Google tells staff to act ‘more entrepreneurial.’ Translation: Work harder, or else

Sundar Pichai, boss of Google and its parent Alphabet, told employees to “be more entrepreneurial” and work with “more hunger” in a staff-wide email that warned of consolidation, several news outlets reported.

Citing the “uncertain global economic outlook,” the CEO said Google would slow its hiring pace for the second half of 2022. Google brought on a whopping 10,000 workers during the second quarter, per Pichai. The chief Googler went on to say the company would consolidate “where investments overlap” and streamline its processes. Effectively, Google is calling on its staff to work harder, or else.

Tech companies of all shapes and sizes have laid off workers in the face of a looming recession. That includes Google, Microsoft, Tesla and other corporate giants, as well as comparatively much smaller businesses like Bird, Rivian and Coinbase. Pichai’s memo did not mention layoffs, but phrases like “streamlining” and “consolidating” tend to evoke such things.

Alphabet, for its part, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the memo. Its first-quarter net profit swooned 8% year over year to $16.44 billion. The company will report its second-quarter earnings on July 26.