Money isn’t important! Take it from Google’s multimillionaire CEO

Grab your tiniest violin: Google, as soon as recognized for its lavish work perks, is slashing its enjoyable funds. Workers can not jet off on as many jollies as they used to and are going to should dramatically cut back their Christmas events. The associated fee-cutting hasn’t gone down nicely with Google employees, who confronted the CEO, Sundar Pichai, at a latest company-wide assembly. Why was Google “nickel-and-diming” them, Pichai was requested, when the corporate “had file earnings and big money reserves”?

Pichai’s response was: “I hope all of you might be studying the information.” As a result of the information, you might have seen, isn’t nice proper now. After briefly speaking about macroeconomic circumstances, Pichai couldn’t resist moralising. “I keep in mind when Google was small and scrappy,” the multimillionaire, who earned $6.3m (£5.8m) in pay final 12 months, mentioned. “We shouldn’t at all times equate enjoyable with cash. I feel you possibly can stroll right into a hard-working startup and folks could also be having enjoyable and it shouldn’t at all times equate to cash.”

We're in the midst of a price of dwelling disaster the place persons are having to decide on between heating and consuming. The truth that a bunch of well-paid techies are having their sushi budgets decreased isn’t precisely a tragedy. Nonetheless it's onerous to not really feel infuriated by Pichai’s remarks. There's nothing extra annoying, in any case, than obscenely wealthy individuals explaining to the remainder of us that cash simply isn’t that necessary. Enjoyable doesn’t at all times equate to cash, that’s true, however it's onerous to have enjoyable when you find yourself perpetually broke. Pichai might not realise this, however lots of people world wide definitely do.

Within the UK, disposable earnings for the under-30s has fallen by greater than a fifth in contrast with this time final 12 months, for instance. Socialising has turn out to be more and more unaffordable and, in consequence, a number of younger individuals’s social lives have evaporated. I hope that Pichai has been studying the information and realises that many individuals are struggling proper now. If he doesn’t perceive why his feedback are so irritating amid a price of dwelling disaster then maybe he ought to attempt Googling it?

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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