Google Offers Voluntary Exit Program to Employees Working on Android and Pixel

This isn’t as serious as it sounds, but Google this week confirmed that it is offering a voluntary exit program to those on its Platforms & Devices team.

“The Platforms & Devices team is offering a voluntary exit program that provides US-based Googlers working on this team the ability to voluntarily leave the company with a severance package,” a Google statement explains. “This comes after we brought two large organizations together last year. There’s tremendous momentum on this team and with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency.”

Google created the Platforms & Devices team in April 2018 as part of a broader AI-based reorganization. In doing so, it combined the previously separate Devices and Services PA (DSPA) and Platforms & Ecosystems (P&E) teams with the Google Research teams responsible for computational photography and on-device intelligence under veteran executive Rick Osterloh. So this one team is now responsible for Android, Pixel, Nest, Fitbit, Chrome, Chrome OS, Google Photos, and Google One.

As with any reorg of this nature, the new Platforms & Devices team now has multiple redundancies, so it’s not surprising that it needs to reduce the headcount. In the past, it simply announced layoffs, which can be traumatic for everyone involved. But after hearing from employees that offering optional buyouts would be vastly preferable, Google simply acted on that advice. And so the buyout program is, in a sense, a good thing. It’s certainly better than layoffs.

Other parts of Google, like Search, are not impacted.