Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says work-from-home culture means US struggles to compete with China

[midian182]

A hot potato: If there's one person who hates today's work-from-home culture and mindset, it's Eric Schmidt. The former Google CEO has once again blamed WFH policies for US tech firms struggling in the face of China's infamously brutal "996" work system. According to Schmidt, if American companies want compete, it will require a work/life-balance sacrifice.

Schmidt, who served as Google's CEO during its early years between 2001 and 2011 and was Alphabet chairman until 2017, made his feelings on American work culture pretty clear during a conference interview published by the All-In podcast.

"If you're going to be in tech and you're going to win, you're going to have to make some tradeoffs," Schmidt said. He noted that China's work-life balance consists of the 996 system, which is working 9am to 9pm, six days per week. Although 996 was outlawed in the country in 2021, Schmidt said all Chinese tech companies still use the regime.

Schmidt claimed that working from home can be especially harmful for younger people who, despite being highly educated, have little or no experience in the workplace. He cited his early years at Sun Microsystems as an example of why this is beneficial: Schmidt said he learned a lot just by being in the office and hearing older coworkers argue in person.

"How do you re-create that in this new thing [remote work]?" he asked.

Schmidt has publicly complained about people daring to have a work-life balance in the past. Last year, he said that Google has fallen behind OpenAI and startups such as Anthropic in artificial intelligence development. The reason, Schmidt claimed, was because "Google decided that work-life balance and going home early, and working from home, was more important than winning."

Schmidt further spoke about the artificial intelligence industry during his recent podcast appearance, comparing the AI race between the US and China.

Schmidt said he had thought that the two superpowers were competing at a peer level in AI, and that the White House was doing "good work" in restricting chip exports and slowing down China's advancements. "But they're really doing something different than I thought," he added.

While many US companies are obsessed with achieving AGI – an artificial superintelligence that OpenAI's Sam Altman believes will be here by 2030 – China is more focused on developing AI for daily use, such as apps and robots. Schmidt says this is due to the country's hardware limitations and "the depth of their capital markets don't exist." The former Google CEO called the difference in priorities a concern.

Schmidt is currently CEO at aerospace manufacturer Relativity Space, where he presumably spends no time working remotely.

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Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says work-from-home culture means US struggles to compete with China

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Completely out of touch C suites are the reason the US is falling behind. So many resources are wasted on political agendas that harm both corporate profits and public trust, while enshitification of products is prioritized to squeeze out every red cent at the cost of long term sustainability.

Going for a work first, work only, sacrifice your life mindset is a necrotic band aid solution to the real problem. China has a huge issue with yes men work culture, because the Chinese culture in general seriously disincentivizes criticism for.....obvious reasons. This hampers their progress because mistakes are allowed to exist and remain uncorrected for far too long.

 

[Hexic]

Sorry Eric, but I’ve been infinitely more productive at home working than I ever was going into any of my prior employers who required in-office.

My contributions at scale are doing more for US development, while enabling personal sanity and flexibility to actually live my life, instead of “living to work”.

 

[Axeia]

See how much of the talent you keep if you demand 12 hour 6 day work weeks in person.
Allowing people to work a lot is fine, requiring it is not and many times it has been proven that productivity vs time spend by a single person is hard to quantify.
Plenty of people that get more done in a 32 hour work week then a 40 one.
Wil depend on the job and the person as well.

People that have expertise in this area also can easily find a different gig. If Google were to require everyone to come in and say OpenAI doesn't, guess where they're gonna go. Also wonder how commute times compare between the two on average. I know Shenzhen is outcompeting everything else because everything relevant to electronics is close together

 

[torvuswalds]

THIS JUST IN!
NEWSFLASH!
BREAKING NEWS!

Boomer doesn't like people working from home so he cannot micro-manage them.

 

[Dr Roboto]

So, the purpose of life is to slave for a entitled CEO that lives a lavish lifestyle, because "winning" for humanity is measured by how much profit a company makes and thus the CEO is worth. WTF. I despise corporate America so much.

 

[GeoffreyA]

 

[wiyosaya]

As I was reading this, I could not help thinking Schmidt should start a comedy routine. He would get no respect.

Or perhaps he should seek psychological treatment for Dunning-Kruger syndrome. He clearly thinks he knows what he is talking about, but anyone can tell he does not know what he is talking about.

IMO, he is a prime example of the race to the bottom in business that wants to cut costs to 0 and still expects to make a profit.

Obviously, he's yet another rich guy that thinks he knows it all. IMO, he should be ignored.

 

[OortCloud]

He's right. Work from home culture has caused a massive reduction in productivity.
At least 50% of people when they work from home take the pi55 whenever they think they can get away with it. In my experience most the people who were most keen to WFH were the ones who just were then never at their computer if you called them unexpectedly etc etc - always - oh sorry was just making a coffee or some other excuse. But the entitled culture we now live in especially amongst gen-z and beyond makes them expect so much for so little effort on their part.

 

[torvuswalds]

He's right. Work from home culture has caused a massive reduction in productivity.
At least 50% of people when they work from home take the pi55 whenever they think they can get away with it. In my experience most the people who were most keen to WFH were the ones who just were then never at their computer if you called them unexpectedly etc etc - always - oh sorry was just making a coffee or some other excuse. But the entitled culture we now live in especially amongst gen-z and beyond makes them expect so much for so little effort on their part.

If half your team were always dodging work from home, that sounds like a leadership or hiring problem, not a WFH problem. The companies that set clear expectations and measure results don’t seem to have this issue.

 

[Hexic]

If half your team were always dodging work from home, that sounds like a leadership or hiring problem, not a WFH problem. The companies that set clear expectations and measure results don’t seem to have this issue.

Exactly this. Leadership doesn’t care what I do during the day to be honest, as long as I’m hitting milestones and getting good work done.

Which should be the expectation for anyone, no matter where your work environment resides.

 

[torvuswalds]

Exactly this. Leadership doesn’t care what I do during the day to be honest, as long as I’m hitting milestones and getting good work done.

Which should be the expectation for anyone, no matter where your work environment resides.

Exactly. My company has a work from home policy, the policy requires us to keep a log of activities in the execution of contract work, they don't have any tolerance for just "dodging work" because you are required to show the measure of what work you completed.

 

[dangh]

You already lost any meaningful war with China. Not because of the last few years of WFH, just last 30+ years by paywalling any chance for kids to get a good education. You got foreign engineers to fill the education gap and tried to squish them dry as well, now, when they got work experience they are back in home countries passing it to their hard working youth. While US now is asking for tariffs money.

Jensen Huang says China is ‘nanoseconds behind’ the US in chipmaking (https://www.tomshardware.com/jensen-huang-says-china-is-nanoseconds-behind-in-chips)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warns China is ‘not behind’ in AI (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/30/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-says-china-not-behind-in-ai.html)

there is really not much more left except friendly relationship to keep the western countries together, and Trump already 'took care' about those.

Looking forward to the new Chinese / Taiwanese / Korean progress in chipmaking.

 

[lonetac]

He's right. Work from home culture has caused a massive reduction in productivity.
At least 50% of people when they work from home take the pi55 whenever they think they can get away with it. In my experience most the people who were most keen to WFH were the ones who just were then never at their computer if you called them unexpectedly etc etc - always - oh sorry was just making a coffee or some other excuse. But the entitled culture we now live in especially amongst gen-z and beyond makes them expect so much for so little effort on their part.

nah, thats just crappy management trying to keep their jobs.

My company was WFH prior to covid and embraced it fully during covid. We are still raising profits every year and its a company of 25k + employees globally and its a big one that every person here interacts with.

When you evaluate employees on objectives then its very easy to find the folks who are not delivering and take action.

If you need to stare over someone's shoulder to guarantee productivity, then you are a terrible manager with no business being in that position.

 

[yRaz]

Work from home isn't about the work, it's that if companies don't want to pay people enough to live then they need to make concessions.

Gen z's apparent lack of work ethic isn't from not wanting to work, it's that if they can't pay their bills even if they do work. I started doing commercial construction over 20 years ago and I made $10/hr as an apprentice, that was good money back then. Today, apprentices start at $23/hr and I watch them struggle to pay their bills.

What incentive is there to work if you can't pay your bills? In 2004 when I started working rent was $300/m for a two bed room in my area. You can't get studios now for less than $1500. I don't blame them for not working, late stage capitalism has ruined the economy and any desire for people to work.

I sympathize with this generation and we don't need billionaires telling us what is AMD isn't good for work culture. You want people to work? Take your billions and give it to your employees, stop catering to investors.

Growth at the cost of employees is the problem, not work from home culture

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Work from home isn't about the work, it's that if companies don't want to pay people enough to live then they need to make concessions.

Gen z's apparent lack of work ethic isn't from not wanting to work, it's that if they can't pay their bills even if they do work. I started doing commercial construction over 20 years ago and I made $10/hr as an apprentice, that was good money back then. Today, apprentices start at $23/hr and I watch them struggle to pay their bills.

What incentive is there to work if you can't pay your bills? In 2004 when I started working rent was $300/m for a two bed room in my area. You can't get studios now for less than $1500. I don't blame them for not working, late stage capitalism has ruined the economy and any desire for people to work.

I sympathize with this generation and we don't need billionaires telling us what is AMD isn't good for work culture. You want people to work? Take your billions and give it to your employees, stop catering to investors.

Growth at the cost of employees is the problem, not work from home culture

If rent is that high and construction pays that little, you either have terrible politics in your region preventing building or terrible politics like rent control that make everything worse. Neither of which are "capitalism".

 

[OortCloud]

nah, thats just crappy management trying to keep their jobs.

My company was WFH prior to covid and embraced it fully during covid. We are still raising profits every year and its a company of 25k + employees globally and its a big one that every person here interacts with.

When you evaluate employees on objectives then its very easy to find the folks who are not delivering and take action.

If you need to stare over someone's shoulder to guarantee productivity, then you are a terrible manager with no business being in that position.

I'm speaking from experience (twice). These were both profitable companies and managed very well, nobody stared over people shoulder, that's ridiculous hyperbole, in fact we had very good close-knit team that enjoyed working together. Pre work-from-home we just got much more development work done than post.

I know that's an uncomfortable truth for a lot of you, but it's a fact. I hear it time and again from other dev companies.

If you really don't believe that some employees will kick back a little, clock off a little earlier, or watch YouTube etc etc when they should be working and they are at home then you are either being extremely naïve or you are determined to try to push home the WFH agenda.

There was some application called something like mouse-mover. This stopped your PC going to sleep and so stopped apps like Teams, Slack etc showing you are offline. Sales of this went through the roof at the start of Covid...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm speaking from experience (twice). These were both profitable companies and managed very well, nobody stared over people shoulder, that's ridiculous hyperbole, in fact we had very good close-knit team that enjoyed working together. Pre work-from-home we just got much more development work done than post.

I know that's an uncomfortable truth for a lot of you, but it's a fact. I hear it time and again from other dev companies.

If you really don't believe that some employees will kick back a little, clock off a little earlier, or watch YouTube etc etc when they should be working and they are at home then you are either being extremely naïve or you are determined to try to push home the WFH agenda.

There was some application called something like mouse-mover. This stopped your PC going to sleep and so stopped apps like Teams, Slack etc showing you are offline. Sales of this went through the roof at the start of Covid...

I'm sorry you keep working in places with such ineffective management.

Your employees should be judged by work done. If you are assigned to do a task, and that task is done, then there is no problem. If tasks are not getting done, then that is on management for not being able to effectively manage their employees without nagging and micromanaging them.

 

[Burty117]

Work from home isn't about the work, it's that if companies don't want to pay people enough to live then they need to make concessions.

Gen z's apparent lack of work ethic isn't from not wanting to work, it's that if they can't pay their bills even if they do work. I started doing commercial construction over 20 years ago and I made $10/hr as an apprentice, that was good money back then. Today, apprentices start at $23/hr and I watch them struggle to pay their bills.

What incentive is there to work if you can't pay your bills? In 2004 when I started working rent was $300/m for a two bed room in my area. You can't get studios now for less than $1500. I don't blame them for not working, late stage capitalism has ruined the economy and any desire for people to work.

I sympathize with this generation and we don't need billionaires telling us what is AMD isn't good for work culture. You want people to work? Take your billions and give it to your employees, stop catering to investors.

Growth at the cost of employees is the problem, not work from home culture

If rent is that high and construction pays that little, you either have terrible politics in your region preventing building or terrible politics like rent control that make everything worse. Neither of which are "capitalism".

I have a brother who is much younger than me, this year started at University, I honestly don't know why his generation will bother working if I'm being honest.

Buying a home is a pipe dream, it just isn't really possible without a lot of luck and targeting very specific types of jobs, or doing actually nothing with your life for the first 10-15 years of work and saving every single penny, even then, I'm unsure you'd have enough for a deposit for a mortage.

Cars are also constantly getting more expensive and electric cars aren't cheaper unless you can charge at home, since you can't buy a home, instead you have to rent a 1 bed box for tens of thousands every year, you won't have a charger.

I really don't get why you'd want to work then, all you do is give the vast majority of your money to the already rich landlord, I'm talking from a UK perspective here, but here's some super quick average maths:

Before buying, the average young person spends ~£161k on rent thats average £1,343/month for 10 years.

Over that same period, with wage progression (starting low, ending at average), they’ll pay about £53k in tax & NI on average.

Rent to private landlords = 3× tax contributions.

Rent buys you a roof over your head.

Tax buys you the NHS, schools, roads, pensions, defence, policing, fire services, courts, public transport, rubbish collection, social care, libraries, parks, museums, scientific research, clean water, and welfare safety nets.

I'm not saying I like being taxed as much as I am, but there's an obvious issue with housing that absolutely nobody wants to talk about in government and when they do, they promise stuff that never materialises or is watered down to the point of being pointless.

 

[VariableSpike]

I wonder how much dear Eric has invested in real estate, especially commercial office spaces....

 

[yRaz]

If rent is that high and construction pays that little, you either have terrible politics in your region preventing building or terrible politics like rent control that make everything worse. Neither of which are "capitalism".

We actually have a stupid amount of empty properties in Pittsburgh. The problem is everyone bought property during COVID and thinks their $60k house is worth $500,000. I was lucky enough to refinance during COVID, but houses are not worth what they are asking. We literally have houses that are over 100 years old that people are asking $2000/m for. I literally build houses and see all the costs going in and out of every job. Most houses can be built for around 40k in material and another 60ish in labor depending on who is doing what. The idea that houses cost 400-500k now is ludicrous. Everyone thinks real estate investing is some money printer and it's just not.

Apartment complexes are a different story as you need to pour the foundation deep into the ground to for the central support structure. If you want to live in town in some highrise those rents are absolutely justified because the building has to "hang" off a central support structure. Building that central support structure and hanging the building off of it requires an astounding amount of engineering and expensive material cost. We're talking concrete that's 8 feet thick and multiple 18" ibeams on every floor. Units in those buildings go for around $4000/m here and that's 100% justified. But just because those new construction buildings cost several million to put doesn't mean that a 100 year old house is worth 500k. I hate hearing the whole "that's the market rate" thing, the profit margins on new housing is 400% and you can throw a house up in 2 months for under 100k. Very lucrative business but those profit margins are entirely based on COVID, 5 years ago it wasn't like this. It's at a point where people are moving to different cities because they can't afford to live here with a "regular" job. Everyone likes to talk down on McDonalds workers or Walmart employees until there is no one to stock grocery store shelves. That's the point we've reached, stores closed because no one can afford to work for them. It was all fun and games making money flipping houses until the flippers made it so there is no one to make their coffee at Starbucks or stock the shelves at the grocery store.

 

[Notmare]

Define "winning."

 

[James321]

Always big talk from people like them that don't even spend half the time in the office.

How about he spends all that time with the employees working those hours and I am not talking about having "Business" meetings all day long.

He will quickly change that tune.

 

[lonetac]

I'm speaking from experience (twice). These were both profitable companies and managed very well, nobody stared over people shoulder, that's ridiculous hyperbole, in fact we had very good close-knit team that enjoyed working together. Pre work-from-home we just got much more development work done than post.

I know that's an uncomfortable truth for a lot of you, but it's a fact. I hear it time and again from other dev companies.

If you really don't believe that some employees will kick back a little, clock off a little earlier, or watch YouTube etc etc when they should be working and they are at home then you are either being extremely naïve or you are determined to try to push home the WFH agenda.

There was some application called something like mouse-mover. This stopped your PC going to sleep and so stopped apps like Teams, Slack etc showing you are offline. Sales of this went through the roof at the start of Covid...

Middle management trys to justify their importance repeatedly by demanding wfh so they can literally stare over shoulders.

Is this true 100% of the time, no, nothing is, I thought we knew that and it wasnt something that needed to be stated.

I enjoy working with the folks I remote work with and have no desire to be in their faces every day. Your statement has no real value other than you feel that way.

Many dont feel that way.

We have a job to do, we do it. Im not paid to be your friend.

And if my productive employee takes off early, watches youtube, or naps in the middle of the day to help him be an all star, no issues. My company embraces flexible work style, not demanding you stay in front of a screen like a robot for 8 hours straight.


We have folks who take off at certain times every day for child care and various things like when I was getting PT. I didnt need to take sick time or FTO for it because my company doesnt treat us like robots. So I took off an hour in the middle of the day for something that benefits me as a human, I make up that time and show that I am providing value by completing my objectives.

Jobs are not about whip cracking, its a friendly balance of work and life. Good companies get that. No issues with someone doing anything you stated as long as they meet their objectives and are available as needed. Good companies treat employees like humans and know that when their employees support them, the employees support the business.

Ill jump for my company at any time when they need something because they let me have that in my life. It builds loyalty, two way, instead of just one side chest thumping.

We rarely have an issue. Seems like this is a hard reality for you to accept and your fact isnt a fact more so than its an opinion based on your beliefs. not reality. And when we do, we point to the lack of productivity as they get exposed quickly and it picks up nearly every time.

And that being said, WFH isnt for everyone. And neither is working in an office. Top talent dictates their work life. Companies that dont offer flexibility are severly limiting their talent pool.

Two fold actually. Because top talent doesnt accept being treated like a machine with someone whip cracking. And by forcing return to office, you limit your talent pool to who is close to your office instead of the super stars we have that are not near offices.

Anyone using those apps would be exposed immediately for lack of productivity.

 

[Rumiku]

I'm speaking from experience (twice). These were both profitable companies and managed very well, nobody stared over people shoulder, that's ridiculous hyperbole, in fact we had very good close-knit team that enjoyed working together. Pre work-from-home we just got much more development work done than post.

I know that's an uncomfortable truth for a lot of you, but it's a fact. I hear it time and again from other dev companies.

If you really don't believe that some employees will kick back a little, clock off a little earlier, or watch YouTube etc etc when they should be working and they are at home then you are either being extremely naïve or you are determined to try to push home the WFH agenda.

There was some application called something like mouse-mover. This stopped your PC going to sleep and so stopped apps like Teams, Slack etc showing you are offline. Sales of this went through the roof at the start of Covid...

All it takes is a quick stroll around any office and we can see the same slacking you accuse those who work from home, in the office.

Some folks work well without oversight; some require oversight; still others require consistent micromanaging. Study and Counter-Study show the same thing in their data: Those people who, in general, slack as far as they can get away with, will do so at home or in the office. This is nothing new.

It almost sounds like you, yourself have been burned by others general lack of productivity. This happens due strictly to (and which was already stated): Ineffective Management.

I've worked from home since 2013. My work is rewarded by doing others work. My experience is anecdotal in statement; factual en mass. Occasionally I go into the office; my work is rewarded by doing others work and also the baggage of people coming by to chit-chat, shoot the breeze, ask non-work related questions, ask if you want to go take a 2 hour lunch (sometimes including my own manager), some show dumb videos, take personal calls...easily half of anyone reading this can relate. It's just not to my cube. This was work culture well before the pandemic. It's toxic by those people who are there to perform the job they are paid to do.

Meetings are no different. And they seemingly went off the rails far faster than on a Zoom. This one, strictly anecdotally.

That does not happen at my home. I can concentrate and have been far more productive. Negatively, I tend to work more hours, not less, simply because I'm "in the zone", so to speak.

The end result: Some people crave face-to-face human interaction. Some people screw off in the office or at home. Some people take advantage of any situation. This is Human Nature on full display. And yet some people also prefer the tranquility of not dealing with slow, bloated screw-off's so they can actual be productive.

YMMV.