2023년 1월 22일 일요일 – Mountain View 생활 67주차

Google Layoff

It finally happened at 2 am on Friday. People who got laid off immediately lost access and couldn’t say goodbye to their teammates. The list of impacted people outside the US is finalized but has yet to be announced.

There were some signals of layoff. Other big companies had announced the massive layoff, and Google was almost the last one that hadn’t cut down employees. Some people said that Google would be safe as it was in 2008, but they were wrong. On Thursday, Google paused the new PERM application, which was 99.99% signal.

I didn’t notice until my wife woke me up by saying that Google had just announced a layoff. I immediately checked my email and understood what had happened last night. I sent a message to my colleague via corp chat, but he couldn’t receive it. Horrible.

The impact of the layoff varies depending on PA and teams. My previous team was severely affected. More than 50% of the people were gone. Of course, I know many of them—a Korean who worked in the same building and gave me some advice, A person who recently had childbirth and talked with me about being a father, A person who recently married and whose performance was top in the team.

Now, I realize what how it is like working in the US. Koreans have never experienced this since IMF crisis in South Korea. We never know how it feels until it happens in real. In Korea, people tend to align their life with their companies. But in the US, people recommend not doing that, and this would be a good example.

It’s also why people advise preparing for the worst scenario. If your job security is unstable and the market is not in a good mood, you have to save as much cash as you can. People who earn a lot of money keep a frugal lifestyle.

It’s pure luck that I dodged the disaster. Now, how can I live without being affected by anything? It’s almost impossible. It costs the rest of my life if I want to control the outside factor. The only thing I can control is my mind. I don’t know how now, and I should learn.