a result of a weak Python strategy.
Google did not provide a headcount, but a WARN notice that was submitted on April 24 may have confirmed some of the layoffs at the company. Employers with more than 100 workers are required by the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, to give 60 days’ notice of layoffs. Google announced in the filing that it was terminating 50 workers from three different Sunnyvale facilities.
According to local regulations, Google promised to support all impacted employees by giving them time to look for other positions at Google or elsewhere, access to outplacement services, and severance pay.