How tough are things economically? So tough that Google has bid farewell to dozens of in-house massage therapists.
Oh the humanity!
Alphabet-owned Google announced last week it was giving the heave-ho to 12,000 employees — the latest tech company to cut back amid a slowing economy.
The layoffs include more than 1,800 jobs in the company’s home state of California.
About 177 positions were in Los Angeles, mostly at Google’s Playa Vista campus. About 60 jobs were lost in Irvine.
And according to regulatory filings, among the gigs being eliminated are 27 in-house massage therapists — 24 in the Bay Area and three in SoCal.
So don’t go saying Google isn’t feeling your pain. Company workers will now have to get by without regular massages.
Snide remarks notwithstanding, this is the latest example of Silicon Valley abandoning once-famous perks such as free food and dry cleaning, and instead behaving like, you know, a normal employer.
Which is to say, tech jobs are now less like a luxury cruise and more like work that you do to earn a paycheck.
Somehow I suspect Google will be just fine once we get through the current economic difficulties.
But when the company’s coders and engineers stand up from their chairs and declare “My aching back!” they won’t have soothing hands rushing to the rescue.
They’ll be hurrying home to hot baths like the rest of us.