Google plans to introduce a tougher performance review process that will widen the gap between high and low performers. The move has stirred up anxiety among staff over potential layoffs.
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Some Googlers in Europe wrote a letter expressing their concerns that the new process could be used to negatively rate employees to cut workforce, New York Times reported.
The new ranking scale makes it hard for an employee to get the highest score. It wants an employee to accomplish “the near-impossible,” according to a CNBC report.
Google’s new review process follows a series of layoffs at top tech firms. Meta, Amazon, and Intel have all laid off several hundred workers in the past two months as macroeconomic uncertainty has made tech firms redraw plans for the next year.
Earlier, Google slowed hiring and stepped up its “check-in” process. This made several employees feel as though they were being targeted on the pretext of poor performance when it was far too late to show improvement.
During a team meeting in December, CNBC quoted CEO Sundar Pichai stressing on an uncertain future and saying that he could not make “forward-looking commitments.”
