In a Viral TikTok, An Ex-YouTube Employee Talks About Getting Laid Off During a Business Trip

An ex-YouTube employee has gone viral on TikTok after sharing the story of her abrupt termination in the middle of a business trip.

Kimberly Díaz, a former global marketer specializing in influencer marketing at parent company Google, was one of the unlucky 12,000 Google employees laid off last Friday.

She joins a chorus of ex-Google employees crying foul about how the tech giant handled the sweeping job cuts, including an 8-month pregnant woman a week away from maternity leave.

In perhaps some form of poetic justice, Díaz shared a video of her story on YouTube's rival platform TikTok.

The video, which has since been removed from TikTok, had over 1.3 million views.

Stranded in Fort Myers

In a series of TikTok videos, Díaz recounted what happened before and after Google D-Day.

She was on a business trip to Florida, having dinner with various YouTube influencers and creators. Díaz says she even connected with YouTube's CMO, who told her how excited she was about YouTube's (now defunct) Influencer program.

The next morning she woke up at 6 am to work on a presentation but noticed she couldn't log into her company email account.

"But for some reason, my chat still worked. I think I got in it before they closed it down 'cause it was so early," Díaz said. "So I texted my colleague, who was also leading the meeting, to be like, 'Hey, are you having an issue with your email? Here's my phone number.' And then maybe 10 minutes later, I got a follow-up email from Google that was like, 'Your position's eliminated effective immediately.'"

Díaz didn't have a flight booked from Fort Myers airport until 6 pm that night, but without access to the company's system, she couldn't change her flight.

"I was locked out of everything," Díaz said. "I had no idea if I changed my flight if I could even get reimbursed. I already lost a job. I'm not trying to spend $400 changing a flight."

In tears, Diaz said that "the fact that she thought about me and was willing to do that for me— it meant so much."

The same can probably not be said for her employer.