Google's Darkest Days: After Three Deaths, a Workforce Reckons with a Changed Company Once reassured by a sense of exceptionalism, Google employees are reeling from tragedy, 12,000 layoffs and a series of painful cutbacks. In the past year, three Google employees have died by apparent suicide. The deaths have shaken the company to its core, and have raised questions about Google's culture and its treatment of its employees. The first death occurred in February, when Jacob Pratt, a 33-ye