Google is extremely serious about cutting costs in times of recession. They have reduced the hours of its free cafeteria service of employees, trimmed down the contract workforce and have also decided to scale back their holiday celebrations.
- Google gears down for tougher times (Wall Street Journal)
- Even Google scales back on holiday fun (Reuters)
Not only are they asking employees to celebrate holidays more economically, Google has also decided to cancel the annual Christmas gift for AdSense publishers blaming the economic climate.
An official representative from AdSense team writes this in a Webmaster World forum:
"..we feel that gift-giving is not the most appropriate gesture this year given the current global economic climate. I know you may be disappointed, but I hope you can understand our efforts to be fiscally responsible in these times. "
The move is understandable but I hope they don’t cut their budget for Holiday Doodles.