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Sergey Brin told Google staff that working 60 hours a week is the 'sweet spot'

https://fortune.com/article/sergey-brin-60-hour-work-week-ai-rto/
26•randycupertino•47m ago

Comments

randycupertino•47m ago
> In an internal memo to employees who work on Gemini, Google cofounder Sergey Brin recommended being in the office at least every weekday and said 60 hours is the “sweet spot” for productivity, according to the New York Times.
_tk_•36m ago
Dated August 2025
colordrops•28m ago
Probably 70 hours now.
twoodfin•21m ago
The original Fortune piece was February 2025, apparently.

I have a hard time getting worked up about this. This is a team where the median engineer is probably approaching 7-figures total comp, working on a strategic project comparable to the iPhone—or at least Google sure thinks so.

They all have plenty of other options (albeit probably not as prestigious or high paying) if they want to level down their expectations.

bobthepanda•36m ago
Remember when Google used to be considered one of the cushier places to work?

Not a fan of how big tech has become the parable of the frog in slowly boiling water.

cyanydeez•30m ago
id say its MBAs that do a ship of theasus replacement, like the borg, once an org demonstrates valuable progress.
delusional•13m ago
It's comforting to blame it on "MBAs", but i think it's pretty clear that silicon valley has been entirely captured by the "hardcore grindset" segment of the manosphere.
bobthepanda•4m ago
Sergey Brin is hardly an MBA and has all the power and money to resist that pressure if he cared.
Moldoteck•34m ago
So a guy that married 2 times and divorced 2 times, has 3 children, recommends that the sweet spot for productivity is 60 hours per week, which would mean about 12h/day if you work 5 days or 10h/day if you work 6 days. This means, if you start your work at 8, you finish either at 20:00 or 18:00 + 30-60min lunch break. With such a packed day I can only imagine what a stellar childhood will his kids get assuming he wants to be involved in rising them...
ravenstine•25m ago
Just pay for a nanny, bro. /s

I'm sure most people wouldn't outright say that, but I have no doubt that many corporate leadership types think that way. After all, the C-suite has higher incidences of NPD and ASPD so it shouldn't be surprising. Along with being out of touch, some of them probably think their peons should have the means to do the same.

bryanlarsen•21m ago
The other part of the recommendation is "at the office 5 days a week". Working more than 40 hours and spending meaningful time with your kids is very possible, if you aren't wasting 2 hours a day commuting and you have a flexible schedule and you have a partner who can also spend time with the kids.
delusional•15m ago
> Working more than 40 hours

But he's also not recommending 40 hours, he's recommending 150% of that. Even then, I'd assume that when he says "sweet spot" he's also talking about a median, meaning you'll have to put in additional hours sometimes.

jleyank•34m ago
60 hours, hmm. Does he pay overtime? Does he increase stock options, ideally grants? Is the project horribly behind time or features? Or, is he just an asshole who feels he can replace workers as needed?

Obviously ageist, probably anti-partner. Does this include commute time, or is this gratis?

sys_64738•31m ago
I work to live and not to make a billionaire even richer off my back. The rank and file who are clued in don't spew this dross but those with most to gain do. You can always tell those with skin in the game.
gjsman-1000•28m ago
Okay, so if Google wins AGI first, who is to say that AGI isn’t so disruptive, the government just nationalizes Google?
mindslight•23m ago
In dictatorship, the government nationalizes companies. In USA, the companies nationalize government.
18561239faaee4•28m ago
BOYS N GIRLS WE'RE SO CLOSE TO AGI!!! IT'S HAPPENING!!!
abbassix•25m ago
Our heros fought and died for 8-hour working days and when we stop fighting, we go back to 12-hour working days! That is why you need to search for theinternationalism.org
breppp•9m ago
did they also work for 8 hours a day in the gulag?
elnatro•24m ago
How many hours per week was he working when having an affair with the Google Glass marketing manager? [1]

[1] https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2014/04/sergey-brin-amanda-...

SonOfKyuss•9m ago
The answer to that question depends on if you count hours spent sleeping with your employees as “working”
cynicalsecurity•20m ago
Didn't he retire not so long ago?
karakoram•12m ago
On topic https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48267221
mattkevan•12m ago
What an arsehole.

Multi-billionaire says to work harder to make him richer faster. The sooner this attitude is recognised as a sickness the better.

coffinbirth•12m ago
Where actually went all the productivity gains of the last decades? Isn't that supposed to decrease the amount of labor we humans have to do eventually?

Most frequent answer to this is: "But look we have all the high tech everyone of us can afford easily". But that cannot be the answer, because even if I choose to live like a luddite hermit while working 40h a week, I'm still not becoming super rich or can afford a house, which people my age could do 50 years ago.

So the productivity gains went elsewhere. The question is, into whose pocket? I guess into the pockets of those people who demand we should work even more than 40h a week.

msftengineer•7m ago
Excellent take.

What are we, as a society, gaining from working this much?

Billionaires is the only answer at this point.

alexbezhan•4m ago
There is a book, called "The Price of Tomorrow". Talking about this specific problem. TLDR: Inflation

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Sergey Brin told Google staff that working 60 hours a week is the 'sweet spot'

https://fortune.com/article/sergey-brin-60-hour-work-week-ai-rto/
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