Google Delays Portion Of Bonus Payments To Staff

Workers at Alphabet’s Google have reportedly been left surprised after management decided to withhold a portion of their bonuses, usually paid in full in January.

According to CNBC, Google is holding onto 20 percent of the bonus payments to employees until at least March.

Google’s move comes amid widespread job losses at other tech players including Amazon, HP, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and of course the ongoing cuts at Twitter.

Bonus deferral

Google’s sister firm life sciences spin-off Verily announced last week it was cutting its workforce by 15 percent (or 240 jobs).

It has also reduced staff in its robotics unit Intrinsic.

Now CNBC has seen documents that reveal that Google executives are deferring a portion of employees’ year-end bonus checks, as the company moves toward permanently pushing back payouts.

In past years, staff received their full bonuses in January. However, Google will pay qualifying full-time employees 80 percent of their bonus payments this month and the remaining 20 percent in March or April, the documents say.

Google reportedly described the January payout as an “advance” in correspondence to staff, and executives said it will be a one-time change due to “transition” of its employee-evaluation system and the altered timing for future bonuses.

“After 2023, full bonuses will be paid in March,” the company said in the memo.

Following publication of this story, a Google spokesperson told CNBC in an email, “This one-time 80 percent bonus advance was extensively communicated to employees in May 2022 and in subsequent communications since, as part of the transition to our new performance management timeline.”

The delayed payment comes as Google CEO Sundar Pichai seeks to reel in costs while still avoiding mass layoffs.

Surprised staff

Google staffers reportedly expressed concerns with the latest changes to bonus payments.

Some told CNBC they weren’t aware of the partial deferment, and said they received little help internally as they tried to search for answers.

Sources described a meme to CNBC with the text reading “Got my BONU,” referring to the realisation that they didn’t receive their whole bonus as expected.