this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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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Some have praised Brin’s commitment to pushing the company’s success, but others argue that his approach reflects an outdated and harmful mindset.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."

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[–] ARotePleaseBob@lemmy.world 147 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Why? Fuck me, that’s like a 12 hour day over a 5 day week. No-one is doing productive 12 hours day for very long, so he’s basically just arguing for an adult version of fucking daycare here.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 83 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

...or 8.6 hours a day 7 days a week with no days off. There's no way to math this that isn't "fuck you, you don't deserve a life outside of working to replace yourself with AI."

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 36 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Or 10 hour days 6 days a week, only so the "responsible" employees can go to church.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Specially developers, you're going to spend the first 3 hours of work every day, fixing all the shitty code wrote in the 3 last hours of the preview day.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago

Yep. If you want max productivity from devs, it's salary and ad hoc.

Do your work when the fuck ever. Just get it done.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 81 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At this point, it's an insult to clowns.

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[–] Mac@mander.xyz 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not true. They know exactly what theyre doing to extract wealth from the workers.

[–] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes. The rich prefer slavery if they can get away with it .

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[–] RangerJosey@lemmy.ml 47 points 2 weeks ago

My ass it is. We're going the other direction.

[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 47 points 2 weeks ago

Kicking Sergey Brin in the teeth and working 30 hours a week is max productivity.

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 40 points 2 weeks ago

Hitting Brin in the balls repeatedly would increase my happiness.

[–] pageflight@lemmy.world 36 points 2 weeks ago

Classic correlation v. causation. The sweet spot for productivity is believing in and wanting to do your work. For some people, this motivates them to spend tons of time working. For some people, this boueys then to high productivity even while exercising great work life balance and avoiding burnout.

Google used to know this, and spend huge amounts of effort and resources on trust, enjoyment, innovation. Now that's something to find at other companies.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So nice of him to support the abuse of his employees for his personal gain.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 24 points 2 weeks ago

It's not about productivity. Productivity drops exponentially when people are tired. It's about crushing the human spirit.

[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I’d work work 60 hours a week if I was going to get paid the millions they make but I’m not doing that work just to make someone else rich.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

It's beyond just making millions for someone else, it's about literally building their replacements.

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).

They want an AGI that will do all the work "for free" and they don't have to worry about pesky human workers who want things like "human rights" anymore.

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[–] klemptor@startrek.website 32 points 2 weeks ago

Hey Brin, kindly go fuck yourself, you out-of-tpuch ass.

[–] Yeller_king@reddthat.com 29 points 2 weeks ago

I honestly think it's more like 30. If we're all just making numbers up.

[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago

60 hours is the sweet spot for maximal control over your employees life with only the normal amount of suicides.

[–] Dvixen@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

Spoken to someone who might work 60 minutes a week.

He can get fucked by his 60 hour work week. Sideways.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

There's 182,502 employees at Google.

Maybe if Brin wants to work hard, he can do all the work at 60 hours a week himself, since he's so fucking smart.

That's only 10,950,120 hours a week, Brin. Those are rookie numbers! You can do it yourself, right? Right?

You wouldn't be sitting on your ass doing nothing demanding others do all the work, right? Right??


Narrator: Brin was indeed sitting on his ass doing nothing.


Also, for context, 60 hours a week divided by 7 days a week is 8.6 hours a day with no days off or 6 ten hour days with one day off or 5 twelve hour days with two days off.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

often these fucks do work 60–100 hour weeks because they are soulless, friendless, loveless, hobbyless people with no interior life or social life.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Nah, they count shit like going to the gym for two hours or having a three-hour-three-martini "business lunch" as part of their "work week" so those numbers are way overinflated. They count every little thing they do that they tell us "isn't working" (like eating) as "work" when it comes to their own schedules.

There's middle managers who really work like that but its because they hate their home lives, their wives, their children.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"I am the all-important central pillar of this company, so looking after my health needs is how I do my job. It would be bad if I joined investor calls and virtual meetings without getting 10 hours of sleep and 3 square meals per day, so of course that time is billable. And I'll need the company to pay for my various trainers, aides, counsellors, and spiritual advisors who keep me physically and mentally healthy, otherwise we wouldn't have a leg up on the competition."

"Hey, does it make our company look bad if the Apple CEO owns a larger yacht than I do? We need to fix that ASAP. How can we make more room in the budget for my compensation? Do we really need to keep all these engineers?"

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[–] reiterationstation@lemm.ee 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I work 60-100 hours a week because I own my business.

They aren’t “working” in the same way I am or you are. They don’t work their businesses. Their hobbies social life and business are all blurred. That’s why they can make the claim they are always working but it’s not the same thing.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 11 points 2 weeks ago

I hope you can return to a healthy balance soon.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

double the salary is also a very sweet spot for productivity

[–] axh@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

Please join my TED talk on "Why whip is a more efficient motivational tool than bonuses?"

[–] DegenerationIP@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Lol. Yeah. Shut up. Its not. Proven not.

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[–] x00z@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

If you are a CEO, sure. But if you are not then it's quite the opposite.

If only these capitalist pigs could put themselves in the shoes of others.

[–] AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] TheChickenOfDoom@lemm.ee 18 points 2 weeks ago

What a pile of human garbage.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 18 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

60/5=12/day 8/day for sleep Let's say it takes me an hour each way to get to and from the office. Maybe 1hr for dinner

Now I have 1 hour/day to do everything else I need to do? How did this guy invent Google?

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

You sleep at the office or work 6 or 7 days. People aren't often doing 60 hour weeks by working 12x5 and then 2 off.

Edit: Google even has those sleeping pods!

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Outside of the google office would be a sweet spot for a guillotine.

[–] meowmeowbeanz@sopuli.xyz 15 points 2 weeks ago

Irony alert: pushing humans harder while building AI to replace them—brilliant strategy, Sergey.

😾

[–] varnia@lemm.ee 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

We are slowly shifting to a 4x8=32h work week here. 60h long term has nothing to do with productivity anymore.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's burnout waiting to happen

So? Then you fire them and hire fresh meat.

Humans are replaceable, no?

/S, of course

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[–] OmarDontScare@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

Google

---Do most harm---

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 weeks ago

Did that guy ever work anywhere else?

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Rich asshole says out of touch moronic thing. More at 7.

[–] Nunar@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Has there ever been a better call to eat the rich?!

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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...

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 weeks ago (19 children)

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.

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[–] Cocopanda@futurology.today 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

He fucked his assistant at work and got divorced over it.

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 weeks ago

"Arbeit macht frei."

[–] thisphuckinguy@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Sergi can eat donkey dick.

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