'Why me? Why now?’: Google fires manager who is 8-months pregnant

Katherine Wong, who was a programme manager at Google, said she was fired just before going on a maternity leave, underlining she was asked to leave despite a "good performance review" as she suggested that the layoffs were not performance-based.

Businesses all over the world have resorted to layoffs in order to restructure their operations. The sudden disruption - especially in tech firms - is leaving employees in a very uncertain situation. Many of them are sharing their experiences on social media. The massive retrenchment exercises have been linked to recruitments made during the pandemic without proper planning.

Google parent Alphabet Inc on Friday eliminated 12,000 jobs.

Katherine Wong, who was a programme manager at Google, said she was fired just before going on a maternity leave, underlining she was asked to leave despite a "good performance review" as she suggested that the layoffs were not performance-based. Google parent Alphabet Inc on Friday eliminated 12,000 jobs, as per reports.

"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 elaborated in a detailed LinkedIn post, adding that now it is ‘almost impossible’ to look for a job as "a 34 weeks pregnant woman".

"People are concerned about my baby and well being. 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. It is such a mixed feeling. I love Google and particularly my team, Google Domains as I feel that we are a family. I am grateful that my team still got my back even now. I have been feeling proud of working in a start-up-like team who is one of the few that's making positive business growth under such challenging times," Wong continued in the post.

She has taken to social media for job leads but the timing of the layoff makes her situation worse. "I want to be able to open to work. 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," she added.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook are among the other tech giants that have resorted to retrenchment in the midst of recession fears.