Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs • Hacker News Board

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#121

Post by reaperducer » Thu, May 04, 2023, 10:55 PM UTC

sbierwagen wrote: post #83

pdntspa wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me another profession that can have such a dramatic impact on the bottom line where your work makes the company 100x-1000x your salary. If anything SWE are underpaid, we should be getting a slice of total business unit revenue. With my last job doing SWE for a bank, I know for a fact that my code saved the company hundreds of thousands dollars just from one project, and I know for a fact that some of my other co…

>we should be getting a slice of total business unit revenue Start a company then. Pay is not determined by value, it's determined by leverage. The CEO pays himself the most money because he controls the company, he's not going to pay anyone lower than him more than he makes.

>we should be getting a slice of total business unit revenue

Start a company then.

Or go back in time 40 years.

It used to be very common for companies to give a portion of the yearly profits to the employees. It was called "profit sharing."

Somehow that perk evaporated in the tech industry.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#122

Post by loeg » Thu, May 04, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

gregdoesit wrote: post #11

Got to give it to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for having their cake and also eating it. They control ~51% of voting power with shares thanks to owning ~85% of class B shares. They have had the benefit of someone else running the company for 8 years - and increasing the value of it - and now, when things are not looking great, it’s Sundar Pichai who gets the blame, and the focus on his compensation: and not those who s…

How is this different from any other public company, where employees are not the majority shareholders? Like, what is special about Page and Brin?

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#123

Post by loeg » Thu, May 04, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

DamnYuppie wrote: post #105

quitit wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While all valid points, the current outrage is driven by the spiking CEO pay while making significant cut backs, this is all set against a wider landscape of belt tightening, a looming recession and the observation that CEOs are earning historically high pay ratios. Those high ratios led Apple shareholders to request a pay cut of their CEO, and that was without poor performance or firing workers.

My take on the OP’s comment was that his salary and bonuses are controlled by the board. As Sergei and Larry have majority control he would not have gotten this without their explicit approval.

> [Pichai]'s salary and bonuses are controlled by the board

That is true of any CEO pay, though.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#124

Post by cced » Thu, May 04, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

gregdoesit wrote: post #11

Got to give it to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for having their cake and also eating it. They control ~51% of voting power with shares thanks to owning ~85% of class B shares. They have had the benefit of someone else running the company for 8 years - and increasing the value of it - and now, when things are not looking great, it’s Sundar Pichai who gets the blame, and the focus on his compensation: and not those who s…

How can we account for inflation when we say market cap increased by $xB? How can we differentiate an actual increase in value as opposed to currency debasement?

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#125

Post by macromagnon » Thu, May 04, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

jimsimmons wrote: post #7

Hating capitalism is one thing. Being clueless how it works is childish. 200M over 3 years for the CEO of the most consequential tech company on the planet is peanuts. Pop artists make similar money scantily clad and squeezing autotune

If you like capitalism so much, then an artist having their income more clearly directly proportional to their output than some ceo definitely deserves a greater % of the profit.

Also, minimizing the effort it takes to become a pop artist and being prude is such a cliche.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#126

Post by electriclove » Thu, May 04, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

I disagree about putting all these things together.

The layoffs and reduction in perks were sorely needed in Big Tech given all the fat that has been milking it for years.

The CEO pay is definitely egregious and should be called out (and those at other companies should also be called out).

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#127

Post by kevstev » Thu, May 04, 2023, 11:00 PM UTC

decafninja wrote: post #52

pdntspa wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me another profession that can have such a dramatic impact on the bottom line where your work makes the company 100x-1000x your salary. If anything SWE are underpaid, we should be getting a slice of total business unit revenue. With my last job doing SWE for a bank, I know for a fact that my code saved the company hundreds of thousands dollars just from one project, and I know for a fact that some of my other co…

Well, you worked at a bank. Other than a few niche roles like algo trading, banks do not pay SWEs particularly well. Nor are they particularly well respected. You play second or third fiddle to the traders. SWEs at FAANG and other top tier tech companies are at a completely different level of compensation. I don’t think they’re underpaid.

I worked in Algo trading at a bank. Banks do not pay SWEs that work in algo trading well. I left finance to work in tech and got a 50% bump right off the bat. And I was well paid on my team- the h1s and kids out of school were not breaking 100k. I know the guy sitting in my old seat and 10 years later he is maybe getting that 50% more while I have 4xed. He works 50-60 hour weeks like I did as well and I rarely go past 45.

And this was ten years ago when this stuff was the hot thing. This myth that big banks pay anyone in tech well needs to be dispelled. I worked at a few as well and they were all the same.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#128

Post by oneng » Thu, May 04, 2023, 11:00 PM UTC

Google doesn't even respect it's shareholders, only the people who get awarded shares. Most of the share buybacks go to preventing the newly minted shares from dropping the stock price.

Apple does actually respect it's shareholders...probably because it's hard to hoodwink Berkshire Hathaway.

https://www.epsilontheory.com/stock-buybacks-and-the-monetiz...

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#129

Post by hayst4ck » Thu, May 04, 2023, 11:01 PM UTC

You can be as angry as you want, but anger isn't going to do anything.

They can "fuck around and find out" all they want because they know that they are so powerful they will never have to find out.

They know they'll never have to face a tech union or deal with laborers sitting at the big boys negotiating table.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#130

Post by lvl102 » Thu, May 04, 2023, 11:01 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #115

lvl102 wrote: post #57

In comparison, Nadella is a bit above $50M which is gross underpay considering how Ballmer left the company. Nadella has been the best CEO in the past decade. In fact, you could argue that he’s the best investment manager in the past decade since MSFT is now a giant technology conglomerate. Better than Berkshire.

Such hyperbole. Apple is superior in every financial metric. I don’t know how anyone can say this with a straight face while apple exists.

What did Tim actually accomplish though? He’s there to essentially “keep” what Apple already established under Steve Jobs. Nadella made some big decisions to completely remake Microsoft.

By the way, return (not including dividends) is about the same between AAPL and MSFT since Nadella took over on February 2014 which is simply amazing if you think about the differences between the two companies.