Google Cuts Manager Roles by 10% in Latest Efficiency Push
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the tech giant has reduced its managerial positions by 10% over the past year as part of ongoing efforts to streamline operations.
During a company-wide meeting on Wednesday, Pichai revealed that Google has decreased the number of managers, directors, and vice presidents across its workforce. The restructuring involved shifting some managers to individual contributor positions, removing their supervisory responsibilities, while others faced layoffs.
The management reduction aligns with Google's stated priority of achieving "durable cost savings" in 2024. The company has already implemented several rounds of job cuts this year, affecting various divisions including advertising, core engineering, and hardware teams working on products like Pixel phones and Nest devices.
This latest round of restructuring follows Google's major workforce reduction in 2023, which saw 12,000 employees depart the company. The moves come as Google works to maintain its competitive edge against emerging rivals in artificial intelligence, particularly OpenAI.
The company faces additional challenges, including legal pressures following a federal judge's ruling last August that labeled Google a "monopolist," potentially threatening its search business structure.
Google's organizational changes mirror similar moves across the tech industry. Meta, under Mark Zuckerberg's leadership, underwent comparable restructuring in 2023, dubbed internally as "flattening," where middle managers were asked to either transition to individual contributor roles or leave the company.
These industry-wide adjustments reflect both economic pressures and a strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence development among major tech companies.