From Amazon’s plans to shed 18,000 employees to Meta’s decision to let go of 11,000 people, the number of tech layoffs keeps on growing. In fact 365 tech companies have reduced their workforces so far this year, totalling just over 105,000 employees.
In happier times, the in-office perks and benefits offered by big tech companies grabbed the headlines. Nowadays it’s the severance packages they’re paying out that are getting the most attention.
As federal law does not require employers to provide a severance package, workers are at the mercy of their soon-to-be former employer once layoffs have been announced. And unsurprisingly, some are more generous than others. Discover some of the biggest payouts below.
U.S. employees who are part of the cohort of 12,000 workers that have been served their notice by Google’s parent company Alphabet will receive 16 weeks severance along with an additional two weeks pay for every year they’ve been at the company.
Microsoft
Microsoft is downsizing its workforce by 10,000 this year cutting its global workforce of 220,000 by 5%. Although this figure seems small, it’s believed severance packages, lease consolidation and other restructuring expenses related to reducing its workforce will run to the tune of $1.2 billion.
Salesforce
Salesforce has detailed one of the most comparatively generous severance packages — the 7,000 workers that have been laid off will receive a minimum of five months of pay, six months of health insurance benefits, and a minimum of two months of career resources.
Amazon
Amazon started culling employees back in November 2022 and its latest round of layoffs concerns mostly retail staff. For these employees, Amazon has stated it will offer full pay and benefits for 60 days, moving to a severance package based on length of service, along with a separation payment, health benefits and job placement.
When Mark Zuckerberg announced thousands of layoffs at Meta at the end of 2022, employees were promised 16 weeks severance plus two weeks for every year of service along with vesting of restricted share units, and health insurance coverage for a period of time. So far, so good. However, some former employees from Meta’s Sourcer Development Program, designed to help workers from diverse backgrounds establish a career in tech, have come out to say they only received eight weeks of severance and three months of COBRA.
When Elon Musk took over the reins at Twitter in October of last year, an avalanche of layoffs quickly followed. Musk previously stated that all laid-off employees would receive three months of severance pay — however some employees say they’ve only received one month and are now pursuing legal action against the company.
Whether you’re been affected by a recent tech layoff or are looking for a new challenge, the VentureBeat Job Board has hundreds of opportunities in companies that are hiring right now, like the three below.
Network Engineer — Top Secret Clearance Needed, Northrop Grumman, Chantilly, VA
Northrop Grumman Space Systems is seeking an experienced Network Engineer to support an IT infrastructure network consolidation program. The ideal candidate will design and plan network communication systems, provide specification and detailed schematics for network architecture, define and develop techniques and tools for the most efficient solution to meet business needs. You’ll need two years’ experience with a Bachelor’s degree in science or one years’ experience if you have a Master’s degree, however applicants who have a PhD do not need any experience. Those without a qualification will need six years’ practical experience to be considered. View more details here.
Data Engineer, Autodesk, CA
Autodesk Construction Solutions (ACS) is seeking an exceptional Data Engineer to transform, optimize, test and maintain architectures for its construction and customer databases, data pipelines and processing systems, as well as optimizing data flow and collection for cross-functional teams. You’ll maintain and develop a scalable database and data warehouse across numerous organizational systems, load data from a wide variety of data sources using SQL and AWS technologies, and create data tools for analytics and data scientist team members. See the full job description here.
Full Stack Engineer — Games Studio, Netflix, Remote
Netflix is seeking a Full Stack Engineer to work with a large team building a multiplayer mobile game. You’ll be tasked with maintaining, enhancing and updating the backend while also building frontend dashboards that will drive the successful operation of the game. Applicants will need a professional understanding of frontend and backend languages and technologies (React, JavaScript, CSS and HTML), familiarity with SQL and NoSQL databases, configuring web servers and working in a cloud environment (for example AWS). Apply for this role here.
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