60-Hour Workweek Productivity Sweet Spot: Google’s Sergey Brin to AI Staff

Sergey Brin, the co-founder of tech giant Google, has asked the company's employees to work 60 hours a week in the office in an effort to boost productivity. Brin's comments come at a time when Indian entrepreneurs and tech leaders, like Infosys' Narayana Murthy and L&T MD S. N. Subrahmanyan, have sparked debates about work hours.

“I recommend being in the office at least every weekday,” Brin told employees working on Google's AI models like Gemini. He added that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot for productivity.” His comments were first reported by The New York Times last week and have since gone viral on social media platforms.

“A number of folks work less than 60 hours, and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by. This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else,” he wrote.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin's recent memo doesn’t alter the company's existing return-to-office policy, which mandates at least three days of in-office work. This comes as companies like Amazon, AT&T, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs revert to full-time office work, citing productivity concerns.

Brin's memo also encouraged engineers to utilise AI models for coding efficiency. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has been working closely with the company's AI specialists to accelerate AI development, as it faces intense competition from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Meta, and China's DeepMind.

Brin returned to Google after ChatGPT's launch and has since been instrumental in reorganising the business, rebranding AI efforts, and rolling out AI-powered updates across popular apps.

Despite progress, Google still lags behind competitors, prompting Brin to personally file code requests and push for rapid AI innovation, including the recent expansion of Gemini 2.0 models to chatbot app users, reports say.

Meanwhile, Indian corporate leaders like Narayana Murthy and S. N. Subrahmanyan have suggested even lengthier workweeks, such as 70 or 90 hours. Capgemini India CEO Ashwin Yardi advocated for a 47.5-hour workweek with strict no to weekend emails last week at a NASSCOM event.