SAP is laying off 82 Palo Alto employees as part of a global plan for steady, annual job cuts that one executive compared to “brushing your teeth.” (Daniel Roland\/Associated Press) <\/p>\n
SAP America<\/a>, the U.S. arm of German software giant SAP, laid off 82 employees at its Palo Alto offices, according to a state filing.<\/p>\n The permanent job cuts, disclosed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification dated Oct. 6, will take effect Nov. 21 at the company’s research facility at 3410 Hillview Ave.\u00a0in Santa Clara County.<\/p>\n The Palo Alto site is part of SAP’s global Labs Network, a network of research and development hubs in more than 20 countries focused on artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics.<\/p>\n SAP also operates Bay Area locations in San Francisco and San Ramon, while its U.S. headquarters is based in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n The layoffs come amid a broader, multiyear restructuring effort as SAP looks to streamline operations and redirect investment toward emerging technologies.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the company said it would shift from large-scale reductions to smaller, continuous job cuts – roughly 1% to 2% of its global workforce each year – as part of its “continuous optimization” strategy.<\/p>\n “It won’t be anything special,” Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam told the German newspaper Handelsblatt, saying the annual job reductions<\/a> are “like brushing your teeth.”<\/p>\n Employee representatives have voiced concern that the approach could cause “long-term damage” and prioritize short-term financial gains.<\/p>\n