Former Google CEO says home office affects competition with China, where journey has 12h

Eric Schmidtwho was Google’s main chief for a decade in the early 2000s, said during an interview released by Podcast that he doesn’t believe in remote work, in part because he is not helping US technology companies competing with relentless work culture From China.

“If you’ll be in technology and win, you will have to make some concessions,” said Schmidt. “Remember, we are competing with the Chinese; the balance between the Chinese’s personal and professional life consists of 996which is from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. ”

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Schmidt added that homework is especially harmful to young people who can be highly instructed but have little or no experience in the job market.

He said he learned a lot in the early days of his career at Sun Microsystems (where he became CTO) being present in the office and listening to your older co -workers to discuss personally.

“How do you recreate this in this new thing?” He asked about the remote work.

A Schmidt spokesman refused to comment on the statements.

12 hours of work, 6 days a week

The working day 996 From China was banned in 2021, but Schmidt insisted on the podcast that all Chinese technology companies still practice it. This kind of obsession with work is also coming to Silicon Valley.

An increasing number of, and especially IaIn the bay area now expects employees to work 72 hours a week, according to.

For some young people fanaticsthe gradual change of the Silicon Valley of nap capsules to sleeping in the office It’s welcome news.

Many young people in their early twenties, created in culture (agitation) inspired by Zuckerberg and famous in the movie, happily renounce the balance between personal and professional life For the sake of the success, he informed the early month.

RAMP’s said a few days before his data show a peak work on Saturdaysindicating that “996 is real” because “staff based in San Francisco are working more and more on Saturdays.”

On the other hand, the change in corporate card transactions for restaurants, deliveries and recorded an increase of 0.4%, which may not be statistically significant.

Criticism of Google for seeking balance at work

Schmidt had already criticized its old company, Google, for its flexible policies about remote work and productivity.

In a talk at Stanford University last year, he said: “Google decided that the balance between personal and professional life, and going home early, and working at home, was more important than winning. ”

Stanford later deleted the video, and Schmidt back in your comments.

“Eric expressed himself badly about Google and his work hours and regrets his mistake,” said a Schmidt spokesman in a statement.

After implementing liberal work policies at home during the pandemic, Google reduced the remote work And it required some remote employees to come to the office three days a week.

As the IA race intensifies, Sergey Brin Google himself told employees that they work on their Ia Gemini model to work at the “at least” office every day of the week, and added that 60 hours a week was “the ideal productivity point,” informed.

Schmidt, during the interview released in the podcast, referred discreetly to the ia and crypto of the White House, David Sackswhile playing that the balance between personal and professional life has its place in at least one line of work.

“I am in favor of balance between personal and professional life, which is why people work for the government,” he said.