Ahead of Google’s annual I/O developer conference in May, the tech giant laid off employees across key teams like Flutter, Dart, Python and others, according to reports from affected employees shared on social media. Google confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch, but not the specific teams, roles or number of people laid off.
“As we said, we are investing responsibly in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities that lie ahead,” a Google spokesperson said. “To best position ourselves for these opportunities, some of our teams have made changes in the second half of 2023 and into 2024 to become more efficient and work better, removing shifts and aligning their resources on their biggest product priorities. In doing so, we are simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunities to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and shifts.”
The company clarified that the layoffs were not company-wide but were restructuring measures that were part of the normal course of business. Affected employees can apply for other open positions at Google, it is said.
In an X contributionA Flutter and Dart prime minister said the layoffs had affected “a lot of teams” and that “a lot of great projects were losing people.”
“We are saddened, but still working hard on I/O and beyond,” Google Premier Kevin Moore wrote in the Flutter developer community on Reddit, adding that Flutter and Dart were no more or less affected than others teams. “We know you will care SO MUCH about the project, the team and the amazing ecosystem we have built together. You are nervous. I get it. We get it. They rely on Flutter and Dart. Me too. Google too,” he said.
Google also told TechCrunch that Flutter will unveil new updates at I/O this year.
In a separate post on Reddit, another commenter pointed out that the Python team affected by the layoffs were those who managed the internal Python runtimes and toolchains and worked with OSS Python. That group included “several current and former core developers and steering board members,” they said.
Meanwhile, others reported on Y Combinator’s Hacker News, where a member of the Python team detailed his specific tasks on the technical front, noting that much of the work had been done with fewer than 10 people for years. Another Hacker News commenter said that they spent their first few years on the Python team paying off internal technical debt caused by the lack of a strong Python strategy.
“…despite the staffing shortage, we had managers who excelled at maintaining work-life balance and taking a marathon-not-sprint approach to work. As I said in another comment, it is the best job I have ever had and I will miss it very much,” they wrote.
“Python was one of the first languages widely used at Google. It was the last major backend language to get a language team,” user gpshead also said.
Although Google hasn’t provided detailed headcount information, some of Google’s layoffs may have been confirmed in a WARN notice filed on April 24. WARN, or the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, requires employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60-1 days notice of layoffs. In the filing, Google said it is laying off a total of 50 employees at three locations in Sunnyvale.
On social media, commentators particularly expressed concerns about Python layoffs given the role that Python tools play in AI. However, others pointed out that Google did not eliminate its Python team, but rather replaced it with another group based in Munich – at least according to Thomas Wouters, a member of the Python Steering Board, in a post on Mastodon.
“It’s a tough day when everyone you work directly with, including your manager, is laid off – sorry, their roles have been reduced” and you’re asked to hire their replacements, people are told to do so straight away taking on the same roles “Another country no happier about it,” he said in a Mastodon post last Thursday.
Google said it will support all affected employees in line with local needs by providing them with time to search for different roles at Google or elsewhere, access to outplacement services and severance pay.