Christmas cancelled at Google

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 24 Nov 2008 at 10:13

Internet search giant Google is known for hosting the most extravagant Christmas parties in Silicon Valley, often drawing crowds of over 10,000 and prompting employees to post ads for party dates on classifieds website Craigslist.

But even Google has decided to scale back its celebrations this year due to a global economic downturn and an ever-expanding workforce that had grown to 20,000 in October, according to a soure close to the company.

Silicon Valley has few reasons to celebrate this year as companies - including HP, Yahoo, Sun and Applied Materials - have cut over 140,000 jobs in the past few months because of the bleak economy.

Google has fared better than most tech companies, but departments at the internet company will have smaller events this year to encourage camaraderie between employees and celebrate more economically, the source claims.

Team holiday activities will include spending an afternoon volunteering followed by evening social activities such as dinner parties and museum outings in San Francisco.

This is a striking difference from previous years, when Google holiday parties included ice sculptures of the company's logo, virtual reality video-game stations, karaoke booths, sushi buffets and burlesque dancers.

Last year a party crowd of 10,000 spread throughout the Shoreline Amphitheater, near Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Several used the web to find dates.

This year only one Googler is looking for a companion, according to a recent search on Craigslist.

Google declined to comment on this year's change.