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As the race for artificial intelligence (AI) tightens, Google is asking employees to leave if they are not “all in”. This comes even as its parent company, Alphabet, reported its highest-ever annual revenue above $400 billion in 2025.
Let’s take a closer look.
What are voluntary exit packages?
Voluntary exit packages are financial incentives offered by companies to employees to leave.
Buyouts or severance packages are meant to encourage employees to exit an organisation.
Sometimes they are a precursor to layoffs and other times, they are a cost-cutting strategy for companies to reduce their wage expenses.
Buyouts “can be a very painful, emotional thing,” Andres Lares, managing partner at consulting firm Shapiro Negotiations Institute, told CNBC. “There is a significant amount of complexity based on what the market perceives you as and also how you take it.”
In the case of buyouts preceding layoffs, the company offers certain benefits, such as compensation in exchange for the employee accepting some terms, like non-disclosure or non-compete agreements. These buyouts are less voluntary and could indicate that the employee’s position is about to be shelved.
Priya Rathod, a career expert at Indeed, told MarketWatch last year, “When considering a buyout, an employee should consider how likely a layoff is. It’s very individualised. A buyout can be a safer exit if they think their area of work is high-risk.”
Google offers VEPs
Google's business unit is offering buyouts to employees. The company’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, said in an email to staff on Tuesday (February 11) that employees on some teams within the global business organization could voluntarily exit the company with a severance package, reported Business Insider.
"We're starting the year in a strong position thanks to everything you accomplished in 2025," Schindler wrote in the memo. "But the game is dynamic, the pace is electric, and the stakes are high."
Schindler told employees that everyone in GBO needs to be "all in" on the mission and "embracing AI to have even greater impact".
For employees who were not "enjoying the pace we need to operate in" or who are "ready to move on from Google," Schindler said the company would offer a voluntary exit programme for certain roles within GBO in the US. The affected employees include those working in solutions teams, sales, corporate development, and others.
Schindler said America's large customer sales teams and other customer-facing roles would be exempted from the programmes.
"While all GBO functions are essential to our long-term strategy, we've decided not to offer VEP for these particular roles to limit as much disruption to our customers as possible," he wrote.
It remains unclear how many employees are part of the GBO teams in the US.
Google’s previous buyouts
Google made a similar offer to employees last year. In June 2025, the tech giant offered buyouts to employees across several divisions, including those within its knowledge and information and central engineering units, marketing, research and communications teams.
Around the same time, Google ordered its staff in some teams to come to the office more often, offering buyouts to those unwilling to comply.
In October, it offered buyouts to YouTube employees as part of a reorganisation.
A Google LLC logo is seen at the Google offices in the Chelsea section of New York City, US, January 20, 2023. File Photo/Reuters
Last August, Google's Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi claimed its voluntary exit programme was “actually quite successful.” Speaking at a town hall meeting, Cicconi revealed that about five per cent of the employees in key departments, including marketing, search, people operations and hardware, opted for VEP in 2025. “It's actually quite interesting to see who's taking a VEP. It's people sort of wanting a career break, sometimes to take care of family members,” Cicconi was quoted as saying by CNBC.
With these buyouts, Google has intensified efforts to reduce headcount. The tech giant has been doing this since firing 12,000 employees in 2023.
With inputs from agencies
