Obscene greed is alive and well at Google.
“Google CEO Sundar Pichai received a hefty pay raise last year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in America. Last week, his company announced the authorization of a $70 billion stock buyback.
Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet has been aggressively cutting costs, including the elimination of 12,000 jobs, in response to slowing revenue growth.
That confluence of events has raised the ire of Google’s workforce. 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. Some employees also criticized the share repurchase, which equaled its 2022 buyback.
SEC filings showed Pichai was paid a total of $226 million last year, mostly through a $218 million stock award, which he receives every three years. The last time he received the award, in 2019, it was for $276.6 million and total compensation was $280.6 million . . .
More than a dozen memes from employees have filled Google’s internal discussion forums, many with several hundred likes, according to posts viewed by CNBC. One meme with more than 1,200 likes 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. CNBC found cuts ranged from employee laptops and expenses to fitness classes and cafe items.
‘Ruth’s cost savings applied to everyone… except our hardworking VPS and CEO,’ the meme said.
Google didn’t provide an on-the-record comment for this story.”
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