Google Forced to Postpone Employee Bonuses This month, the Recession is One of the Causes

Alphabet Inc's Google was forced to suspend part of its employees' year-end bonuses. (photo: Twitter @google)

JAKARTA – Deteriorating world economic conditions, recession and threatening technology company revenues have had an impact on Big Tech. The latest news, Google Alphabet Inc. was forced to suspend part of the year-end bonuses of its employees.

According to the search engine giant on Thursday, January 19, this was done as part of the transition to a new performance management system.

"The company will pay an 80% down payment bonus to qualified employees initially and the remainder in the following months," a spokesperson told Reuters. It also added that the move had been communicated to staff last year.

The developments come amid efforts by technology companies to limit spending amid a broader demand slowdown and deteriorating economic conditions.

Alphabet has so far announced cuts impacting more than 200 employees in its health sciences division even as its megacap peers Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp have laid off thousands of employees.

The down payment bonus will be paid out in January and the remaining 20% ​​in March or April, which we think will help Google spread the cost over to the next quarter. This was first reported by CNBC. The report also disclosed that all bonuses for next year and so on will be paid in March.

Google usually pays out the full bonus in the first month of the year. However, the current deteriorating world economic conditions have changed the way things are for a company the size of Google, which in 2021 has a market capitalization of around USD 1.6 trillion.