An Indian-origin who served as the Director of News Ecosystem Development at Google in London has been laid off by Google after 13 years of service. Sharing his experience on LinkedIn, Madhav Chinnappa said he has been placed on a ‘gardening leave’, which allows him too much time to contemplate work, career, and life, among other things.
“In the end, I am proud of what I have been able to achieve during my almost 13 years at Google,” he wrote in his post.
Gardening leave is a period where an employee does not have to come to the office but gets full salary. Writing about his 13-year tenure at the tech giant, Chinnappa recapped his achievements like starting the Digital News Initiative, Journalism Emergency Relief Fund and making News Geist go global, among other things. He added that he was “inordinately proud” of convincing the Doodle team to do a Eurovision Doodle.
“And to be clear, not a single thing I mentioned above could have been achieved without my teammates and colleagues as everything is a team effort,” he wrote.
Chinnappa on what lies ahead
Talking about what lies ahead of him now, Chinnappa said he is in a “privileged position” of being able to figure out what comes next for him. He said he has some pressing family issues which require his full attention in the near future. “In the spirit of the Zen proverb that the tea cup must be empty before it can be full, I will take August off then spend September looking after my mum in India and only start thinking about work in October with a view to doing more things in 2024,” he wrote.
Responding to Chinnappa’s post, Head of Innovation at Google News Initiative, Ludovic Blecher, wrote, “Madhav, my dear friend and partner in crime. I love creativity but… I won’t be here too long as you already know everything.” He added that they together achieved a lot but Chinnappa did not mention everything in his post.