Google lays off workers from Flutter, Dart and Python weeks earlier than its developer convention

Forward of Google’s annual I/O developer convention in Might, the tech large has laid off workers throughout key groups like Flutter, Dart, Python and others, in line with stories from affected workers shared on social media. Google confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch, however not the particular groups, roles or how many individuals have been let go.

“As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” stated Google spokesperson Alex Garcia-Kummert. “To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers, and align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Through this, we’re simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and layers,” he added.

The corporate clarified that the layoffs weren’t company-wide however have been reorgs which can be part of the conventional course of enterprise. Affected workers will have the ability to apply for different open roles at Google, we’re instructed.

In one X post, a PM from Flutter and Dart stated the layoffs had affected “a LOT of teams,” and that “lots of great projects lost people.”

“We’re sad, but still cranking hard on I/O and beyond,” wrote Google PM Kevin Moore within the Flutter growth group on Reddit, the place he added that Flutter and Dart weren’t affected any roughly than different groups. “We know ya’ll care SO MUCH about the project and the team and the awesome ecosystem we’ve built together. You’re nervous. I get it. We get it. You’re betting on Flutter and Dart. So am I. So is Google,” he stated.

Google additionally instructed TechCrunch that Flutter may have new updates to share at I/O this 12 months.

In a separate publish on Reddit, another commenter famous the Python workforce affected by the layoffs have been those that managed the interior Python runtimes and toolchains and labored with OSS Python. Included on this group have been “multiple current and former core devs and steering council members,” they stated.

In the meantime, others shared on Y Combinator’s Hacker Information, the place a Python workforce member detailed their particular duties on the technical entrance and famous that, for years, a lot of the work was achieved with fewer than 10 individuals. One other Hacker Information commenter stated their early years on the Python workforce have been spent paying down inside technical debt gathered from not having a robust Python technique.

“…despite the understaffing, we had managers who were extremely good about maintaining work/life balance and the ‘marathon, not sprint’ approach to work. As I said in another comment, it’s the best job I’ve ever had, and I’ll miss it deeply,” they wrote.

“Python was one of the very first languages used widely at Google. It was the last major backend language to get a language team,” the person, gpshead, additionally stated.

Although Google didn’t element headcount, among the layoffs at Google could have been confirmed in a WARN discover filed on April 24. WARN, or the California Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, requires employers with greater than 100 workers to supply 60-day discover upfront of layoffs. Within the submitting, Google stated it was shedding a complete of fifty workers throughout three places in Sunnyvale.

On social media, commenters raised issues with the Python layoffs specifically, given the function that Python tooling performs in AI. However others identified that Google didn’t eradicate its Python workforce, it changed that workforce with one other group based mostly in Munich — not less than in line with Python Steering Council member Thomas Wouters, in a publish on Mastodon.

“It’s a tough day when everyone you work with directly, including your manager, is laid off — excuse me, ‘had their roles reduced,’ and you’re asked to onboard their replacements, people told to take those very same roles just in a different country who are not any happier about it,” he said in a Mastodon publish final Thursday.

Google stated it might assist all affected workers, according to native necessities, by offering them with time to seek for totally different roles at Google or elsewhere, entry to outplacement companies and severance.