I left Google last year (after 10 years), and, yeah, I mostly agree. It's especially dubious that these layoffs happened right in sequence after "everybody else" was doing it. It leaves the whole tech sector vulnerable and all of us in a worse bargaining position. It's a way of enforcing labour discipline into our sector.

Hence the layoffs had nothing to do with performance ratings, seniority, ability, etc. Just an across the board "Watch Us" moment to Googlers.

I also think Google really was over-hired and over-staffed for years, and some intense re-focusing and defragmentation is/was needed. Except that's not what the layoffs did or will do.