this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024

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Video of Eric Schmidt blaming remote work for Google’s woes mysteriously vanishes (techcrunch.com)

submitted 2 months ago by informapirata@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

68 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has since moved on to greener and perhaps more dangerous pastures, told an audience of Stanford students recently that “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.” Evidently this hot take was not for wider consumption, as Stanford — which posted the video this week on YouTube — today made the video of the event private.

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[–] psvrh@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Because Google was so focused and strategic before the pandemic rollseyes.

The issue is Google’s broken governance and incentive system, which gives product owners and executives incentives for new products and actively disincentivizes maintaining and improving existing products...and that was a thing from well before the pandemic hit.

It's why Google launched three pay systems and had five messaging systems at the same time.

And, finally, this is all because of the strategy set by senior leaders.

[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah and they make ad revenue hand over fist. So anything else is just “experimental” to them aka a cost center. Since they don’t commit to these side products they don’t become profitable and inevitably get cancelled.

[–] kalleboo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Also the ads are just so obscenely profitable that anything else will always just be a small side project. Google ad revenue is $200 billion/year.

If a new product has revenue of $500 million/year it’s still peanuts that are just a distraction and can be canceled with zero impact.

[–] mPony@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

a) you're right. Everyone who says this is right

b) If the senior leaders have designed their own ivory towers to force obsequious behaviour from their own people, they sure as shit won't listen to totally reasonable analysis from people who don't work for them. As such, they have engineered their own demise. I wish them well with it.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Fucking billionaire luck babies telling others they need to work harder. Such a piece of shit.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It honestly took me a while to figure out why people were criticizing him. I read his remarks as a positive and didn't realize he thinks having a work-life balance is a bad thing. Odd coming from someone who is fucking retired. "You work, I live. Things are balanced."

[–] isles@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Odd coming from someone who is fucking retired.

I'd suspect he sacrificed work-life balance his whole career (yes, CEOs are known for golfing and vacations, but I bet they still think of work 24/7). So just like people complaining about student loan forgiveness, some people get so angry if they perceive someone might have an easier experience than they did.

[–] 6gybf@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

CEOs sometimes think like this, but they seem to forget how much more they are paid when it comes up.

[–] paf0@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Personally I don't like student loan forgiveness because I think a free public university system is a better investment.

[–] exanime@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (16 children)

Yeah, same reason I don't like insulin, I want a permanent cure for diabetes... In the meantime fuck diabetic people, am I right?

/S in case people are confused

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[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (9 children)

¿Por qué no los dos?

I too prefer free tertiary education. But that also does not relieve the millions saddled with predatory loans.

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[–] Charapaso@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But...if you think free public university is a good thing...isn't not giving loan forgiveness analogous to saying "folks should stay in jail for trumped up marijuana charges until it's legal Federally"? IMHO people shouldn't have these loans in the first place.

If we can't afford loan forgiveness, we can't afford free public university. We can simultaneously fix the problems of the past while trying to improve things for the future.

[–] paf0@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The marijuana comparison is not even close to the same thing.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (13 children)

In terms of harm done, no. Principle? Yeah? It's best to stop further harm, but undoing past harms as well is even better.

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[–] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Did some companies really go back to the office100%? We sure did not, going to the office is more of a social thing, maybe for all hands meetings, customer presentations and that kind of stuff.

The company wins because they can have a shiny office in the city that does not need to have workplaces for all employees but maybe 20% of them at a time.

With all the weird stuff that people do at home, productivity is still higher. In times of crunch working from home has saved me more than once. Etc blabla is this really still a discussion nowadays?

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

In my time managing a team of about a dozen WFH employees, I had 10 of the 12 overworking every damn week. They were putting in time off-the-clock just because they were sitting at their desk without anyone coming in to shut off the lights and because they were comfortable at home. In the four years or so that I did that job, I had more problems with people overworking themselves than slacking off.

There were a couple times employees were obviously doing the bare minimum and playing video games. Since I managed in-person teams as well in the past, I know that this is normal, there will always be some percentage of employees that cannot stand working and try to do anything to avoid it. This happens WFH as well as in offices, but when it's WFH the company managers and owners don't have visibility on it, and thus feel not in control, and that's the very worst feeling for most of these folks who run companies.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Did the students boo him? I hope so.

[–] 7rokhym@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Of course not. They were taking notes as they expect to be next in line to grind the peasants.

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Cunt

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

If he has time to complain about other people, then he is probably not essential to the operation. Maybe he should be fired instead.

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Work/life balance, going home early, and working from home is winning.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

https://killedbygoogle.com/

I don't know man, it looks like the lack of focus started well before 2020.

[–] Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

Well, clearly, their executive team all need to be in the office. Their actual workers can be trusted to work from home.

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

They have nap pods, full restaurants, and snack bars, and "fun" office spaces so you don't want to leave the office.

Someone I knew worked there and wouldn't actually buy groceries. He just at at the office for all his meals. He didn't own a car. Rode his bike down or used public transportation.

It saved him like several hundred per month.

They know this and will try to use it as a way to suck you in and keep you in the office longer.

[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I have heard from many sources that at least the past ~4 years, if you are seen using the fun office things, you're seen as not busy enough and will be pipped/fired

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

told an audience of Stanford students recently that “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.”

Yeah, so I know for whom I wouldn't want to work after graduating.

[–] mPony@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

and nobody in the Stanford audience had the balls to yell out "IT FUCKING IS" at him after he said it. Cowards and sycophants, all.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Sounds like someone should have been minding their no-no words!

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[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago

He retired? This fuck better not get an appointment in the next administration.

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