Following Google’s layoff of 12,000 employees and other cost-cutting moves, employees are reportedly expressing anger about CEO Sundar Pichai’s $226 million pay package.
“In the weeks since Pichai’s annual compensation was made public, internal Google platforms have filled with conversations and memes slamming the CEO for taking a pay bump while slashing costs elsewhere,” CNBC reported yesterday. CNBC’s report said internal memes shared by employees also criticized Google owner Alphabet’s recent authorization of a $70 billion stock repurchase program, the same amount as last year. Pichai is the CEO of both Alphabet and Google.
According to CNBC, one “popular meme showed an image of Shrek character Lord Farquaad with the text ‘Sundar accepting $226 million while laying off 12k Googlers, cutting perks, and destroying morale and culture.'” It also included the Farquaad quote, “some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”
The median Alphabet employee was paid $279,802 in 2022. Although Alphabet lists Pichai’s 2022 compensation as $226 million, most of it will vest over three years, and the amount could change. The total value is lower than the triennial award he got for the previous three-year period.
“We respect shareholders more than Googlers”
One meme with over 700 likes read, “$70 billion in buybacks shows we respect external shareholders more than Googlers,” according to CNBC. There were also reportedly memes “comparing Pichai to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who in January received over a 40 percent cut from his 2022 target total compensation.”
Cook requested a pay cut that dropped his target compensation to $49 million in 2023. In 2022, Cook’s target compensation was $84 million, but he ended up receiving $99.4 million.
CNBC said it viewed over a dozen memes shared in Google’s internal discussion forums, including one “with more than 1,200 likes [that] referred to comments from finance chief Ruth Porat, who wrote last month in a rare companywide email that the company is making ‘multi-year’ cuts to employee services.”
“Ruth’s cost savings applied to everyone… except our hardworking VPs and CEO,” the meme reportedly said. The spending cuts announced by Porat reportedly target office supplies, laptop replacements, fitness classes, snack bars, cafeterias, and more.