A Google engineer fired just hours before giving birth to her second child, accuses company of betraying her

• Image Credit: Google

• Jan 29, 2023 | Poonam Nath

Engineer Natasha Nesiba claims she received the letter from Google informing her of the layoff when her body was at its weakest...

Digital Desk: About 12,000 Google employees were fired earlier this month. In these difficult times, a lot of affected employees turned to LinkedIn to express gratitude to their coworkers and look for new jobs. Several stories involving former Google employees who worked there for more than 15 years, some for as long as 20 years, were covered by us last week. Natasha Nesiba, another ex-employee, came forward and said that she was fired only hours before giving birth to her second child. On LinkedIn, she posted her story.

In the post, Nesiba, an engineer, claims she received the layoff letter from Google at a time when her body was at its weakest and that she is finding it difficult to be strong in this uncertain time. According to the post she wrote, "I can't help but feel sad for the abrupt end of my time at Google after years of loyalty and contributions to the company. I also feel angry and betrayed for the cold execution of the layoffs over email, especially while I was/am on maternity leave. Having to navigate all the offboarding information and required next steps while dealing with the demands of postpartum is cruel."

Google was Nesiba's first tech job, and she worked across numerous divisions. She says that she is not "currently available to work," but will be later this year. However, many Indian workers in the United States are under enormous pressure to find new positions in order to keep their H1-B and L1 visas. 

Insider Today also spoke with Nesiba, who said she couldn't "stop shaking and crying" after getting the letter before giving birth.

Many Google employees have expressed disappointment with the company's sudden and disrespectful termination process. Garima Sahai, a Google engineering director, said last week that she had been laid off after nearly 20 years with the company. Her LinkedIn article states that she is using the platform because Google abruptly terminated her access to an internal email.

"To Google's leadership (and I've considered myself part of it), I can see and have empathy for this being a tremendously difficult thing to do, and I wish the process had been a bit more courteous for all of our sake," Sahai wrote. 

Meanwhile, Google's top executives have defended the layoffs, claiming that they were necessary. Several reasons have contributed to mass layoffs, but the most serious problem for tech companies has been overhiring during the two years of peak COVID-19 epidemic. Several tech giants, like Meta and Amazon, hired too many people, and these corporations also laid off thousands of workers to save costs during an uncertain macroeconomic moment.