A Gurugram man, who claimed to be one among the nearly 453 employees recently laid off by Google, took to LinkedIn on Friday to share his shock exit from the company. Sagar Gilhotra, former strategic partner development manager at Google, said that his life was turned ‘upside down’ at 8.34 pm on Thursday, when he received the news of his termination.
The ex-Googler detailed his contributions to the search giant, which included ‘working round the clock to offer support to his team, expanding India operations of YouTube live shopping and onboarding top-level market partners’. Despite ‘giving his best and receiving spot bonuses’, he added that it was disheartening to see talented people being sacked. “As a pro-Googler, I have always given my best to the company,” he wrote.
“I am optimistic that this change will lead me down a new path of growth and self-discovery. I’ll rise again…I will take this loss and turn it into an opportunity, to grow, to learn, and to build anew,” he continued. Thanking people who extended support during his tenure at the tech giant, Sagar concluded his post by requesting for leads to new opportunities and job vacancies.
According to a report by the Business Line, the layoffs took place across various departments of Google. In a mail sent by Sanjay Gupta, Google India’s country head and vice president, employees were informed of the pink slip late at night on Thursday.
There is, however, no clarity on whether this is a fresh round of job cuts or part of the larger layoff around 12,000 staff accounting for 6% of its global workforce, announced by CEO Sundar Pichai in January.
Meanwhile, Indian-origin Neal Mohan assumed the top post at Google-owned YouTube on Thursday after Susan Wojcicki resigned from her CEO position.