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Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai-led company fires entire Python team for ‘cheaper labour’
(www.hindustantimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Python team was ~10 people I think
10 * 350k of total comp is 3.5 million dollars... guessing the german counterparts probably get 120k of total comp so only 1.2 million dollars, assuming it's 1:1 staff swap.
Never heard of american software engineers at FAANG getting anything less than superstar sf bay wages, never heard of crazy wages in all of the EU for any kind of worker.... but maybe someone can correct me on the german team's salaries.
Wait... You get 350k doing python coding?!
$350k includes the salary but also all of the health insurance benefits, taxes, stock options, office space and perks, compute hardware, software services… the works. An employer will have an averaged overhead factor for their skilled workforce, which can be anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5 typically. A worker with an annual pre-tax salary of $140k could cost Google $350k in overall expenses per year. Labor is expensive.
Also, these people weren’t just making simple Python scripts. Most of them were contributing core functionality into Python itself and managing the internal Python version and the ecosystem of Google software stacks that depend on it.
The Python team weren't just random folks writing Python. Several are core Python contributors who maintained official forks, ran library matching for internal software, and gave back to the language and community. They didn't just go for cheaper talent, they replaced some arguably irreplaceable engineers and shat over OSS at the same time.
You get that working for Google in Bay Area if you're senior, no matter the language.
Those guys were participating in Python itself, maintaining the Python tooling for the whole company, served as a help desk for everything Python... Yeah I'm pretty sure they had a big salary.
It's not your little "glue libraries together" Python coding.
People at Google Munich pull north of 150k euros TC, so with taxes, insurance etc will end up costing Google around 200k. Still significant savings.
Just for the sake of comparison, Alphabet had $308 billion in revenue and $74 billion in profit in 2023 if I’m reading the numbers correctly. But they need cheaper labour.
Publicly traded companies do not have a duty to pay their workers, they have a duty to pay their shareholders and to maximize profits.
If you can get the same job done overseas for less money why would you pay american labor? what's the benefit?
Not saying I like the system, just saying that's how it is. Gotta have some kind of fine or penalty for outsourcing, offshoring and 1099 contracting labor if you really want to fix it.
Shit should be changed but the majority election system is funded by the ownership class who greatly benefits from this not changing.
$350k TC seems low for a job of that magnitude at Google.