In today’s world, with social media and the internet at our fingertips, employees are more vocal than ever about their concerns and grievances in the workplace. One such case has emerged at Google, where some employees criticize the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai’s pay package during a time of cost-cutting.
The controversy has sparked a debate about executive compensation and the role of employees in expressing their opinions about their company’s management. Some workers have been sharing memes on internal systems criticizing Pichai’s pay rise during a challenging time for the company.
According to CNBC, some Google employees have been sharing memes on internal systems criticizing Pichai’s pay increase of $226 million in 2022 due to stock awards worth $218 million. One meme featured Lord Farquaad from “Shrek,” with the caption, “Sundar accepting $226 million while laying off 12k Googlers, cutting perks, and destroying morale and culture.”
Google laid off around 12,000 employees in January, around 6% of its global workforce, and has been cutting back on its famous perks since then. Pichai took “full responsibility” for the layoffs in January and acknowledged that the company had “hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”
Pichai’s pay increase has caused unrest among some Google employees who feel it is unfair, given the company’s cost-cutting measures. Although Pichai stated at the company’s all-hands meeting that executives would take a “significant reduction in their annual bonus,” some workers are still dissatisfied with the CEO’s compensation.
The situation highlights the ongoing tension between workers and executives regarding pay equity and compensation during challenging company times.