Sergey Brin told Google staff that working 60 hours a week is the 'sweet spot' (2025)

randycupertino

> 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_

Dated August 2025

bobthepanda

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.

Moldoteck

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...

jleyank

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

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

Okay, so if Google wins AGI first, who is to say that AGI isn’t so disruptive, the government just nationalizes Google?

abbassix

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

elnatro

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-...

cynicalsecurity

Didn't he retire not so long ago?

karakoram

On topic https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48267221

mattkevan

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

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.

exabrial

I mean but AI is replacing humans, so they should be able to work less hours.

diego_moita

And he is absolutely right! If, like Brin, you're the boss and you can delegate all the unpleasant parts of work to your minions then why not work 60 hours only in the pleasant parts (including having sex with a marketing manager) and, still, cash billions?

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.

alcomatt

Modern take on slavery creeping up on us closer and closer... "Work will set you free..." - I've heard this one before, didn't end up well...

ChrisArchitect

August 2025 OP? February even. How's it working out for them? Some discussion then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43201709 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43211925

akmarinov

And they’ll be compensated more than fairly for the 60 hours, including double overtime, right? Right? This is capitalism, my dude, people don’t work at your company, because it’ll cure cancer or something, they do it for the compensation. And for those that do work there 60 h/week out of blind loyalty - you deserve the thousands of layoffs they’ve had the past years.