Google Fires Employee Who Leaked Raise Info Says Press Reports
Google is giving all of its employees a 10 percent raise and $1,000 holiday cash bonus, but one person reportedly won’t be benefiting: the person who leaked the news to the press.
The employee who leaked the information was tracked down and immediately fired, according to CNN Money. Google staff was informed of the termination “within hours.”
“We don’t comment on personnel matters,” a Google spokesperson said Thursday.
News of the raises was first reported by Business Insider, which posted an internal e-mail that Google chief executive Eric Schmidt sent to employees announcing the good news.
“Let me say, on behalf of everyone on the management team, that we believe we have the best employees in the world,” Schmidt said in the e-mail. “We want to make sure that you feel rewarded for your hard work, and we want to continue to attract the best people to Google.”
Business Insider said Google also planned to pay the taxes on the cash bonus so that employees could keep the entire amount. Google did not confirm the raises, but a Google spokesperson said in a Wednesday e-mail that “we do believe that competitive compensation plans are important to the future of the company.”
Several sources have said that the raises are an attempt to keep Google’s employees happy at the company and to prevent them from taking their talents elsewhere in a competitive market. But a Wall Street Journal blog post speculated that the raises were connected to the end of the no-poaching agreement. In September, Google, along with Apple, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, and Disney Pixar agreed to forgo plans for secret non-poaching agreements, in order to dodge an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Journal said.
Google may have weighed the costs and decided a suit wasn’t worth it, landing on a different approach to employee retention, the Journal said. But Business Insider said it’s still costing the company a pretty penny: with 23,331 employees, the bonuses will likely cost Google about $20 million, while the raises could total $1 billion per year. Salary costs, however, could be offset by reduced bonuses and stock option grants, the report said.