"ExGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt warns U.S. tech workers: Competing with China's grueling 12-hour workdays means sacrificing work-life balance."

"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. "Remember, we're up against the Chinese; the Chinese work-life balance consists of 996, which is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week."

"Many twentysomethings, raised on the Zuckerberg-inspired hustle culture made famous in the film The Social Network, happily swear off work-life balance for startup success, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month."

https://fortune.com/2025/09/25/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-work-life-balance-remote-work-996/

My thoughts:

• For America to thrive, its companies must compete and win on the world market.
• AI is one tech area where we are currently ahead of the rest of the world, but China is catching up fast.
• Robots (where China currently leads the US) is our best hope for a turnaround in manufacturing. But automation will limit the benefits in terms of employment, even if we do catch up.
• US "tech workers" may not need to work as many hours as Chinese, but if they are going to stay employed, eventually 40 hours per week may not cut it.

In B4:

Yes, I know this is an ex-CEO, with a financial stake in squeezing every drop of blood out of workers.

But that doesn't mean he is wrong, nor that the US can retain these jobs if our workers are much less productive than others.

Quote:

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eventually 40 hours per week may not cut it

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Funny, it never cut it with my old man either, and that was 40 years ago!

I consider myself to be a hard worker and have put in many 40+ hours/week in my life, but I'm still amazed how that man could tell me 'Son, hold my beer. I'll show you hard work.'

Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

Apollo79 said:

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Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

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I don't. They're not on the factory line, but the hours are long, business travel is exhausting, and the lifestyle is pretty brutal.

I reported to the CEO in my last assignment before retiring. He was fond of 7:00 meetings (in NYC), and had some sort of "function" in the evenings he had to attend at least two or three nights a week. I wanted to make his kind of money, but sure didn't want to live his ind of life.

We shouldn't necessarily have to match up hours against the product of a near slave tyranny. Maybe part of the answer is to dump Bush41's over-broad interpretation of free trade that collapsed so much here. Like them or not the tariffs seems to be an attempt in that direction though that is less clear.

Apollo79 said:

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Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

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The CEOs in the last several large companies I worked at probably worked 80+ hr weeks with TONS of travel globally.

This was in the aerospace and defense industry...

Counterpoint: how productive is your random Chinese peasant being forced to work out of fear the so called 9/9/6?

And even if the peasant is productive, you think he's content? Happy at all? Doubt it.

I can promise you the quality and prodoarent there with those hours. They may be present but after a while they will be wasting resources

Apollo79 said:

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Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

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The idea being that once you become a CEO, you don't have to.

OR

hear me out on this one we quit giving the world access to our developments and or allow the chinese to steal them. no life and all work is not necessary when you have a competitive advantage. our dear leaders have sold us out and given that away to line their pockets. we are competing with china a country that was a century behind us 25 years ago. how did that happen ?

BenFiasco14 said:

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Counterpoint: how productive is your random Chinese peasant being forced to work out of fear the so called 9/9/6?

And even if the peasant is productive, you think he's content? Happy at all? Doubt it.

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I agree completely, the Chinese dude/dudette will do almost anything to keep a "good" job.

I would say as far as happiness: most are very happy. Their lives are markedly better than their parents' and immeasurably better than their grandparents' (economically) and much better socially since "one child, etc." bit the dust.

Not sure why you would think differently?

Is his/her life as good as in the US? No.

And I don't think it is a zero-sum game, but I believe a necessary condition to keep the US ahead of China: is to stay competitive.

So AI isn't going to increase productivity?

TexAgs91 said:

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So AI isn't going to increase productivity?

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It has for this current software engineer.

I have regularly worked 40+ hour weeks throughout my career, but in the last year or so as I have been integrating AI processes more and more into my daily work, I have noted an uptick in my own productivity.

Ribeye-Rare said:

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Quote:

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eventually 40 hours per week may not cut it

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Funny, it never cut it with my old man either, and that was 40 years ago!

I consider myself to be a hard worker and have put in many 40+ hours/week in my life, but I'm still amazed how that man could tell me 'Son, hold my beer. I'll show you hard work.'

---

If a CEO is still believes that 40 hours a week is still relevant, then that CEO should be let go. For most of us we work until a particular job or project is complete. It may take 40 hours/week or it may take less.

Eric Schmidt seems a bit far removed from the day of an IC tech worker in 2025. If you're not lazy AF you're doing it wrong. Chinese culture may have them working like a sweatshop but that's not necessarily putting out superior product.

China is assho

Quote:

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Chinese work-life balance consists of 996, which is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week

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Sounds like a recipe for mistakes and sub-par, shoddy work. Basically what we have come to expect from China.

Ag with kids said:

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Apollo79 said:

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Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

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The CEOs in the last several large companies I worked at probably worked 80+ hr weeks with TONS of travel globally.

This was in the aerospace and defense industry...

---

Oh nice hotels , first class, fancy dinners poor babies

one safe place said:

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Apollo79 said:

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Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

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The idea being that once you become a CEO, you don't have to.

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I don't think so it's kinda like a good ole boys you get moved up the ranks pretty quickly, then you get a ridiculous golden parachute when you need to go find yourself

Quote:

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If a CEO is still believes that 40 hours a week is still relevant, then that CEO should be let go. For most of us we work until a particular job or project is complete. It may take 40 hours/week or it may take less.

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Dad wouldn't last 5 minutes as a CEO for someone else. From his 30's on, he ran businesses he controlled. He thrived on it and it gave him plenty of joy. For him, work was never 'done.' There was always another mountain somewhere. It's hard for most to understand, but work was his hobby, and he did his best to involve his family in his work, although some weren't interested.

He passed at age 80, and was working until 2 weeks prior to that. I think it kept him alive longer than some of his friends who had retired in their 60's and found out retirement wasn't that great after all. Some of those guys deteriorated so rapidly mentally that it shocked me.

If retirement from work is a man's primary goal, I think he needs to think long and hard about how he going to spend it.

YMMV, and of course I appreciate that. And, if a guy is working for someone else and doesn't really enjoy his job but does it to put food on the table for his family and give them the things they need, I can see your point: Go in, get the job done quickly, and get out.

Cromagnum said:

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China is assho

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Very true.

And our number 1 competitor. Military/Social/Economic.

At least until they become "super-aged" due to one-child policy and declining birth rate.

2025 about 15% are elderly
2050 25% elderly
2065 35% - 40% elderly

One of the risks China poses is non-orderly collapse/ or aggression due to this.

Their "pension funds" are woefully underfunded, like our's.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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TexAgs91 said:

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So AI isn't going to increase productivity?

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It has for this current software engineer.

I have regularly worked 40+ hour weeks throughout my career, but in the last year or so as I have been integrating AI processes more and more into my daily work, I have noted an uptick in my own productivity.

---

It has for most coders. This retired coder as well.

But it increases productivity for all nations' coders. Which is one reason why China is putting so much effort into catching up and passing "US" AI.

Apollo79 said:

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Ag with kids said:

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Apollo79 said:

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Do the CEO's do that schedule too? Somehow, I doubt it.

---

The CEOs in the last several large companies I worked at probably worked 80+ hr weeks with TONS of travel globally.

This was in the aerospace and defense industry...

---

Oh nice hotels , first class, fancy dinners poor babies

---

A trip that includes Europe, the Middle East, and multiple countries in Asia all in one, with no time to adjust to the time zone, might not be as fun as you think it is.

I know the CEO at my last company did that a number of times.

Now, I'm sure he did the nice hotels, and business class, and fancy dinners, though. Hell, even I traveled business class and stayed in nice hotels if I went overseas. But, that was with the marketing team - money grows on trees for them. Traveling for engineering was not as extravagant.

Typical out of touch CEO talk.

Nobody wants their entire life to be work, nor should they. I'm supposed to miss time with my family and lose my sanity and health because these spoiled brat CEOs want the same level of production as near slave labor in China? Absolutely not, and I'm very productive at my job. Thankfully I'm not in tech. It sounds miserable.

At a certain point, these executives need a reality check.

Expecting those kind of work hours from the bulk of your workforce is a good way to kill off a civilization in the long term. Little time for people to meet, make families, and then raise them. Especially if women are encouraged to or desire to work at that level.

This is in full swing in Korea and Japan. With this work culture growing in China added with the effects of the former one child policy, the next few decades are probably going to be pretty bleak for them.

If entrepreneurs want to dedicate themselves to work, that's great. As a society we need people that are that dedicated and risk seeking to push advancement. However we also need a larger number of people that want to provide and tend to their families.

996? You Gotta Pump Those Numbers Up, Those Are Rookie Numbers. Let's go for 24/7 if we want to win.

Over_ed said:

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"ExGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt warns U.S. tech workers: Competing with China's grueling 12-hour workdays means sacrificing work-life balance."

"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. "Remember, we're up against the Chinese; the Chinese work-life balance consists of 996, which is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week."

"Many twentysomethings, raised on the Zuckerberg-inspired hustle culture made famous in the film The Social Network, happily swear off work-life balance for startup success, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month."

https://fortune.com/2025/09/25/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-work-life-balance-remote-work-996/

My thoughts:

• For America to thrive, its companies must compete and win on the world market.
• AI is one tech area where we are currently ahead of the rest of the world, but China is catching up fast.
• Robots (where China currently leads the US) is our best hope for a turnaround in manufacturing. But automation will limit the benefits in terms of employment, even if we do catch up.
• US "tech workers" may not need to work as many hours as Chinese, but if they are going to stay employed, eventually 40 hours per week may not cut it.

In B4:

Yes, I know this is an ex-CEO, with a financial stake in squeezing every drop of blood out of workers.

But that doesn't mean he is wrong, nor that the US can retain these jobs if our workers are much less productive than others.

---

This depends on what he means by coding. Simply writing code based on specifications is a commodity and one that is increasingly replaced by AI. However, coming up with new ideas and developing the tech to implement them is valuable.

Basically don't work for big tech (at least beyond getting some experience). You are doing the equivalent to pulling levers in a factory 50 years ago. Start your own business, develop your own ideas, and live your own life.

CEO's of most legitimate (100+ employee companies) are likely working or strategizing about work 70+ hours a week. They are brought into the worse of the situations as most things hit their desk as a last resort.

I was on a Chinese 996 product team at Meta. I've lived this firsthand.

It's a mistake, and an egregious one, to think this working style is in any way related to productivity in innovative environments. These teams were mediocre, political, back-stabby ****holes filled with people who worked around the clock at it. The vast majority of the time 9-5 was spent in damn near worthless meetings, maintaining optics and visibility for political purposes. Actual IC work was done sort of 5-12 most weekdays and on weekends.

Think of all the amazing innovations these H1B employers that have imported this crap culture have generated. They've all stagnated. The iphone is as stable as products get, Siri is ass, VR is dead, the Metaverse is now a novelty product sold at Sunglass Hut, etc. The only real projects this work culture works for are manufacturing and perhaps systems integration - which is why you see something similar succeeding so well at the Elon companies. I think he's also doing better with it at the actual novel work (AI etc) strictly due to his removal of anything performative from the workplace, a problem the Chinese really have with their face culture that usually accompanies the 996 stuff.

996 is Chinese garbage that mostly works if you're copying something else and trying to manufacture in volume. It will be somewhat rare to see something actually innovative from those companies. We knew this **** 30+ years ago back when Peopleware was published, shortsighted VC and investor greed is the only reason it's been forgotten.

If the 9/9/6 work schedule is what it takes to win, I'm good with finishing second and enjoying life.

SanDiegoAg12 said:

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CEO's of most legitimate (100+ employee companies) are likely working or strategizing about work 70+ hours a week. They are brought into the worse of the situations as most things hit their desk as a last resort.

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not even close CEO's i know have a few right-hand men doing that type of analysis work for them, most CEO's times is spent in meetings with BOD and interfacing with investors etc, etc, market

Waffledynamics said:

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Typical out of touch CEO talk.

Nobody wants their entire life to be work, nor should they. I'm supposed to miss time with my family and lose my sanity and health because these spoiled brat CEOs want the same level of production as near slave labor in China? Absolutely not, and I'm very productive at my job. Thankfully I'm not in tech. It sounds miserable.

At a certain point, these executives need a reality check.

---

yep and CEOs "work" iare meeting, fancy dinners, etc, etc. I work for a huge a company they just had layoffs meanwhile the CEO is cashing in on his stock options making **** ton of money, then they have the nerve at townhall meetings to talk about family and how we all work together save me that bs

Apollo79 said:

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Waffledynamics said:

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Typical out of touch CEO talk.

Nobody wants their entire life to be work, nor should they. I'm supposed to miss time with my family and lose my sanity and health because these spoiled brat CEOs want the same level of production as near slave labor in China? Absolutely not, and I'm very productive at my job. Thankfully I'm not in tech. It sounds miserable.

At a certain point, these executives need a reality check.

---

yep and CEOs "work" iare meeting, fancy dinners, etc, etc. I work for a huge a company they just had layoffs meanwhile the CEO is cashing in on his stock options making **** ton of money, then they have the nerve at townhall meetings to talk about family and how we all work together save me that bs

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Lol, mods gave me a 3 day ban for using this meme.

Dan Carlin said:

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Lol, mods gave me a 3 day ban for using this meme.

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I'm sure this rancorous anti capitalist will report me too.