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Not long before Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s lobby carrying an actual sink, a Twitter TikTok video was circulating on social media. It featured a super-happy Twitter employee wandering the Twitter building, grabbing her grande latte, getting a massage – doing everything but, you know — working. It was a clarion call about what’s broken with most of the tech industry. At Twitter, too many employees had titles but no discernable job and no reason to be employed. They got canned.
It reminded me of the movie Office Space. Milton had his cubicle, paycheck, and red stapler, but he wasn’t really working. Milton was useless. Elon Musk started axing useless Miltons at Twitter.
The rest of Techland must have noticed. Employees who spent more time on a massage table or making TikTok videos of how “awesome” Bruce the Masseuse was – were on the cutting block. But some didn’t know or see it coming.
This month, Google terminated 12,000 employees. 1,800 were terminated in California, including 27 “massage therapists”. Two of the massage therapists were based in Southern California.
In steps Nicole Tsai (she/her), a Yelp Elite Googler (whatever that it is), and a project manager. She’s also, now, a former Google employee. She has a social media following of several thousand, and video views in the millions. Before Google gave her the boot, Nicole posted multiple videos of the awesome awesomeness of Google.
In one video, she explores the Google LA game room. A couple of employees are in a fierce ping-pong battle. Next, Nicole takes us on a magical cruise through multiple rooms where no work is being done. In one room, a bookshelf is loaded with books, including just about “every Harry Potter book” written. Harry Potter props, like wizard goblets, Harry Potter banners, and wizard brooms decorate the rooms. The conference table’s surface is a map of (apparently) Harry Potter land.
@nicolesdailyvlog What I spend in a day as a Yelp Elite Googler | Episode 1 #techgirlie #dailyvlog #techvlog #dayinmylife #dayinthelife #minivlog #workvlog #whatispendinaday
In the video above, called “A Day in My Life Working from Google LA,” Nicole walks into (what looked like) a nearly deserted building. She grabs some candy, and an iced coffee, and goes off to the “butterfly-themed room” to “take” her first meeting. Her next meeting is in the “Confetti Room.” What’s missing are people or any sign of work. Nicole seems all alone on campus, save for an occasional person serving her “free” food. Apparently, there were people who actually worked at Google. That video has 2.5 million views. Then the ban hammer fell.
@nicolesdailyvlog The Google layoffs were not how I expected to start off 2023, but I know it’s only up from here 🥲 #techlayoffs #googlelayoffs #techgirl #corporatelife #techvlog #dayinmylife #techlayoffs2023
Her “I was laid off” video takes us through the day of her firing. She had lost access to her email and calendar and spent a lot of the day crying along with her fellow former Google employees. “How could this happen?” they all ask each other. She then heads to Disneyland, likely because Disneyland is the closest thing she’ll ever see to the “work” she left behind. It’s at Disneyland where she eats her sorrows away. The food at Disneyland is far from free, so paying for food must have been a shock for Tsai.
Don’t cry for Nicole. In California, employers are required to give employees 60 days’ notice of mass terminations. So Nicole has lost access to free food and massages but not her paycheck. And Google didn’t just give poor Nicole 60 days’ notice to maybe trash the office or stuff her pockets with free food, Google laid all of them off with 60 days of severance pay.
Nicole Tsai (she/her on LinkedIn) will be waking up for the next two months with a paycheck cushion but no Nap Room on the Google campus. No more free pizza and foot massages. If she wants those, now she’ll have to pay for them. Boo. Hoo.
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