In the note, shared internally and viewed by the New York Times, Brin urges staff working on Google’s Gemini AI projects to put in long hours to help the company lead the race in artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Some have praised Brin’s commitment to pushing the company’s success, but others argue that his approach reflects an outdated and harmful mindset.
“The hustle-centric 60-hour week isn’t productivity—it’s burnout waiting to happen,” wrote workplace mental health educator Catherine Eadie in a post shared by LinkedIn’s news editors.
Others said they feel that hard work is essential for success, with a COO of a business analytics business writing, “Brin is just being honest—successful people have always put in long hours."
We are slowly shifting to a 4x8=32h work week here. 60h long term has nothing to do with productivity anymore.
Last summer there were a bunch of stories reporting findings that companies that experimented with a 4-day work week saw productivity gains over the traditional 5-day, so this billionaire’s opinion sounds out of alignment with reality
Ahh, the typical manager misconception. Nope. Long work hours don’t equal high productivity.
But I can understand that misconception, as it takes those people up there many more hours to get a single useful idea compared to those under them who actually do the work and earn the money.
Another B$ telling us how we should live. How about fawking off Sergey!
I’d be down to work the 60hrs if it was voluntary overtime. But constantly? Probably not.
“Arbeit macht frei.”
I’m sorry that Sergey Brin apparently doesn’t have hobbies or family/friends that care about him, but 60 is still wrong. We have computers and work multipliers and have perfected efficiency… We don’t need to spend the majority of our lives toiling anymore! Some would argue against 40, but at least that gives a balanced workday: 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of leisure. And I say all that as someone who actually likes their job…
Commuting should be included in the 8 hour work day. I shouldn’t have to give up some of my leisure time to drive to work.
This would also incentivize denser cities.
Commuting should be included in the 8 hour work day
This would also incentivize denser cities.
How come? You’d be paid the same regardless, be away from home for the same time regardless; suddenly it makes sense to move further away from work.
Because you won’t get hired if they have to pay you to drive longer hours. Employers would be incentivized to hire locally.
So you’re saying you want prospective employers to tell you “Sorry, you live too far, we hire only within 5 city blocks”?
There should be non-discrimination laws for distance, otherwise anyone not living in the city center would be truly fucked in the hiring process AND your employer would get to tell you that if you move farther away, you’re fired.
Not to brag, but it is for me! But I’m also not paid a large amount. And it absolutely should be for everyone…
Well, if Sergey Brin wants to work 60 hour weeks, be my guest. Sounds like a good idea for the CEO class, since they should really justify what they’re paid.
Sounds like a good idea for the CEO class
Mate, he’s a class or two ABOVE the CEO class. He’s in the “trillionaire soon maybe?” class where you don’t get to be by just being a CEO, you have to own major stock in a massively overvalued company that just keeps on growing.
He should be working at LEAST 50000 hour weeks to justify his continued growth of wealth at this point. Why the lazy bastard isn’t doing it is beyond me.
And plus they say that they do all of the work, remember?
I thought 6 hours per days were best? Also, where I work, we’ve gone through voluntary overtime, working 60 hour weeks. People start to look like zombies and are more prone to mistakes by week three. It is simply not sustainable.
I was gonna say after a few weeks of 60 hour weeks I’d be fucked. Didn’t realise that was legit.
Irony alert: pushing humans harder while building AI to replace them—brilliant strategy, Sergey.
😾
people like this shouldn’t be allowed to finish their sentences on their own terms. it should be cut short by an extreme force.
Has there ever been a better call to eat the rich?!
Only if it’s for two people - 30 hours each!
When is technology going to make our lives better?
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