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Google worker films news of being sacked after office videos went viral

A Google employee who spent the last month giving fans a behind the scenes look at the tech giant’s trendy offices has shared on camera the moment she found out she has lost her job.

Nicole Tsai from California had been working at Google for the last year and a half as a Partner Service Program Manager but her TikTok career took off when she began filming clips of her work life.

Since mid December, she’s received more almost 3.4 million views for showing off the company’s many features including a game room, Harry Potter themed office, butterfly meeting room, speakeasy, giant slide, DJ board in the kitchen, scooters to get around inside, and stationary bikes to charge your phone.

Nicole Tsai crying.
Nicole Tsai's video, 'A Day in My Life Getting Laid Off at Google', has racked up more than 3.1 million views on TikTok. Source: TikTok

But it was her latest video that has racked up the most clicks for “A Day in My Life Getting Laid Off at Google” with more than three million people watching on.

Google employee ‘sobbed’ on the phone to her boss

The young woman begins by explaining that she woke up to an “ominous” text message from her boss asking her to call her before learning that she’d been locked out of her emails and calendar.

Without any warning, Google’s parent company Alphabet revealed on Friday that it was laying off 12,000 employees worldwide after a “rigorous review.” While many got the news via email some didn’t realise until they rocked up to work to discover their access badges were denied.

“I called my boss and we just sobbed over the phone because she was also just finding out about my lay-off for the first time today too,” Nicole said in a voiceover while vision of her crying filled the screen.

Sharing messages from her colleagues, the TikToker explained that they were all only just finding out about the Google sacking at the same time.

“It just felt like a really bad game of Russian roulette and there was no consistency around who was let go,” she said in the video. “It was also not performance based, so it just felt really random.”

Nicole on a slide at Google (left), her colleague riding scooters (middle) and Nicole on a bike (right).
Nicole's previous videos revealed a behind the scenes look at life inside Google's offices. Source: TikTok

Headed to Disneyland to 'eat my feelings’

With so many people in the same boat of being “equally shocked and blindsided,” Nicole said she felt less alone, but says checking LinkedIn to read more about who had been let go was not great for her mental health.

“Honestly I spent so much of the day crying that I just felt so tired from being sad and wanted to do something that would just make me feel better,” she continued. “Luckily I have an annual pass so I headed over to Disneyland because I wanted to go eat my feelings.”

“The Google layoffs were not how I expected to start off 2023, but I know it’s only up from here.”

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