A Google engineer says survivors of the mass layoffs cried in meetings the day around 12,000 of their colleagues were culled

• A Google engineer said survivors of the recent mass layoffs cried in meetings the day of the cull.

• Two engineers told Insider some remaining staff were worried about further job cuts.

• Google is now "just another big company," one said.

Some Google employees who survived the recent cull of around 12,000 staff cried during meetings the day layoffs were announced, a serving employee told Insider.

In video calls that day, "some of the folks were sobbing, they were drying their eyes," the employee, an engineer for Google on the East Coast, said.

On January 20, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, announced layoffs equating to about 6% of the company's global workforce. Pichai told remaining staff they could work from home that day to process the "difficult news."

The East Coast engineer, who has worked at Google for more than 10 years, requested anonymity to protect his employment but his identity is known to Insider.

He said that when surviving staff ask each other how they're doing, some joke they're alright because they still have their jobs. People nod to each other with a shared sense of understanding when passing each other in the office, he said: "It's not the typical nonverbal interaction there used to be before. Now it's a meaningful nod."

'Just another big company'

An engineer on the West Coast who's been with Google for more than 10 years told Insider surviving staff were "angry and sad."

"We truly did believe that Google was something different," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his employment but his identity is known to Insider.

"This is just another big company," he said. "Now, anything that used to feel special or like you really were a part of a mission — not just a big money-making machine — that feeling is I think gone."

Both engineers said some remaining employees were worried about further cuts.

The East Coast engineer said Google employees were often headhunted but didn't leave because of the perks and sense of job security — but perks had been gradually been "stripped down" and the layoffs meant employment didn't feel as secure any more, he said.