Tech giants are laying off thousands of people. Here's how their severance packages stack up.
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- Multiple tech giants have all announced broad cuts from their teams since November.
- More than 200,000 tech workers have been laid off since the start of 2022, per tracker Layoffs.fyi.
- Here's how the severance packages for eight of the biggest tech companies stack up.
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Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Stripe, and Lyft are among the tech giants who have announced mass layoffs in recent months. Seven of these companies publicly announced severance packages for their laid-off US employees, while CNBC reported that Amazon offered workers a "voluntary severance" package. Here's how they stack up.
Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon, Twitter, Lyft, and Stripe did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
January 27, 2023: This story was updated with details on severance packages offered by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Salesforce.
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced on January 20 that the firm would lay off 12,000 employees, saying it had hired over the last two years for a "different economic reality than the one we face today."
"The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here," Pichai wrote in a memo to employees.
He wrote that the layoffs would affect roles "across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels, and regions."
The latest round of job cuts are the biggest ever faced by Google in its 25-year history. Some Googlers have criticized the company for announcing layoffs abruptly and through email, saying the dismissals have fractured the firm's long-held sense of stability.
When employees asked Pichai at a Town Hall meeting who would take responsibility for overhiring, he said the company's executives would take a "very significant reduction in their annual bonus."
Alphabet, the company that owns Google, said its net income slipped 26.5% to $13.9 billion in the third quarter of 2022, compared to $18.9 billion in the same quarter of 2021, per its latest earnings report.
Percentage of staff laid off: 6%
Minimum severance pay: 16 weeks salary
Additional severance pay: two weeks for every additional year at Google
Health insurance: six months from layoff date
Immigration support: provided
Other benefits: payment for 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time, full pay and benefits for at least 60 days, job placement services
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Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, told employees in a memo on January 18 that the firm would cut 10,000 jobs through the end of the third quarter in 2023.
Some of the layoffs would begin that day, he wrote. "It's important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas," Nadella added in the memo.
Nadella said Microsoft would take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter related to severance packages and other changes in the company.
"These are the kinds of hard choices we have made throughout our 47-year history to remain a consequential company in this industry that is unforgiving to anyone who doesn't adapt to platform shifts," he wrote.
Microsoft's net income fell 12% to $16.4 billion for the quarter ending December 31, 2022, compared to $18.8 billion in the same quarter the year before, per its latest earnings report.
Percentage of staff laid off: Less than 5%
Minimum severance pay: unspecified, "above-market" pay
Additional severance pay: no mention
Health insurance: six months from layoff date
Immigration support: no public mention
Other benefits: full pay and benefits for 60 days, job placement services
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Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff told employees in a letter on January 4 that his company would cut 10% of its employees, or an estimated 7,000 jobs, over a period of a few weeks.
"As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we're now facing, and I take responsibility for that," he wrote, saying laid off employees would get a notification email within the next hour.
Benioff addressed the layoffs at an all-hands meeting two days later, but the discussion left employees flustered as the co-CEO dodged questions for two hours, Insider's Ellen Thomas and Ashley Stewart reported.
The executive told staff that more job cuts are coming, but even many top-level managers didn't know when the next round would happen or who might be affected, Salesforce employees told Thomas and Stewart.
Chief people officer Brent Hyder said there would likely be "additional reductions and eliminations of jobs."
"That's the only way I can say it, because there isn't an answer to say 'It's one and done' or 'We'll be done on this date or that date,'" Hyder said.
Salesforce's net income dropped to $210 million in the quarter ending October 31, 2022, down 66% year-on-year from $468 million in the same quarter in 2021.
Percentage of staff laid off: 10%
Minimum severance pay: five months of pay
Additional severance pay: no public mention
Health insurance: covered for five months
Immigration support: no public mention
Other benefits: unspecified career resources
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Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday morning that the tech giant would lay off more than 11,000 employees, an anticipated move from the company after weeks of reports that it was planning job cuts.
It's the first time that Meta has conducted a broad cull of its employees in its 18-year history. Zuckerberg admitted responsibility for the cuts, saying he wrongly predicted that the market's bullish sprint during the pandemic would last longer.
"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," Zuckerberg wrote in a memo to employees.
The layoffs have prompted mixed reactions from outgoing employees. Some said on social media that they were thankful for their experience with Meta, while others expressed unhappiness at being fired via email or said they were let go just after returning from paternal leave.
Meta's net income in the third quarter was around $4.4 billion, down 52% year-on-year, as it focuses on Zuckerberg's vision to establish the metaverse.
In response to queries from Insider, a Meta spokesperson pointed to Zuckerberg's memo.
Percentage of staff laid off: 13%
Minimum severance pay: 16 weeks of base salary
Additional severance pay: two weeks per year of service worked, with no cap
Health insurance: six months from layoff date
Immigration support: immigration specialists to contact those on visas
Other benefits: three months of "career support" with an external vendor, including early access to job leads.
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Twitter slashed nearly half of its global workforce, or roughly 3,700 employees, after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the platform. Musk tweeted on November 4 that he had "no choice" but to cut the jobs, writing that Twitter was losing $4 million per day.
The day before, employees received an unsigned memo saying that layoffs were incoming.
"If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email," the memo read. "If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email."
The ham-fisted approach drew heavy criticism from former employees, with some saying Twitter's layoffs were a "master class in how not to do it." Culled employees complained that they were fired with little-to-no notice. Some told Insider that they lost access to their laptops before receiving notice of their termination. Several employees are suing Twitter, saying they weren't given enough notice before being cut.
Twitter's third quarter results have not been released, but the company lost $270 million in the second quarter of 2022, compared to a net income of $66 million on year.
Percentage of staff laid off: estimated 50%
Minimum severance pay: three months of salary, roughly 12 weeks, according to Musk
Additional severance pay: no public mention
Health insurance: no public mention
Immigration support: no public mention
Other benefits: no public mention
Noah Berger/AP Photo
Ridesharing startup Lyft's cofounders Logan Green and John Zimmer sent a memo to employees on November 3 announcing that the company was cutting 683 jobs, as it faces financial headwinds and a looming global recession.
"We worked hard to bring down costs this summer: we slowed, then froze hiring; cut spending; and paused less-critical initiatives," the memo said. "Still, Lyft has to become leaner, which requires us to part with incredible team members."
Lyft reported a net loss of $422.2 million for the third quarter of 2022, ballooning from a $99.7 million net loss in the same quarter last year.
Percentage of staff laid off: 13%
Minimum severance pay: 10 weeks of salary
Additional severance pay: four weeks of salary for employees who worked at least four years at Lyft
Health insurance: coverage through April 30, 2023
Immigration support: no public mention
Other benefits: employees will also get recruiting assistance and coaching sessions on resumes and interviews, the company said
Stripe
Payment platform Stripe announced mass layoffs on November 3, pointing to poor conditions in the economy.
Stripe cofounders Patrick and John Collison wrote in a memo to employees that the company needed to "match the pace of our investments with the realities around us."
"Doing right by our users and our shareholders (including you) means embracing reality as it is," they wrote.
Stripe's memo was praised publicly by some of its workers, with one employee calling it "the right decision" and lauding the Collison brothers for taking responsibility in their note.
"The leaders are taking full ownership of the consequences of their decision and truly showing compassion towards each employee by offering them a well-thought-out and generous severance package," Joe Alim, HR platform Compt's vice president of product and operations, told Insider's Rachel DuRose.
Stripe is privately held, which means its shares are not traded on a public stock market.
Percentage of staff laid off: 14%
Minimum severance pay: 14 weeks of salary
Additional severance pay: unspecified extra pay for employees with longer tenure
Health insurance: cash equivalent of six months of healthcare premiums or healthcare continuation
Immigration support: Stripe said it would work with employees on visas, and will support transitions to non-employment visas if it can
Other benefits: annual bonuses for 2022, regardless of departure date. Payment for all unused paid-time-off or leave days.
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The ecommerce giant is in the midst of laying off around 18,000 employees, including staff from its retail and human resources divisions, as well as teams that worked on the now-axed voice assistant Alexa.
Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, published a November 17 team memo pointing to "an unusual and uncertain" economy.
On January 18, company executives told staff via email that the ecommerce giant would lay off roughly 18,000 people, up from an estimated 10,000 employees before.
Amazon's severance package has not been publicly released, but the company offered some employees voluntary buyouts in November as an additional way of cutting its headcount, CNBC reported, citing internal company memos.
Staff would get three months of healthcare payments and salary in exchange for leaving the company, plus one week of pay for every six months of tenure, the outlet reported.
Employees taking up the offer had until November 29 to resign, and until December 5 to withdraw their applications if they changed their minds, per CNBC.
Amazon posted a drop in net income to $2.9 billion in the third quarter of 2022, down from $3.2 billion in the same quarter in 2021.
Percentage of staff laid off: 1.2% of the total workforce
Minimum severance pay: unspecified, but based on tenure
Additional severance pay: no public mention
Health insurance: unspecified transitional health benefits
Immigration support: no public mention
Other benefits: full pay and benefits for 60 days, promises of external job placement support
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