US firm fires 80 Indian employees in 5-minute Google Meet, worker claims

Dubai: Around 80 employees working in the Indian customer support team of a US financial technology company were allegedly laid off during a five-minute Google Meet call, according to an employee quoted by NDTV.

The employee said the entire team was terminated without prior warning after being asked to work from home that day for “operational reasons”.

In a social media post titled “Laid off over a Google Meet”, the employee described how what began as an apparently normal evening shift ended abruptly just three hours later.

“I was a part of the customer support team until yesterday for a US bank. They asked us to work from home yesterday due to operational reasons,” the employee wrote.

The employee said their shift began at 6.30pm. At around 9.30pm, the team received an invitation from senior management to join a Google Meet call.

Then came the announcement.

“I was doing a 6.30pm shift and at 9.30pm they just invited us on a Google Meet and told us the entire Indian Customer service team has been fired!” the employee wrote.

“All 80 employees! All gone. 80 families affected just with a 5-minute call.”

The employee said the sudden decision was particularly upsetting because members of the team had been pushing themselves at work partly because of concerns over job security.

Employee names company

As the post attracted attention online, users asked the employee to identify the company behind the alleged layoffs.

The employee named Bluevine, a US-based financial technology company that provides banking services and financial products to small businesses, according to NDTV.

The employee claimed the team was told that its performance had failed to meet the company’s expectations.

“They were not getting the expected output from the Indian team,” the employee wrote, disputing that explanation and claiming that the US team had faced higher attrition and other performance issues.

The employee’s claims about the reasons for the layoffs could not be independently verified.

The post prompted reactions from social media users, with several expressing concern over the manner in which the employees were allegedly informed and the impact of sudden job losses on dozens of families.

There was no immediate public statement from Bluevine cited in the report responding to the employee’s allegations.