Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has since moved on to greener and more dangerous pastures, recently told Stanford University students that “Google has decided that work-life balance and being able to leave work early and work from home are more important than winning.” Apparently, the heated comments didn’t go viral. Stanford posted the video to YouTube this week, but today made the event’s video private.
It wouldn’t be surprising if it was at the behest of Talent. “I made a mistake about Google and their working hours,” Schmidt said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. “I regret my mistake.”
Several newspapers have already run headlines about the video, and Schmidt’s video criticizing Google’s remote work practices at X has been viewed by 1.4 million people.
In another part of the video, Schmidt tells the audience to keep what he says a secret, then pretends to be somewhat surprised when the interviewer points to the camera in the room. In another part, he tells the audience that AI startups can steal IP and later hire a smart lawyer to clean it up after they have a successful product. Perhaps the former Google CEO didn’t know that the entire interview would be posted online.
