Madhav Chinnappa, the director of news at Google, has been laid off as part of the company's recent layoffs. He shared the news on his LinkedIn post last Saturday, stating that he is leaving Google due to the layoffs. 

Google has been downsizing its workforce to navigate through the challenges of the global economic slowdown. Despite the circumstances, Chinnappa expressed pride in his accomplishments during his nearly 13-year tenure at Google.

"From Digital News Initiative (which wasn’t just a Fund - though a wise person did say that it helped kickstart a European media R&D culture) to the Google News Initiative Innovation Challenges - and of course Ludovic Blecher’s brilliant idea: JERF, the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund which showcased the best of Google: helping where it could when a vulnerable part of the news ecosystem needed it most and involving 300 Googlers," he wrote.

Chinnappa, who was based in London, revealed his plans to take a break for a month before delving into new opportunities or considering the next steps in his career. "And what now: I am in the privileged position of being able (to take) some time to figure that out. In the near term, I have some pressing family issues that need my fuller attention, so in the spirit of the Zen proverb that the tea cup must be empty before it can be full, I will take August off, then spend September looking after my mum in India and only start thinking about work in October with a view to doing more things in 2024,” said Chinnappa.

Google's mass layoffs, first announced in January of this year, impacted approximately 12,000 individuals worldwide. Last month, the company further revealed job cuts at its mapping app, Waze. In the aftermath of these layoffs, accounts of the affected employees have started surfacing on social media platforms.

During the downsizing, certain employees faced layoffs while on their maternity leaves, while others received termination notices while on vacation. Surprisingly, even high-ranking Google personnel, such as the company's Mental Health Head, were among those who lost their jobs as a result of the restructuring.

The tech ecosystem has been severely impacted by economic challenges, and the frequent news of layoffs serves as a stark testament to this situation.

Back in January of this year, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company's decision to cut approximately 12,000 positions from its workforce. He explained that over the preceding two years, the company had experienced significant periods of rapid expansion.

"To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. As an almost 25-year-old company, we’re bound to go through difficult economic cycles. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities," he said.