Google Techie Sparks Debate On Work-Life Balance: "Don't Get Paid..."
The conversation around work-life balance refuses to die down, especially in the tech world. Recently, a Google software engineer reignited the debate with a candid post on X after she spent four hours resolving a production issue on a Sunday.
Anu Sharma, who often shares updates about her work at Google, said that being on-call at a big tech company is tougher than working at a startup, adding that the impact of issues is far greater. She ended her post on a blunt note: "Trust me, you don't get paid for your work-life balance."
"Spent last 4 hours in a production issue on Sunday. Being on call in FAANG company is much tougher than startups, and the impact is bigger. Trust me, you don't get paid for your work-life balance," Ms Sharma wrote on April 27.
In the tech industry, being "on call" refers to engineers being available to tackle urgent problems outside regular working hours. FAANG is an acronym for five major American tech giants: Facebook (now Meta), Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google.
See the post here:
Her post quickly went viral, sparking a heated discussion online. While some users accused her of looking down on startups, others said her remarks highlighted the broader issue of unrealistic expectations from tech employees.
A user wrote, "You get paid more than 40 LPA + working at Google. Don't cry for on-call. You work under AC, not in heat. There are labourers and other delivery PPL working. If the company pays you that much, they expect you to do some work, not just make a day-in-the-life vlog eating."
"So tough... I handled an on-call incident once... look at me.. I'm so much better than those startup peasants. That's how I read it. I hope I'm wrong," another user wrote.
"Work-life balance in IT doesn't mean 9 hours working. You need to zoom out a little, and you will feel that it does offer work-life balance, but don't compare it with government jobs," the third user wrote.
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