“I recommend being in the office at least every weekday,” he wrote in a memo posted internally on Wednesday evening that was viewed by The New York Times. He added that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity” in the message to employees who work on Gemini, Google’s lineup of A.I. models and apps.
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“A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by,” he wrote. “This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else.”
Sergey Brin, who is worth $145 billion, thinks workers should come to the office on weekends, and work 60 hours a week as a “sweet spot”.
The science actually says that 60 hours a week, when maintained, is less productive than 40. You can gain productivity in the short term by mandating overtime, but the limit is around two weeks. You also pay for it in lost productivity the following weeks anyway, so it’s more a shifting of productivity.
If he actually cared about productivity (which is related to service/development and eventually profit), he wouldn’t be saying this falsehood.
Research is also highly suggesting that 32 hours is even more productive (and healthier).
I’m always surprised at myself how much more productive I am during 4 day weeks. If I have a 3 day weekend and I only had to work 4 days I get so much more stuff done than even if I had the full 5 days.
I work 4x10 wfh and I’m more productive than the people that go into the office despite spending no less than half the day playing videogames.
The point isn’t to increase productivity it’s to tire and emiserate the minions.