'My heart sank': 8-month pregnant employee fired by Google

An eight-month pregnant Google employee, who was only one week away from her maternity leave, on Saturday took to LinkedIn to share how she dealt with the news of her layoff.

Katherine Wong, who worked as a program manager at Google, said in her post that her "heart sank" as she realised she was among the 12,000 employees laid off by the company.

"The first thought that came to my mind was “Why me? Why now?”. It was hard to process and digest, especially the news that came after a positive performance review," she said.

"I did not let my negative emotions take over as I have a little one inside that needed to be taken care of, but I could not control my shaky hands," Wong stated.

She further said that she loved Google and her team and the news evoked a "mixed feeling".

"I want to be able to #opentowork. But the reality is that I need to focus on the last bit of my pregnancy journey, and to make sure my baby comes to the world safe and sound. I know I will be fine and will try all my best to achieve that. Thank you for all the support and checking in," Wong concluded.

Alphabet Inc, Google's parent, is eliminating 12,000 jobs, its chief executive said in a staff memo on Friday. The cuts mark the latest to shake the technology sector and come days after rival Microsoft Corp said it would lay off 10,000 workers.

Sundar Pichai, Alphabet's CEO, said in the note, "I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI."

The job losses affect teams across the company including recruiting and some corporate functions, as well as some engineering and products teams.

The layoffs are global and impact US staff immediately, Google said.

Pichai told employees in an email that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here".

“These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” Pichai wrote in the email.

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