Dozens of Google employees from across the country gathered in the shadow of the company’s Mountain View headquarters on Thursday, holding signs that read “Googlers for job security” and demanding greater protections against layoffs. By noon, nearly 100 workers filled a grassy stretch of campus, flanked by the Googleplex on one side and the broad
Dozens of Google employees from across the country gathered in the shadow of the company’s Mountain View headquarters on Thursday, holding signs that read “Googlers for job security” and demanding greater protections against layoffs.
By noon, nearly 100 workers filled a grassy stretch of campus, flanked by the Googleplex on one side and the broad canopy of Google’s visitor center on the other. Many wore matching black shirts. Others carried Alphabet Workers Union signs or helped unfurl a long white banner covered with the names of more than 4,500 employees who signed a petition about job security addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai and three top executives.
“We want voluntary departures before layoffs, we want guaranteed compensation standards, we want an end to performance quotas,” Parul Koul, a Google software engineer and president of the Alphabet Workers Union, which has about 1,400 members, told the crowd. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, employs nearly 191,000 people.
The protest captured a shift that has unsettled workers across the tech industry. Since 2022, companies like Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have cut tens of thousands of jobs, often through repeated rounds that left employees waiting for the next notice. Google laid off 12,000 employees in 2023 and has since carried out several smaller rounds, which together have affected thousands of employees.
Google employees protested Thursday over job security at the company’s headquarters. Pranav Dixit/Business Insider
The company’s workforce, known for lobbying management on ethics and corporate policy, is now organizing around something more fundamental: whether employees can count on basic security in an era of rolling layoffs, stricter performance systems and anxiety about how AI will reshape their jobs.
The petition, which the union first wrote in early 2025, Calls on Google to guarantee severance for every laid-off worker, offer voluntary exit packages ahead of mandatory cuts, end forced distribution of performance ratings, and allow employees to receive severance as extended paid leave. The union also wants Google to make voluntary departures a formal policy instead of offering them selectively.
Koul told Business Insider that employees tried to deliver it to Pichai last year and, without receiving a substantial response, continued collecting signatures and returned Thursday with more than twice as many names.
Business Insider attended the event and spoke with Google employees about what they want from the company and why they are protesting.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Google employees delivered a petition to senior executives
About 20 workers began delivering the petition around 9 a.m. Thursday, Kaylee Lubick, a Google software engineer and union member, told Business Insider.
The group first visited the offices of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and senior vice presidents Rick Osterloh and Nick Fox, and then went to Pichai’s office. Lubick said the executives were not there to meet with them and that employees slipped the petition under their doors.
The union says Google has offered voluntary departure packages to more than 70,000 workers in several rounds since the campaign began. Koul told Business Insider that the figure reflects the number of employees eligible for the offers, not the number who accepted them.
At the protest, speakers described a workplace reshaped by several rounds of layoffs.
“I see people worried, grateful to still have a job, doing their best to keep it,” said Nobel Barakat, a Google software engineer. “I’ve seen people work longer and longer hours in the hopes of avoiding a sudden poor performance rating.”
Matthew Hoffman, an engineer at Google DeepMind, said he joined the protest to show his support, even though he had not been personally affected by the layoffs and had not yet joined the union.
Matthew Hoffman, an engineer at Google DeepMind, said he joined the protest to show his support, even though he had not been personally affected by the layoffs and had not yet joined the union. Pranav Dixit/Business Insider
“I think I realized that just because something hasn’t affected you personally doesn’t mean that someday it won’t,” he said.
As television cameras rolled, workers held up their signs and chanted: “Google, Google, can’t you see? We deserve safety.”
Google has a history of employee activism
Thursday’s protest built on Google’s long history of employee activism.
In 2018, more than 4,000 workers opposed Project Maven, a Pentagon contract that used Google’s artificial intelligence to analyze drone images. Later that year, approximately 20,000 employees left over Google’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against top executives. In 2024, Google fired workers after sit-ins protesting Project Nimbus, its cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.
On Wednesday, Business Insider reported that a Google DeepMind researcher resigned after the company signed a deal allowing the Pentagon to use its AI for classified operations. Around 600 employees had urged Google not to close such a deal.
“We have the power to change things ourselves,” Koul said. “The only thing that prevents us is how organized we are.”
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