Good, Google has so much fat they can trim, between products that are useless to employees that don't do anything. They could double profitability over night if they wanted to.
2) yeet it
3) ???
4) profit
Trimming the fat is a commonly used idiom, not only in business but anywhere there is excess and unnecessary items not helping the bottomline. As an investor I care much more about Google's profitability than the ineffective headcount. They can trim plenty of employees and still be an effective ad company. People hardly work there (not all but a significant amount), its been known in the industry forever.
There are lots of commonly used idioms that are gross, especially in certain contexts.
> As an investor I care much more about Google's profitability than the ineffective headcount.
And your investments are objectively less important than people putting food on the table.
That is just like your opinion.
> And your investments are objectively less important than people putting food on the table.
That's just not how publicly traded companies operate. Good luck to these people, I'm sure they can continue to contribute elsewhere, earn a fair income and continue to put food on the table. I feed my family by investing in publicly traded companies, and therefore would like the most amount of profit for the least amount of investment. If these employees truly fear being laid off they can work harder, good, valuable employees are rarely let go in any business.
Investors like you need to realize that your money is never, ever as important as people's lives and livelihoods.
What exactly is the problem, and what is your proposed fix?
edit: whoops, forgot your second question
My proposed fix...is complicated, because there is no simple solution. We need a cultural shift to value people's lives and dignity more than money and profit, and I don't know how to make that happen.
In terms of slightly more actionable things...we need a universal basic income, ultimately. In the shorter term, we need stronger and more widespread unions, better legal protections for workers' rights (and much more effective penalties for companies that violate those rights), and a stronger safety net.
Just in terms of this thread? What we need is more compassion. Recognizing that when you're asked not to talk about firing thousands of people in such flippant and dismissive terms as "trimming the fat," it's not because your rights to free speech are being eroded, but because you're being asked to care about other people's lives more than you care about adding more zeroes to your investment account balance. Or at least care about them enough not to publicly talk about them as being worthless "fat".
No cutback will be perfect and people that don't deserve it will be impacted.
But some people really deserve it. The current situation is not fair to people that actually do work and creates perverse incentives.