Google offering 'voluntary exit' for employees working on Pixel, Android
141 points by anp 5 months ago | 80 comments- segasaturn 5 months agoPaired with the Pixel 4a "update of death" it feels like Google is throwing in the towel on smartphones. I don't care about Pixel but I do worry about Android - as flawed as it is, it's still the only viable option for an "open" smartphone. I've been playing around with a Pinephone lately and it's lots of fun but obviously not ready for use as a daily driver.
- bigfatkitten 5 months agoWhich is a shame. I love Samsung's hardware, but the crapware they pile on top of Android is intolerable.
Thankfully, I MDM my personal devices and can neuter most of it from there.
- fsflover 5 months agoI use Librem 5 as a daily driver. It's much snappier than Pinephone and it's software is supported by a company unlike Pinephone relying on volunteers. It's not as good as an iPhone but usable for me.
- redundantly 5 months agoComparing the Librem to the Pinephone is disingenuous. It's like comparing a Nissan Versa to an e-bike that requires assembly upon delivery.
- fsflover 5 months agoThese two are the only GNU/Linux smartphones. Of course they are often compared. There's nothing disingenuous here.
- fsflover 5 months ago
- redundantly 5 months ago
- tivert 5 months ago> Paired with the Pixel 4a "update of death" it feels like Google is throwing in the towel on smartphones
Yeah, but their hand may be forced:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/21/24326402/google-search-a...:
> The Department of Justice’s list of solutions for fixing Google’s illegal antitrust behavior and restoring competition in the search engine market started with ... breaking off Chrome, Android, or Google Play as the DOJ’s filing considers
- ycombinatrix 5 months agoPlease. I can only get so erect.
- ycombinatrix 5 months ago
- RachelF 5 months agoThe last 3 Pixel designs have been uninspired. The CPUs in them have also been disappointing.
It's almost as if Google doesn't really care anymore.
- 2-3-7-43-1807 5 months agoIt's almost as if Google does Google things ... abandoning projects.
- 2-3-7-43-1807 5 months ago
- 5 months ago
- bigfatkitten 5 months ago
- cadamsdotcom 5 months agoWhy this is exciting:
If Google takes the foot off the pedal on mobile, it will leave a gap in the smartphone market wide enough to drive a truck through.
A group of smart folks who worked on Pixel & Android can take voluntary redundancy together and start a company with the tech and their experience.
What a wonderful world that’d be - to be able to buy SOTA devices made by a company that doesn’t also make tracking software that tracks you all over the Internet, and that doesn’t want to show you ads. A company that just wants to sell you a product that you buy with your money.
This is what anti-monopoly regulation is for - we all just forgot during the recent period of lax enforcement.
- Dracophoenix 5 months ago> A group of smart folks who worked on Pixel & Android can take voluntary redundancy together and start a company with the tech and their experience
How did that work out for Andy Rubin and the Essential Phone?
It takes more than money, experience, and collective brain power to build a modern smartphone of sufficient dependability. Unfortunately, most companies in this space, both new and old, are more likely to shoot themselves in the feet than offer a compelling alternative to the incumbents like Apple and Samsung.
- Gud 5 months agoThat may be true, but this is frequently how progress is made. Employees from old stagnant megacorp launching something new and better..
- lesuorac 5 months agoHonestly, it sounds like he really just had poor execution. If the phone I ordered came 6 months late, poor touchscreen, and my email was sold/stolen I'd probably not use that company again.
- Gud 5 months ago
- sfsylvester 5 months ago> leave a gap in the smartphone market wide enough to drive a truck through
I think the opportunity is most likely going to be taken Huawei's HarmonyOS than something like Lineage or Librem.
As such we should consider this almost a-kin to a DeepSeek level threat to international security. Google did a lot to secure our phones [0], and we were lucky their economic incentive forced them to be as open as they were.
[0] https://www.privacyguides.org/en/os/android-overview/#google...
- freefaler 5 months agoIt's what Carl Pei did with Nothing phone. They do a great job for such a small team. However their company is still losing money with 500mil revenue. It's almost impossible to compete in this market with the big boys.
May be a paid OS with a 10-15$/year subscription to fund the development might work if enough people are interested, but seeking how the mod ecosystem has stagnated I don't see how will this work.
- Rzor 5 months agoAs much as I'd like that to happen, it seems to depend on some big "ifs." Fingers crossed, I guess.
- jmye 5 months agoWould love this, in light of recent decision-making at the bigger companies. I refuse to use Google products when it’s at all possible to avoid them, and would prefer to move away from Apple (for similar but different reasons).
That said, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the current tech ecosystem (where everything is either ARR-driven, or “free”) building an OS that isn’t bloated with tracking and spyware.
- 5 months ago
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- Dracophoenix 5 months ago
- pavel_lishin 5 months agoFun. Definitely looking forward to competing with a bunch of newly-former-Googlers on the job market now. :/
- indefinite 5 months agoYou've got this!
- indefinite 5 months ago
- sireat 5 months agoThis likely means the teaching materials for Android Development will remain at 2020 version (before Compose).
Somebody was paid good Google Salary to make decent Presentation style materials: https://developer.android.com/teach#teach-a-class only never to be updated... Those were good in 2020 but now not so much.
Sure, active learning is usually better such as Codelabs, but there should be decent presentation style teaching that is updated once a year.
- oldnetguy 5 months agoDoesn't make me want to buy the next Pixel.
- walterbell 5 months agoGrapheneOS works well on Google Pixel phones and tablets.
- lithos 5 months agoDon't be such a Redditor, if you're here you already know Google doesn't support their products. So you already made the choice long ago.
- soganess 5 months agoI mean I don't trust Google as far as I can throw a TPU datacenter, but they are promising 7 years of OS updates on Pixel. And so are companies like Samsung. Many others offer 3, and even the low-rent "we have your money... I mean... who dis?" manufacturers are offering 2, so it's not like Android is going anywhere. There are just too many players. Honestly, I wouldn't get a Pixel because they are uninspired devices, not because Google will stop supporting them tomorrow.
What does seem to be happening is that the core "user facing" Android (vs all the AI stuff and Play Services-based apps like Maps) is getting more and more settled as a stack and Google is cutting development staff to reflect that. To be fair, I can't speak deeply as to what's happening under the hood, just the touchy bits.
My phone started with Android 9 and is now on Android 15. 10, 11 and 12 all had (compared to now) larger changes. However, if you held a gun to my head and asked me what has changed with Android 13 and on, my answer would be "stuff seems a little rounder" ...and maybe a new font? But it sorta just feels like a new version of the old font. You just don't need that many people for Android's current evolution rate. Which really sucks for all the folks losing their jobs.
- soganess 5 months ago
- whoomp12342 5 months agomines great! its buggy as shit and burned out pixels in the screen. Thats why they call it the "pixel"
- walterbell 5 months ago
- vineyardmike 5 months ago> Not offering people the option to leave in advance was a complaint about how Google handled past layoffs.
Guess we know what’s coming.
Very interesting that this only applies to US based employees. I wonder how long before Google completely moves overseas and drops most of their domestic employees.
Voluntary exits are generally more humane, and have been used across Silicon Valley for decades before layoffs became common, so hopefully it minimizes suffering of layoffs.
Also, I’m surprised the title just calls out Pixel and Android, because this also affects most of their hardware efforts (Fitbit, Nest, Chrome, VR, etc)
Edit: I’ve heard from people there that the buyout is worse than previous rounds of severance from layoffs - namely, no stock vesting
- segasaturn 5 months agoThey're not doing "voluntary exits" out of the goodness of their hearts, they're doing it because their accountants determined that the cost of paying employees to quit outweighed the reputational damage of doing another round of mass layoffs.
- vineyardmike 5 months agoOf course! But it’s better than randomly laying people off. At least it lets people who are ready to quit take the accounting impact instead of others.
Layoffs cause huge emotional trauma to people who are affected. People often slide into serious mental health issues, financial issues, etc. Often people get laid off while their peers were eyeing the door. This at least allows people to quit and take the heat off their coworkers.
- learningstud 5 months agoOr, the accountants determined that the overall cost of voluntary exits is expected to be lower than a mass layoff. It's possible that voluntary exits make more financial sense.
- vineyardmike 5 months ago
- basch 5 months ago"Android (Auto, TV, Wear OS, XR), Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Photos, Google One, Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest."
It's a way to avoid 3% or 5% layoffs. That's a big group. With how fast their AI Labs group is moving, I could see some employees not being fans of the direction this group is taking.
- segasaturn 5 months ago
- dismalaf 5 months agoUgh Google's so frustrating. They make great software and products but throw in the towel on anything that's not immediately profitable since ads have too high a margin and their investors get restless...
- rawgabbit 5 months agoI have already taken baby steps to get off Google Photos. Next on my list is my Android TV. I heard Apple will be releasing another home device this fall so I will buy whatever it is. Apple should thank Google for being so ridiculous.
- dismalaf 5 months agoWhat's your Google Photos replacement? My key use is that it recognises my son and automatically shares all pictures of him with my wife, it's very convenient.
- dns_snek 5 months agoI haven't set it up myself yet, but Immich has been making the rounds lately. It seems to have facial recognition too.
- rawgabbit 5 months agoI am using iCloud Shared Photo Library. It automatically shares everything with up to five people. It is a bit confusing because now you have Personal and Shared Libraries. I have not grok it all yet.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/118229
I also found downloading from Google Photos super confusing. I ended up buying this tool which downloads and fixes the metadata.
- dns_snek 5 months ago
- dismalaf 5 months ago
- Oanid 5 months agoI don't know if I'd use the word "great" to describe Google's products.
- rawgabbit 5 months ago
- itg 5 months agoSounds to me like it's going to be either take the "voluntary exit" with the severance, or if you don't then eventually get let go without one.
- plorkyeran 5 months agoVoluntary exits are pointless if you're planning to lay off the entire team. It usually means that they're keeping part of the team, and want to make sure that they keep the part that'll actually stick around.
- dntrkv 5 months agoIt's most likely an attempt to give low performers (if you received a bad rating for last year) a chance to leave on your own terms before they lay you off.
If I was in that bucket I would definitely take this offer.
Looks like all the large tech companies are doing aggressive stack ranking right now.
- ryandrake 5 months agoThe job market is terrible right now. More likely the high performers will take the offer because they believe they have better chances of being rehired somewhere else. Good luck to them though.
Assuming the events are independent, P(you get laid off) x P(you don't find a new job) will always be less than 1.0 x P(you don't find a new job)
- HamsterDan 5 months agoIf I already had a solid offer somewhere else, I'd take the severance. If I didn't, I wouldn't leave it up to chance, and I can't imagine many other people would.
With only three weeks to make decision, my guess is high performers aren't going to start looking for new jobs now unless they were already looking to begin with. From the wording of the message, it sounds like Google is okay with losing the group that was already looking.
- HamsterDan 5 months ago
- ryandrake 5 months ago
- eesmith 5 months agoDon't forget to factor in unemployment benefits, which typically don't apply if you quit.
- mandeepj 5 months agoSeverance would be there even if you are let go i.e laid off
- Suppafly 5 months ago>Severance would be there even if you are let go i.e laid off
Depends on their employment contract, I don't think it's necessarily guaranteed.
- snailmailstare 5 months agoThe rules are complex but if a company wants to lay off many people in one location they have to give notice in advance and usually choose to just payout that notice time.
- HamsterDan 5 months agoIt's not guaranteed, but Google does give you severance if you're fired for low performance.
I'd assume you have to agree not to sue them in order to get it though.
- snailmailstare 5 months ago
- Suppafly 5 months ago
- plorkyeran 5 months ago
- aoeusnth1 5 months agoI think Rick is probably moving all those jobs to Poland and India.
- cft 5 months agoDoes it mean anything for the Pixel program? Is it going to be continued?
- Arnt 5 months agoNote that they're only offering this to people who work on that program in the US. People outside the US didn't get the offer, implying that the program as a whole survives.
- toast0 5 months agoAll it implies to me is that labor law outside the US is complex, and Google HR is smart enough not to make this offer in places where it will cause them more problems.
- HamsterDan 5 months agoIs there any country where offering voluntary severance would break the law? I doubt it.
My guess is it's US only because US employees get paid the most.
- Arnt 5 months agoDu you personally think Google's lawyers understands HR law in the locales where it has employees?
- HamsterDan 5 months ago
- toast0 5 months ago
- Arnt 5 months ago
- Empathy3 5 months agoNone of the Android offerings sound good other than Sammy. When I say that I mean that Sammy is the only one with enough clout to withstand the mobile wars. The only one with a large enough mobile fan base to compete against Apple. There is no other Manufacturer allowed in NA that can compete with Sammy; not 1+, Moto, Blu, Nokia, HMD, or LG. Allow foreign diversity in the mobile market an US citizens will have to pay out the nose for the tariffs applied. I think we know that Chinese imports stopped with the 3XL?
- riku_iki 5 months agoI suspect there are plenty of unmotivated people who got rich from rsus already, and this is early retirement offer for mutual benefit.
- snailmailstare 5 months agoMaybe uncertainty will mean reintroducing at least one other vendor for future grapheneOS releases?
- tombert 5 months agoI had never heard of the term "voluntary exit" until I heard that the Trump administration is going to do that for federal workers. Is this going to be the new normal?
> “to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency"
I hate this language. It sounds culty. Why can't a job just be a job? Why does everything have to have a god damn "mission"?
- closeparen 5 months agoIt's usually called a buyout. We'll give you N weeks of salary per year of service to leave now. When an employer is in structural decline (like newspapers), you expect a series of buyout offers with declining N until finally there are actual layoffs.
- ofcrpls 5 months agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18135692 Verizon doing the same thing in 2018 with the offer going out to 44000 Management employees.
- Suppafly 5 months agoSome places do buyouts to avoid triggering certain laws relating to mass layoffs. There are a bunch of names for buyouts, voluntary exit isn't particularly weird.
- GlickWick 5 months agoThis was common in 2008, during the dot com crash, and in plenty of other industries. Definitely not a new thing.
- araes 5 months agoDidn't take them long. It's so suspiciously similar it looks like either: the administration requested this type of action, or/ Google took their lead from the administration behaving like Twitter and then decided it's now the acceptable normal.
Either way, have some percentage of 2 million feds on the job market, and some percentage of the Google employees on the job market. Like somebody noted in the Verge comments, Zuckerberg's making a lot of the same sounds.
Q: 'What about the looming “low-performer” layoffs?' Z: “The right thing to do is just rip the band-aid off. I think, in a lot of ways, it is a nicer thing to do for people who are probably not going to end up making it anyway.” - BhavdeepSethi 5 months agoElon made this popular with Twitter/X. Offered a voluntary exit in the "Fork in the road" email with a deadline. The message was quite similar, that if you're not aligned with the company's [new] vision, you can choose to leave with severance.
It seems better than doing random layoffs, no?
- tombert 5 months agoSure, it's certainly better than layoffs. I don't really dispute that. I'd rather get a severance and I have at least a nominal option about leaving instead of being forced out.
I guess I'm just sick of companies massively overhiring, creating a ton of redundant employees in the process, and deciding to get rid of a ton afterward. We give these corporations so much power in our lives and they treat us like pawns. They control our healthcare and dictate where we live, they should treat this power with the responsibility it deserves.
- lesuorac 5 months agoWell, I guess the root of the problem is that while it's "at-will" employement, neither side is actually expecting the other to leave tomorrow. The company has set goals and etc that it expects you to do for the remainder of the year and you also assumed that it's not going to fire you before you do them.
It is a bit weird that contractually we have no expectations but socially we do.
- HamsterDan 5 months agoI don't get the frustration about overhiring. Predicting the future is provably impossible. Everybody is going to get it wrong to some degree. I'd much rather see companies overhire than underhire. At least then the laid off employees get experience and a salary for some time.
- dns_snek 5 months ago> they should treat this power with the responsibility it deserves
They would be forced to, to some degree, if people decided to unionize. They'll never do it voluntarily.
- lesuorac 5 months ago
- tombert 5 months ago
- robertlagrant 5 months agoI imagine it's either (or both) of the following: job seekers started wanting that in their ads, and people with this way of thinking entered the internal recruitment world.
- positr0n 5 months agoPretty common for most big mature companies to do at one point or another as their section of the economy swings up and down. This is probably only new for new big teh companies they have only experienced growth. Cisco has done plenty, and the defense industry does it a lot as contracts wind down.
Way less of a morale hit than layoffs, but it suffers a similar problem to all RIF methods where your high performers say "hmm conditions are that bad you're getting rid of people huh? I guess maybe I will take 6 months my annual salary and go get another job."
- closeparen 5 months ago
- itronitron 5 months ago>> Employees have until Feb. 20 to enroll in the exit program. Those who volunteer will find out whether they’ve been accepted on March 25, a memo states.
What a fucked up company to work for.
- Ancalagon 5 months agowow that is terrible. now they know you're disloyal
- Ancalagon 5 months ago
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