Google has eliminated 35% of managers overseeing small teams in past year, exec says
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google has eliminated more than one-third of its managers overseeing small teams, an executive told employees last week, as the company continues its focus on efficiencies across the organization.
“Right now, we have 35% fewer managers, with fewer direct reports” than at this time a year ago, said Brian Welle, vice president of people analytics and performance, according to audio of an all-hands meeting reviewed by CNBC. “So a lot of fast progress there.”
At the meeting, employees asked Welle and other executives about job security, “internal barriers” and Google’s culture after several recent rounds of layoffs, buyouts and reorganizations.
Welle said the idea is to reduce bureaucracy and run the company more efficiently.
“When we look across our entire leadership population, that’s mangers, directors and VPs, we want them to be a smaller percentage of our overall workforce over time,” he said.
The 35% reduction refers to the number of managers who oversee fewer than three people, according to a person familiar with the matter. Many of those managers stayed with the company as individual contributors, said the person, who asked not to be named because the details are private.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai weighed in at the meeting, reiterating the need for the company “to be more efficient as we scale up so we don’t solve everything with headcount.”
Google eliminated about 6% of its workforce in 2023, and has implemented cuts in various divisions since then. Alphabet finance chief Anat Ashkenazi, who joined the company last year, said in October that she would push cost cuts “a little further.” Google has offered buyouts to employees since January, and the company has slowed hiring, asking employees to do more with less.
Regarding the buyouts, executives at the town hall said that a total of 10 product areas have presented “Voluntary Exit Program” offers. They’ve applied to U.S.-based employees in search, marketing, hardware and people operations teams this year.
Fiona Cicconi, Google’s chief people officer, said at last week’s meeting that between 3% and 5% of employees on those teams have accepted the buyouts.
“This has been actually quite successful,” she said, adding “I think we can continue it.”
Pichai said the company executed the voluntary buyouts after listening to employees, who said they preferred that route to blanket layoffs.
“It’s a lot of work that’s gone into implementing the VEP program, and I’m glad we’ve done it,” Pichai said. “It gives people agency, and I’m glad to see it’s worked out well.”
‘Wanting a career break’
Cicconi said one of the main reasons employees are taking the buyouts is because they want to take time off from work.
“It’s actually quite interesting to see who’s taking a VEP, and it’s people sort of wanting a career break, sometimes to take care of family members,” she said.
CNBC previously reported that the layoffs hurt morale as the company was downsizing while at the same time issuing blowout earnings and seeing its stock price jump. Alphabet’s shares are up 10% this year after climbing 36% in 2024 and 58% the year prior.
At another point in the town hall, employees asked if Google would consider a policy similar to Meta’s “recharge,” a month-long sabbatical that employees earn after five years at the company.
“We have a lot of leaves, not least our vacation, which is there for exactly that — resting and recharging,” said Alexandra Maddison, Google’s senior director of benefits.
She said the company is not going to offer paid sabbatical.
“We’re very confident that our current offering is competitive,” Maddison said.
Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other executives jumped in to compare the two companies’ benefits.
“I don’t think they have a VEP at Meta by the way,” Cicconi said.
Pichai then asked, to some laughs from the audience, “Should we incorporate all policies of Meta while we’re at it? Or should we only pick and choose the few policies we like?”
“Maybe I should try running the company with all of Meta’s policies,” he continued. “No, probably not.”
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Dado Ruvic | Reuters
OpenAI will not be allowed use the word “cameo” to name any products or features in its Sora app for a month after a federal judge placed a temporary restraining order for the term on the AI startup.
U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee granted a temporary restraining order on Monday, blocking OpenAI from using the “cameo” mark or similar words like “Kameo” or “CameoVideo” for any function related to Sora, the company’s AI-generated video app.
“We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo’, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC.
Lee granted the order after OpenAI was sued in October by Cameo, a platform that allows users to purchase personalized videos from celebrities. Cameo filed a trademark lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company following the launch of Sora’s “Cameo” feature, which allowed users to generate characters of themselves or others and insert them into videos.
“We are gratified by the court’s decision, which recognizes the need to protect consumers from the confusion that OpenAI has created by using the Cameo trademark,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement. “While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo.”
The order is set to expire on Dec. 22, and a hearing for whether the halt should be made permanent is scheduled for Dec. 19.
Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
OpenAI announced a new tool called “shopping research” on Monday, right as consumers will be ramping up spending ahead of the holiday season.
The startup said the tool is designed for ChatGPT users who are looking for detailed, well-researched shopping guides. The guides include top products, key differences between the products and the latest information from retailers, according to a blog.
Users will be able to tailor their guides based on their budget, what features they care about and who they are shopping for. OpenAI said it will take a couple of minutes to generate answers with shopping research, so users who are looking for simple answers like a price check can still rely on a regular ChatGPT response.
When users submit prompts to ChatGPT that say things like, “Find the quietest cordless stick vacuum for a small apartment,” or “I need a gift for my four year old niece who loves art,” they will see the shopping research tool pop up automatically, OpenAI said. The tool can also be accessed from the menu.
OpenAI has been pushing deeper into e-commerce in recent months. The company introduced a feature called Instant Checkout in September that allows users to make purchases directly from eligible merchants through ChatGPT.
Shopping research users will be able to make purchases with Instant Checkout in the future, OpenAI said on Monday.
OpenAI said its shopping research results are organic and based on publicly available retail websites, and that it will not share users’ chats with retailers. It’s possible that shopping research will make mistakes around product availability and pricing, the company said.
Shopping research is rolling out to OpenAI’s Free, Go, Plus and Pro users who are logged in to ChatGPT.
A Tesla logo outside the company’s Tilburg Factory and Delivery Center.
Karol Serewis | Getty Images
Tesla is trying to get its “FSD Supervised” technology approved for use in the Netherlands. But Dutch regulators are telling Tesla fans to stop pressuring safety authority RDW on the matter, and that their efforts will have “no influence” on the ultimate decision.
The RDW issued a statement on Monday directed at those who have been sending messages to try and get the agency to clear Tesla’s premium partially automated driving system, marketed in the U.S. as the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) option. It’s not yet available for use in the Netherlands or Europe broadly.
“We thank everyone who has already done so and would like to ask everyone not to contact us about this,” the agency said. “It takes up unnecessary time for our customer service. Moreover, this will have no influence on whether or not the planning is met. Road safety is the RDW’s top priority: admission is only possible once the safety of the system has been convincingly demonstrated.”
The regulator said it will make a decision only after Elon Musk’s company shows that the technology meets the country’s stringent vehicle safety standards. The RDW has booked a schedule allowing Tesla to demonstrate its systems, and said it could decide on authorization as early as February.
Last week, Tesla posted on X encouraging its followers to contact RDW to express their wishes to have the systems approved.
The post claimed, “RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026,” adding a message to “please contact them via link below to express your excitement & thank them for making this happen as soon as possible.” Tesla said other EU countries could then follow suit.
The RDW corrected Tesla on Monday, saying in a statement on its official website, that such approval is not guaranteed and had not been promised.
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla’s FSD-equipped vehicles in October following reports of widespread traffic violations tied to use of the systems.
The cars Tesla sells today, even with FSD Supervised engaged, require a human driver ready to brake or steer at any time.
For years, Musk has promised that Tesla customers would soon be able to turn their existing electric vehicles into robotaxis, capable of generating income for owners while they sleep or go on vacation, with a simple software update.
That hasn’t happened yet, and Tesla has since informed owners that future upgrades will require new hardware as well as software releases.
Tesla is testing a Robotaxi-brand ride-hailing service in Texas and elsewhere, but it includes human safety drivers or supervisors on board who either conduct the drives or manually intervene as needed. Musk has said the company aims to remove human driers in Austin, Texas, by the end of 2025.
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