Google's Asia Pacific headquarters has laid off an estimated 190 employees – around six per cent of staff – and did the deed by email.

According to [1]Christopher Fong , founder of alumni community Xoogler, the digital pink slips arrived after 11PM on February 16th.

[2]Some had [3]seen the writing on the wall after Google [4]announced last month that 12,000 staff would be shown the door. Many saw colleagues in other parts of the world affected and braced for local impact.

[5]

On the other hand, one newly arrived [6]Xoogler had recently moved his entire family to Singapore for the job and signed a long-term housing lease.

[7]

[8]

The city-state has recently experienced a surge of up to 70 percent in [9]house rental prices for expats in the past few months and prices are [10]tipped to keep rising. Most residential leases in Singapore include a " [11]Diplomatic Clause " that allows a lease to be terminated if a foreigner loses their job – however the lease holder must typically be at least one year into the tenancy for the mostly penalty-free termination to be offered.

[12]Google miscalculates severance payments for some Googlers

[13]Singapore pulls plug on COVID tracking program

[14]Google's $100b bad day demo may be worth the price

[15]AWS adds Superapp Grab's Asia-centric maps to its cloudy location service

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai revealed in January 2022 that Google's pandemic hiring spree had placed the company's headcount in a "different economic reality." Pichai said the affected roles would "cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions."

According to Singapore's [16]Straits Times , the retrenchments hit those working on Google Pay, Google Cloud, and Google Analytics, as well as employees in finance, legal, and trust & safety roles.

Pichai gave assurances that retrenched staff would receive the full notice period (minimum 60 days), a severance package starting at 16 weeks, 2022 bonuses and holiday leave, as well as half a year of healthcare benefits.

[17]

Such layoff benefits are not required in Singapore, but those affected were [18]reportedly offered comparable packages. ®

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[1] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7032776555579772928/

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?keywords=google%20singapore&sid=zWa&update=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A(urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7033344572239859712%2CBLENDED_SEARCH_FEED%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse)

[3] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7032039013259583490/

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/20/google_to_chop_12000_employees/

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y-Whb4U@3Rcez5vgkt1TAAAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tobias-hull_xoogler-google-activity-7032178004512432129-ZZ42?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-Whb4U@3Rcez5vgkt1TAAAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-Whb4U@3Rcez5vgkt1TAAAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/housing-rent-prices-expats-70-increase-landlords-tenants-3060231

[10] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-16/soaring-singapore-rents-set-to-climb-another-10-15-this-year#:~:text=A%20breakneck%20surge%20in%20residential,set%20to%20continue%20this%20year.

[11] https://fl.sg/resource/tenancy-agreements-in-singapore-a-complete-guide/#:~:text=A%20diplomatic%20clause%20allows%20for,be%20staying%20in%20Singapore%20indefinitely.

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/13/google_miscalculates_severance_payments_for/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/singapore_pulls_plug_on_covid/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/13/column_ai_in_search/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/16/asia_tech_news_roundup/

[16] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/google-lays-off-about-190-in-singapore-former-employees

[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-Whb4U@3Rcez5vgkt1TAAAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[18] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/google-lays-off-about-190-in-singapore-former-employees

[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/