Google’s former CEO thinks remote work is why it’s losing ground in the AI race

Ex-Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt has opened fire on his previous employers’ work from home (WFH) policies, suggesting that they’re the reason for Google’s lax performance in the generative AI race.  

Speaking at Stanford University, the Google veteran was asked about the firm’s flagging fortunes as opposed to newer companies on the block, such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

“Google decided that work-life balance, and going home early, and working from home, was more important than winning,” Schmidt responded.

Elaborating, he compared Google’s “work-life balance” mindset to the opposing startup mindset, where employees “work like hell.” This, he claimed, is the reason why startups “work.”

Schmidt then addressed the audience, questioning whether any future business owner would realistically employ a relaxed WFH policy if they were looking to stay competitive with rivals. 

“I’m sorry to be so blunt, but the fact of the matter is, if you all leave the university and go found a company, you’re not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups,” he said.

He also drew attention to the disparity in work ethic that exists between the US and other countries. 

“I was in Taiwan, different country, different culture, and they said that – this is TSMC, who I’m very impressed with – and they have a rule that the starting PhDs … work in the factory on the basement floor,” Schmidt said.

“Can you imagine getting American physicists to do that? With PhDs? Highly unlikely,” he added. 

WFH not the “sole factor” in productivity

Contrary to what Schmidt suggests, though, productivity at work can rarely be reduced simply to office attendance, at least according to Jasmine Eskenzi, founder and CEO of wellbeing and productivity app The Zensory.

“It cannot be stressed enough that productivity is entirely dependent on the individual, informed by a multitude of other reasons, not just the sole factor of whether you are in an office,” Eskenzi told ITPro. 

Productivity differs based on the individual, and as such cannot be changed at the company-wide level through overarching or blanket office attendance measures.

“Viewing each member of staff as a unique individual with specific needs is a large part of having a productive work environment, not just whether or not someone is in the office,” she added. 

Speaking from personal experience, Ed Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of PushFar, added that he’d seen the productivity benefits from WFH in his own business. 

“I certainly believe working from home can be as productive as working from an office. We operate as a remote working business and have seen hugely positive company growth, along with maintaining excellent team relationships,” he told ITPro. 

“Ensuring productivity is maintained when employees are working from home is however crucial for business leaders,” he added. 

Google’s remote work headaches 

Schmidt’s comments come after years of WFH difficulties at Google which saw the firm butt heads with staff as it sought to implement stricter return-to-office (RTO) mandates in the post-pandemic period.  

Google faced backlash from employees when it tried to enforce RTO measures in 2021, forcing the firm to alter its approach and allow for extended measures for many employees.  

Hybrid working with three-days-a-week minimum office attendance has been the standard since 2022, though last year Google sparked controversy once again with plans to track attendance using badge data.

Other companies have had their own RTO sagas. Dell Technologies, for example, told remote workers that they could miss out on promotions unless they gave into the firm’s office attendance demands. 

Staff pushed back at Dell as well, with almost 50% reportedly ignoring threats and choosing to remain fully remote. 

A recent internal survey shed further light on the scale of discontent at the tech giant amidst the return-to-office spat, with employees noting that morale had dipped significantly.