Google's latest job cuts were pretty targeted and reportedly included several 'director decapitations'

• Google laid off workers in its news division this week.
• The cuts were pretty targeted and made to "streamline" the company, Command Line reported.

The days might be numbered for some in Google's senior ranks.

Earlier this week, Alphabet cut several employees in its news aggregating service, Google News. The company didn't tell Insider exactly how many roles were affected, but roughly three dozen employees seem to have been cut, Command Line reported.

The number is small — especially in comparison to 12,000 people who lost their jobs in January and the several hundred who went in its recruiting division last month — but they seem to have been pretty targeted, and included several "director decapitations," per Command Line.

At an all-hands meeting on Wednesday following the layoffs, Google News VP, Shailesh Prakash, said the cuts were made to "streamline" the company, Command Line reported, citing unnamed sources.

Prakash also noted that Google hired too many people during the pandemic and now, "there's a reckoning." Sources who heard Prakash's comments also told Command Line that he singled out the increase in employees in Level 8 and Level 9 roles. They make at least $1 million, or even as much as $2 million, a year, according to salary tracking database levels.fyi.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside regular business hours.