[closeparen]

These compensation packages served the very specific purpose of enticing US-based talent to relocate to the Bay Area. As we increasingly accept remote work for senior talent and look abroad (or not at all) for junior talent, this is not as much of a need anymore. The inflow to the Bay Area always had a built-in expiration given there are only finitely many neighborhoods to gentrify and still no appetite for significant housing growth.

[killjoywashere]

It's also self-inflicted pain: if you keep inflating wages you keep inflating home prices, which makes it even harder to attract people in. Google is doing everything it can to cut costs, closing daycares, tracking who eats, but they have literally acres of empty, brand-new real estate. I suspect another round of layoffs may be coming. And I doubt they'll do the "random selection" again. The smart ones at the fringes started bolting for the doors in December.