Is it all work and no play for Google employees?
As the competition in artificial intelligence (AI) heats up, Google’s leadership is making it clear that hard work – and lots of it – is the key to staying ahead.
But with co-founder Sergey Brin pushing for longer workweeks in the office, the tech giant’s approach has sparked debate over whether working harder really leads to better results, or if it’s just another example of the hustle working culture going too far.
The government’s announcement to scrap the “Right To Switch Off” from its Employment Rights Bill could see other UK companies going down the same route. However, Startups’ unique research shows that most businesses are rooting for flexible working to improve workplace productivity.
Google’s co-founders want employees in the office 60 hours a week
Brin hit the headlines last week when he urged Google employees to work 60 hours a week in the office.
In a leaked internal memo, Brin stated that staff working on Google’s AI model, Gemini, should attend the office “at least” every weekday and that working 60 hours a week in the office is the “sweet spot” for productivity.
“A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by,” Brin wrote. “This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else.”
Brin’s latest announcement comes as Google tries to stay ahead in the AI race.
“Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to AGI is afoot,” he added. “I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.”
UK SMEs believe flexibility is key to productivity
While Brin’s push for longer hours focuses on delivering results, many UK startups believe that flexibility and a healthy work-life balance can lead to just as much success – if not more.
Our research from the Startups 100 for 2025 survey revealed that 67% of businesses believe that flexible working arrangements positively impact productivity, while only 8% say that it negatively affects productivity.
Moreover, 31% of businesses that reported feeling “extremely optimistic” about future growth also see flexible working as a major contributor to productivity, while 20% of those that aren’t optimistic believe that it has the opposite effect.
This, coupled with the fact that 52% of Brits would only consider working for a company that offered flexible working as a standard, shows an evident preference for flexibility, while rigid office mandates like Brin’s might make it harder to attract and keep top talent.
The problem with “grind culture”
Hustle and grind culture promotes the idea that relentless hard work will lead to success, but often at the expense of work-life balance, mental health and wellbeing.
This inevitably leads to stress and burnout, something that, according to a report by Mental Health UK, significantly affected 91% of adults over the last year.
So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Brin’s comments were met with mixed views. While some have praised his dedication to driving the company’s AI efforts, others have criticised his approach for encouraging overworking and a “hustle-centric mindset”.
Mental health educator Catherine Eadie wrote on LinkedIn: “What Brin is pushing isn’t productivity, it’s performance overwork. It’s a badge of honour for leadership that wants to extract more from employees without investing in better working conditions, autonomy, or genuine motivation.”
And while most UK startups support flexible work, our research also found that most businesses can’t decide if staff should have the right to disconnect after work. Specifically, more than nine out of ten of our respondents said they supported the government’s proposed Right to Switch Off (RTSO) laws, yet 39% believe that it’s necessary for employees to work beyond their contracted hours.
Albert Fong, Vice President at Kanarys, commented that it’s “strange” for Google to “push for longer hours when the very AI models they’re building might replace their jobs”.
“The irony is stark: the call for engineers to increase their workloads to help improve AI models that could replicate their work comes as generative models, trained on vast swathes of web-sourced text and code, are being leveraged by companies to automate engineering tasks,”
“In essence, they’re effectively replacing the very workers Google urges to participate.”
