'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm (business-standard.com)

Article summary

The article discusses comments from CEOs Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg regarding low employee productivity, with some suggesting that the issue lies with management rather than employees. The comments imply that there may be a disconnect between what gets employees promoted and what is good for the business. The article's content is not available, but the discussion reveals concerns about management's role in addressing productivity issues. The comments also touch on the challenges of working at large tech companies like Google and Meta.

Main themes

• CEO accountability
• management incentives
• employee productivity
• company culture
• remote work
• performance measurement

What commenters say

• Some argue that the CEOs are being dishonest in blaming employees for low productivity, and that the issue lies with management's decisions and incentives.
• Others believe that the culture at companies like Google allows employees to be unproductive, and that this is a result of poor management.
• The proliferation of failed projects, such as multiple messaging apps, is seen as a sign of poor management and a lack of focus.
• Some commenters think that the CEOs' comments are a pretext for upcoming layoffs, particularly of remote workers.
• There is a perceived lack of direction and focus at companies like Google, which can lead to a lack of accountability and poor decision-making.
• The difficulty of measuring employee performance, especially in software engineering, is cited as a challenge for managers.
• Some argue that managers are incompetent if they cannot distinguish between productive and unproductive employees, even in a remote work setting.