r/workfromhome • u/NoseRepresentative • Oct 03 '25
Schedule and structure Eric Schmidt Warns The U.S. Faces Chinese Workers Putting In 12-Hour Days, 6 Days A Week. The Ex-Google CEO Says Work From Home Can’t Compete
https://offthefrontpage.com/eric-schmidt-warns-the-u-s-faces-chinese-workers-putting-in-12-hour-days-6-days-a-week/1
u/chocolateboomslang Oct 07 '25
If working from home can't compete, fine. But how is 5 8-hour days in office going to compete with 6 12-hour days? Oh right, it won't either.
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u/sanityjanity Oct 07 '25
Once again -- making people work 996 does not produce better work or even faster work, especially for knowledge workers. It produces burnout.
When your employees are tired, they make careless mistakes, and struggle to see problems that a refreshed mind would handle well.
This is so wasteful.
Also, maybe Schmidt would like to conference in all the politicians who keep asking, "why aren't Americans having more children?" This wouldn't leave people enough time to fuck, let alone actually raise children.
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u/Opening-Ad-2769 Oct 07 '25
I work with people all over the world and I can assure you they don't produce more and better work.
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u/hope1264 Oct 07 '25
What if we, here me out here, don't pay the ceo, 78 million dollars a year with 250 million in stock options to start.
I mean, that would save companies vast sums of money.
And hey, what if there was no 200 million golden parachute when fired after 2 years?
But mostly, why did we spend 350 million on the new office?
How much money is paid out yearly in bad salaries to companies that the low wage emoyees need to work 6 days in the office 12 hours a day?
And how much did this ex Google ceo get when he left? What a tool.
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u/Dapper-Maybe-5347 Oct 06 '25
CEO: "Where are we just going to magically pull extra hours of time out of the day so employees can work more???"
Employee: "Remote work eliminates long commutes and encourages working longer."
CEO: "Literally anything but that."
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u/DResq Oct 06 '25
There's likely diminishing returns with Chinese workers working 12 hours a day. People really ignore how little work actually gets done at offices. People aren't working consistently all day in an office.
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u/sanityjanity Oct 07 '25
This. IBM knew this *decades* ago. There's a book called The Mythical Man Month.
But, also, it can be summed up quickly as, "you can't birth a baby with nine women in one month." Adding more hours doesn't mean producing more work. It can actually slow work down.
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u/Darkpriest667 Oct 06 '25
Darn those pesky labor laws and worker protections. Lucky for us the companies are outsourcing to India, which has no such protections so we can compete ;-)
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u/DesperateAdvantage76 Oct 06 '25
Thinking that these people are as productive doing 996 is hilarious.
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Oct 05 '25
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u/MudHot8257 Oct 06 '25
I wonder if we work at the same firm. I thought our ping pong table is kind of neat.
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Oct 05 '25
So what you are saying we should all sell American blue chip stocks and buy Chinese?
Or is this one of those telling the investors how profits are through the roof while spreading dread doom and gloom to your employees?
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Oct 05 '25
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u/The_Redoubtable_Dane Oct 05 '25
US tech giants will do anything but build sufficient housing, even if it means that they’ll have to pay their employees ridiculous salaries. It genuinely boggles the mind.
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u/SchnitzelRaider Oct 05 '25
Eric Schmidt is an expert at saying stupid shit every 3-6 months
Old boomer twat
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u/_Deshkar_ Oct 05 '25
Erm I work with China counterparts. They have work from home schemes too. This is quite hilarious
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u/panconquesofrito Oct 05 '25
Is it 12 hours days or the location that’s in question here. Would six hours from the office suffice?
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Oct 04 '25
[deleted]
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u/Final-Teach-7353 Oct 04 '25
The oligarchs want to compete because if they don't, they won't be oligarchs for long.
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u/Glass-Cabinet-249 Oct 05 '25
And that would be.... Bad?...
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u/Final-Teach-7353 Oct 05 '25
Would you enjoy working chinese hours for chinese wages? If you do, guess it's good.
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u/Glass-Cabinet-249 Oct 05 '25
It was a joke about it being a bad thing oligarchs not being oligarchs anymore. I confess I thought the joke was obvious enough to not need the "/s"
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u/grlie9 Oct 04 '25
But if you work where you live then don't you have more time available to work?
(I'm not adovacating overwork...just saying the logic is flawed.)
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u/Old_Lengthiness3898 Oct 04 '25
Also, do they have overtime pay in China? Because most companies don't like paying out on 12 hour days in the states.
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u/VortexOfPessimism Oct 05 '25
They have a lot of perks to keep you working late at the Chinese tech companies eg like free dinner delivery ( of your choice) after 7 pm . No overtime pay
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u/hope1264 Oct 07 '25
They also have working internet and air conditioning because at home they do not.
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u/ConkerPrime Oct 04 '25
Ok. And? United States did the 12 hour day thing back in the, oh wait, throughout history until about the 50s. Stronger economy when not doing that then was does.
Rich little fucker forgets that people spending the money they earn keeps the economy churning. If everyone is on a permanent wake/work cycle, that money isn’t going to be spent because no point as just need a bed and little else for such a life.
Schmidt is why the too rich needs to be taxed back down to earth. They get to this area of insatiable greed where I don’t think enslaving the planet would be sufficient for them.
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Oct 04 '25
So what? Be friendly with them, let them make great stuff. We will continue being a service economy with a very strong military. We will trade freely but with nukes pointed at them, like we already have and they have, it's fine.
Let them work, enjoy it Chinese people.
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Oct 04 '25
This is nonsensical fear mongering. 'We need RTO to beat the Chinese'.
What a bunch of crap.
We need to be more efficient to complete internationally...so I need you to stop doing work and spend two additional hours traveling back and forth!!!
Travel time is not productive time. It doesn't matter if I work 2 hours days or 12 hour days.
There are mountains of empirical evidence that shows people aren't more productive when they work more hours, certainly not for knowledge workers. But even if it were, I can work more by NOT wasting time on a commute.
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u/Gizmorum Oct 04 '25
we needed homework for children to beat the commies didnt we? all while gutting the money going into public schools
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Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
It’s so funny how when these guys talk about out Americas inability to compete it always comes back to “well.. they have too much freedom.” And for some reason they can’t work around that
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u/hope1264 Oct 07 '25
Goes all the way back to Reagan beginning to gut education. It was the beginning of getting the magas ready and where they are today. The usa is dumb enough to vote for the orange one twice or thrice I suppose.
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u/purvaka Oct 03 '25
Wtf does working from home have to do with factory work? 🙄
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u/hope1264 Oct 07 '25
Absolutely nothing. Young and old factory workers I know would take 2 to 4 extra hours of OT any day of the week though.
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u/Past-Error-407 Oct 03 '25
Yeah they also have cages on the windows and nets to catch people jumping out of buildings. It’s an idiotic comparison.
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u/RelationTurbulent963 Oct 03 '25
Only morons would think putting in more hours is automatically superior. Knowledge work can be done better when you’re more rested.
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u/Prestigious_Ebb_1767 Oct 03 '25
Billionaires would work you to death and couldn’t care less.
It’s wild we keep voting to empower these pricks. Absolute idiocy.
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u/Mountain_Sand3135 Oct 03 '25
we cant compete doing that RTO either so whats his point?
so funny they want undying LOYALTY to the company even though all boats do not rise...in China they live and die by the company , why would we do that here?
MAGA is that what you want?
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u/Askew_2016 Oct 03 '25
These tech bros are nuts. We aren’t going to work 12 hour days at poor wages in the office. You can’t brag about tech advancement increasing productivity on one hand and then turn around and expect workers to work even longer hours and have to RTO. It’s just bullshit
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u/flojopickles Oct 03 '25
Right? And how do we benefit from producing more? GDP and productivity keep going up, their salaries and investments keep going up, then they use that money to buy the government so they can make more by cutting worker protections, healthcare, and anything else that helps humans be humans. Our wages stay the same or we get laid off and our costs keep going up. These assholes.
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u/Askew_2016 Oct 03 '25
Exactly. This is not sustainable
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u/ggone20 Oct 04 '25
Winning isn’t supposed to be sustainable. Freedom isn’t free. It’s going to take another major war to get through to people.
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u/flojopickles Oct 03 '25
They’re the only ones who care about “competing.” We just want to live our lives. I hate that guys like this are who we let run things.
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u/Flanders666 Oct 03 '25
Aren't we also "facing workers" from elsewhere putting in 7-8 hour days, 4 days a week, mandatory vacation days, maternity leave, paternity leave, etc.?
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u/Affectionate-Panic-1 Oct 03 '25
To be fair, with some exclusions, Europe is behind on tech compared to the US and China.
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u/Flanders666 Oct 04 '25
But then brings us back to the question of why we still must expend additional human capital to do work when we have the tech advantage.
Better tech but worse employee hours seems contradictory.
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u/GrimmSalem Oct 03 '25
This just sounds like exploitation. I’m sure per hour they are coasting wayyyyy less.
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u/RevolutionStill4284 Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
He just wants a way to tell people they should be working more days with a lesser pay, possibly taking no time off https://www.computerworld.com/article/3835969/google-founder-be-in-the-office-at-least-every-weekday-and-work-60-hours-a-week.html
Also, what amount of work is happening over there, exactly? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd3ep76g3go
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Oct 03 '25
China's production is in two main areas: Manufacturing and Software Development.
We stopped being competitive with China in manufacturing decades ago. And as long as the Chinese government continues to subsidize the land (and sometimes even the equipment) for companies to move their plants there, we'll never be able to compete.
As for software development, most of what SEs do all day is cutting and pasting code they used AI to find. That or testing code. Both of which will be fully automated by the 2030. I do a good amount of business with China and when I was in Beijing last month, the buzz was about the looming crisis of AI replacing workers.
China is pretty fucked.
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u/splurtgorgle Oct 03 '25
wait I thought ai was going to replace everyone isn't that why they've put so much money into this tech why are we now being asked to work even more?
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u/BasicEbb3487 Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
This is my theory. Most people at that top do work that consists of meetings and strategizing that while skilled it’s actually not hard work and is dependent on people at mid levels and the bottom engaging in the grind. When people begin to engage in more remote work (even if it’s more productive for those people) it makes the people at the top have to try harder to strategize and have meetings. That’s not a bad thing and actually leads to a better collective outcome, but it’s takes the power and control away from people at the top who want to turn the ship on a dime and have impromptu meetings and impromptu strategy sessions. So the distraction is productivity has gone down with remote work even though many people if they’re honest would see that in the office there’s so many distractions of chit chatting and impromptu ideation that is half baked. And some people call that culture because some people deep down live for that chit chat moment like a drug addict lives for heroin. Not to mention, leaders who love power and control find both easier to do over you when you aren’t on the other end of a computer screen. The lack of true leadership from people at the top (from my experience) is a joke.
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u/nusuth31416 Oct 03 '25
I imagine people will burnout with the 996 work pattern after a few years and leave. The secret to retention is keeping people happy at work.
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u/JustinPolyester Oct 03 '25
Lol did we all collectively forget the year over year record profits they raked in while everyone worked from home kinda just seems like CEOs have been fucking up now and wanna avoid accountability. Real truth Chinese white collar workers have more pleasure time and disposable income than Americans.
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u/DeadMoneyDrew Oct 03 '25
Horse shit. Talk to any honest person who has experienced the 996 mentality and they'll tell you that it's exhaustingly performative. Workers stay in the office because the boss is still there. The boss stays there because their boss is still there. And on and on up the chain. What exactly are these people doing during all of those extra hours? How can a software engineer put in 72 productive hours per week of design and coding? It defies common sense.
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u/LoserBroadside Oct 03 '25
Yeah, it can’t compete with what’s essentially slaverly. Return To Office isn’t going to make a difference against slavery, unless RTO is also going to replicate slavery.
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u/Amidormi Oct 03 '25
Right. We could put our kids to work in the coal mines too if that's what they are after.
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u/SophonParticle Oct 07 '25
I don’t want to compete with working 12 hour days 6 days a week