'Comfortably Unsettling': Google Techie Sacked During Mental Health Leave Finds Hope In Adversity

Thousands of individuals are scrambling to find work as they worry about a global recession in the wake of recent layoffs at internet giant Google, which have been called the "biggest" in the company's history.

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Employees who have recently lost their jobs have been vocal on social media, questioning the ethics of their employers and sharing stories of their own "random" terminations.

Former Google engineer Ali Neil said she was fired while on 'mental health leave'.

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Neil posted a link to her LinkedIn profile with a quote from an earlier post where she announced that she had been fired from Google.

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"...until last week, I thought I¡¯d have that time whenever it felt right to make that next step. Reality is more humbling than it seems¡­," Neil said, adding that despite all hardships, she sees positivity.

"I started my first job at 14, an unpaid intern until age 16 when I could become a paid employee¡­I wished the younger me could see who I am now¡­I¡¯ve always loved the jobs I've held," she said.

She termed her future uncertainties 'comfortably unsettling'.

"But now, having to think about what's next after Google, it's oddly, somewhat comfortably unsettling. It was devastating¡­but it's also such a good reminder in my life that it's still a multinational enterprise company."

On a more upbeat note, Neil reassured her that the company was merely an organization, not an "identity," and that she still had many possibilities to explore.

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"...there's so much more to explore and continue to give 110% toward. I feel so very proud to have gotten where I am today and to see what's next".

Neil ended her post by thanking her managers and saying they had a "big effect" on her career.

(Read the full post here)

Tommy York, a former Google employee, made news last week for his claim that the tech giant terminated him while he was on "bereavement leave" just after his mother's death.

After York's mother passed away in December, he took a bereavement leave. He found out he'd been laid off four days after turning to work.

York said the retrenchment was like a "slap in the face, like being hit when you're down." But he also wrote that he has no regrets about spending time with his mother in her last days.

"I probably would've written about mental health as a positive part of the culture at companies like Google... Instead, I'm tired and disappointed," York remarked in his LinkedIn post, expressing his dismay at the insensitivity of some workplaces toward their employees' psychological well-being and mental health.

Google said earlier this month that it would cut the jobs of around 12,000 people, equivalent to 6% of the company's global workforce.

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