Top tech giants are zeroing in on employee perks in fears of recession

The next few months could be challenging for tech employees as companies slash some of the benefits that they have promised. 

Let’s start with search engine pioneer Google. According to a report by CNBC, the firm is making some cuts in travel and entertainment budgets for their staff to deal with economic challenges. 

During an all-hands meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that they should not think about perks and money, and instead should look for fun at work. Potential layoffs are also mentioned if its staff will not start working efficiently. 

And Google is not alone on this. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly disgruntled when asked about remote work. In his reply, he scathingly said that a “bunch of people” who are working currently for the firm do not actually belong there, realistically. 

He added that he is going to “raise some heat” in the next few months — i.e. the “30-day list” for underperformers — so that some people would decide to leave. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft has its own dilemma when it comes to the productivity of its remote workers. The company’s top managers are asking their employees to start coming back to the office as they believe that efficiency is found at the workplace. 

The company had also laif off 200 workers recently from a team that was focused on winning back consumers. Prior to that, around 1,800 employees were fired as part of a restructuring process.

Of course all these announcements had resulted similarly : miffed employees. However, all three said that they are doing this to bounce back from the current economic crisis. 

We’ll just have to wait and see next year if these decisions would lead to a positive result or even lower rates for these ventures.

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