A Los Angeles-based Google engineer said he learned he had been laid off after receiving a 2 a.m. notice from his company while on mental health leave.
Ali Neil, 29, was one of 12,000 employees who received pink slips earlier this month as part of a massive layoff round at Google.
Neil told Insider that he “bleed for Google,” and while he thought he wouldn’t be eligible for layoffs while on vacation, he was surprised by his resignation letter.
In an interview published Tuesday, Neil said, “I’ve had to take mental health leave and find work for the first time in years, probably one of the toughest job situations and housing markets.
According to his LinkedIn account, Neal has been working for the tech giant since August 2020 and had reportedly been on leave for about three months when he received the layoff notice.
The fired engineer said Google immediately cut off access to her work laptop and company systems, making it more difficult to communicate with colleagues. Additionally, Neil was not allowed to return company-owned devices to the site and had to either provide them to security located outside the office or mail them, she was told.
Neil said she couldn’t fall asleep after receiving an overnight email and was “quietly saddened” until the morning.
The internal carnage also included Kristin Maczko, Google’s head of mental health and wellbeing. He confirmed her departure in a lengthy LinkedIn post, suggesting that her team was greatly affected.
Maczko said: “Mental Health & Wellbeing Thank you to the many who have lost their roles on his team for all that you have done to improve the wellbeing of Googlers.
“Googlers need you now more than ever and we look forward to seeing what you do,” she added.
In a memo to employees last week, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the layoffs would affect workers “across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and geographies.”
He said the cuts came after a “rigorous review” meant to prepare the company for a deteriorating economic situation and ensure staffing levels were consistent with priority initiatives.
Many Google employees affected by the layoffs have taken to social media to express their disgust at how the layoffs were handled.
One former Google engineer manager who worked at the company for 16 years said the layoffs show that workers are seen as “100%” disposable at big tech companies.
Another former employee, a Los Angeles-based attorney, said he learned he had been fired after reading a 2 a.m. email while feeding his young daughter.
In Google’s home state of California, the company’s cut included 31 massage therapists employed on-site at its offices.
The post reached out to Google for comment.
