I took this more as Schmidt being disappointed in what Google has become. He really did build Google, its completely valid for him to be mad about the state of the company culture wise.
But he also was the "adult in the room" that basically destroyed whatever moral core Google had as a startup.
It might have the been the correct move from a business standpoint and there was no way they'd keep "don't be evil" as a compass, but Eric Schmidt was there to push it all over the edge. The company's current PR issues[0] is perfectly seeded in his contribution to the company.
[0] PS: not counting the company potentially broken up a few years down the line.
Or maybe mad that he wasted his life having no work-life balance and then realizing that lots of companies with work-life balance are productive and profitable.
I’m ordering something from Europe where the factory is shut down for the entire month of August. I just have to wait an extra month for that item. The company still gets my money because I need the item.
I also use a piece of software written by a European company. I will get no releases/patches this month. But that software company still got my money. I need/want the software.
I wonder how many hustle culture US tech founders find out that a lot of Europeans just don’t work at all for a whole month and finally start questioning some of this bullshit.
What are these companies you speak of? I would like to take them over in a leveraged buyout, chain the employees to their desks, and make an immediate 9% return
You might be surprised that chaining employees to their desks doesn’t make them more productive.
It’s easy to figure out that a lot of companies collect the same checks from their customers regardless of how much their employees burn themselves out. Google doesn’t magically get to charge more money for cloud storage because they decide to work their engineers harder. Labor is only a small component of the cost of that product.
Sorry, but that smells like bullshit. No European company I worked at or know of entirely shuts down in August. That's just a meme. There's still people at work keeping things going that month. Vacation approvals need to be requested in advance and staggered because of that to keep things going while people are on vacation.
And if you're still giving them money despite being absent for a month because like you say you need their product, that's more like survivorship bias where that company probably has a monopoly and no competition so you're forced to only buy from them but that's no your average European company, not by a long shot.
The company I work in now, the managers check in on things even on vacations.
> The company I work in now, the managers check in on things even on vacations.
Bruh, my manager would never do that to me. It’s against our team norms. If your manager makes you do a significant amount of work when they “check in” or requires you to answer their messages, that policy is illegal and you’re owed your time off back. You need a new job or a new manager.
> Vacation approvals need to be requested in advance and staggered because of that to keep things going while people are on vacation.
You’re just saying what I said: that the companies in Europe make extended time off possible by staggering leaves. Some companies stagger leave, others decide to shut down or slow down operations. I never said that every company in Europe shuts down to make holidays work, but I can guarantee you that every company in countries like Denmark, Finland, and France are allowing their employees to take 25 days of leave (plus national holidays) because that’s the law.
The important part is that the individual gets to take time off. Whether the entire company shuts down or not is up to the specific business. The two companies I mentioned decided that it’s easier for them to shut down for a month because their work is essentially in a queue. For the factory making physical goods, they can receive orders while they are closed and catch up on them when they are opened again. For the software company, they can continue selling their software digitally while the company is on leave and their users just wait an extra month for software updates.
This never-ending work culture in the USA isn’t even helping overall production and productivity all that much.
Not working for a whole month just sounds awful. I have a lot of hobbies outside of work, but it is still the most interesting and fulfilling part of my life. Even though I need breaks for it now and then doesn’t mean I won’t miss it.
I get to spend time with wonderful people, solving interesting puzzles, building something that people love and that makes their days better. I used to work in game dev, so it brought people joy, but now I make developer tools, and it using better tools makes them love their jobs more, and makes them more effective. Some of the people who use the tools are literally doing cancer research or other very meaningful stuff.
How could I get the same feeling of fulfilment from the most amazing vacation?
And what happens to this paradigm if you don’t really love your job more than your family and friends and just work out of necessity to survive?
Only half of all Americans are “very satisfied” with their jobs.
Lower income people are less satisfied with their jobs than higher income people.
What about people who work jobs that are physically demanding where time off is literal physical rest?
This idea of work as fulfillment is highly classist IMO.
And anyway, you wouldn’t like to have a month every year to spend on your own personal coding projects that don’t become owned property of your employer? Nobody said you have to spend your time off sipping margaritas on the beach.
