Sacked at 3 am, account deactivated, says Google employee of over 16 years

Justin Moore worked at Google as a software engineering manager. (Image credit: LinkedIn)

After over 16 years working at Google, a software engineering manager says he was let go in the most abrupt way -- no other communication except the sudden deactivation of his account.

Justin Moore, who is based in Washington DC, wrote on his LinkedIn profile that his account was automatically deactivated at 3 am on January 20.

"I haven't received any of the other communications the boilerplate "you've been let go" website (which I now also can't access) said I should receive," he added.

Reflecting on his time at Google, Moore said it was mostly "wonderful". He said he was proud of the work his teams did.

"I got to work with some great people and really help a lot of our users around the world in the Civics and Elections space," Moore wrote. "I was so incredibly fortunate."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Moore started off at Google as senior software engineer in 2006. In 2019, he was promoted to the software engineering manager position.

Speaking from his experience, Moore said big corporations see their employees as completely disposable.

"This also just drives home that work is not your life," he added. "Live life, not work."

Many LinkedIn users expressed solidarity with Moore.

"You’ve done such amazing work, and it was great to partner with you on the Voting Information Project now years ago," said Katie Hale, pharma company Eli Lilly's associate director of communications. "I hope you take a well-deserved break."

"Such a cruel way to lay off someone who has given 16.5 years of his life to the organisation," said Bisal Pattajoshi, tech lead at LTIMindtree. "As you rightly said live life, not work."

"This is the complete antithesis to me of 'Googliness' and how a business such as Google should operate," said Christian Ashby, a UK-based senior cloud engineer. "There are better ways of dealing with even difficult messaging such as this. My sympathies to you and anyone else impacted."

Google's parent company Alphabet has become the latest tech giant to cut jobs amid an economic downturn.

"We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles," CEO Sundar Pichai announced, adding the decision was made after a "rigorous review across product areas".

"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 added.

The company will provide laid off employees a severance package starting at 16 weeks’ salary. Payouts will also include bonuses, unused vacation time, health cover for six months and job placement services.

Read more here: What Google parent Alphabet is offering to 12,000 soon-to-be laid off employees