[jjcm]

For an exec, it is, and he is 100% correct.

There's a reason why execs get perks - free housing, transportation, personal assistants, etc are all common things at the VP and up level for these large corportations. The whole reason for that is to free up time so they can work 60 hour weeks.

For a standard IC, that's not the case. Life takes time. You can do it, but it will be at the cost of those around you. I spent the last ~2 years working 60-80 hour weeks at Figma. At one point my boss asked me to work from my honeymoon. My life, health, and relationships suffered because of the pressure I was putting on others as a result of that.

If Google wants and expects that out of their ICs, they need to provide the same level of accomidation they do for execs, otherwise it just comes off as an exec being out of touch with the needs of every day life.

[diob]

I would disagree that it's a sweet spot for execs.

Essentially no one should be working 60 hours a week, the human mind needs breaks to unconsciously work on problems.

I would posit unless someone is doing pure labor, anything involving creativity / problem solving actually has worse returns past 30 hrs a week of intense work.

Anyone in exec positions claiming otherwise likely would hesitate to let someone actually see what they do all day / week. No doubt they "work" all day in some cases, but that day is filled with lots of non work / downtime.

[davidguetta]

your mind maybe shrugs

[bigbadfeline]

your "work" maybe shrugs

[goalieca]

I’d like to understand what you were doing at figma that was so damn important for your boss to ask this of you. I’ve used figma, it’s definitely not critical software product that people place their lives on.

[jjcm]

At the time I was a product manager looking after some of the more technically complex features (components, variables, publishing). They were worried that Extended Collections (multi-brand theming essentially) would be delayed further, which at the time was also a dependency for slide theming and themes for their prompt to design feature.

With all honesty it was the most technically complex feature I’ve ever worked on. I think my boss at the time didn’t think he could cover for me. That doesn’t mean it was a fair ask though - I had requested that time off 6mo in advance and had everything approved, it was also between thanksgiving and Christmas, the slowest time of the year. It soured me quite a bit.

[bathtub365]

Likely the value of his boss’s stock options leading up to their IPO.

[einszwei]

These are the same execs who count their flight time as working hours but refuse to do the same for their run-of-the-mill employees commute time.

[fragmede]

Unless you're the pilot, the amount of work you can do on a plane is greater than you can do if you're driving a car. Hmm... maybe that's why Google is investing all that money in Waymo.

[xingped]

If you're really short, sure, maybe. If you're taller, no fucking shot because the... human being in front of you always insists on leaning back their seat as much as possible. You try working when your laptop can only open 60°.

[fragmede]

Somehow, I doubt that's a problem Sergey Brin has to deal with on a plane.

[steve1977]

And business lunches etc.

[7e]

But Sergey Brin has never been an exec. He is someone who got really, really lucky, and then just plays around on the side.

[archagon]

What does a CEO actually do for 60 hours a week?

I seriously doubt they’re working harder than the average SWE in the trenches, even though they probably think they are.

From my vantage point, C-suite jobs are basically hired nobility.

[Mr_Hatman]

Apparently, some of them work BILLIONS of times harder than the average wagie.

[mamonster]

>What does a CEO actually do for 60 hours a week

In tech I dunno, in finance/trading the answer is pretty simple: European markets open at 9am, US closes at 10pm. There is your 12 hours with 1 hour lunch break.

[boredatoms]

It sounds like youre not helping.

Doing that amount of hours is what makes execs think they can ask that of other people too

[jjcm]

That's part of the reason why I quit :)

[disqard]

I'm so sorry to read about your experience in this thread.

I will comment, that once you left, the next person who joined won't have the benefit of your experience, allowing them to be similarly exploited... and the cycle continues.

[jjcm]

For what it's worth, overall I have a very strong net positive opinion of my time overall at Figma. It was hard, and I spent too much time working, but half of that was probably my fault as well. It's a great company, and I have great memories of my time there.

[tclover]

Capitalism sucks everything out of people, most people nowadays can’t even make friends, find a partner, have a child, just work-sleep-a little time for a hobby at best, and then they wonder how come we have a demographic catastrophe? Capitalism is just another form of slavery