Google boss is mocked by his employees for a pay rise with memes

Google CEO Pichai is compared to Shrek villain Lord Farkquaad by his own workforce.

Imagine your salary being cut or your colleague being fired while your CEO collects several million. That’s exactly what just happened at tech giant Google.

As CNBC reports, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai earned around $223 million last year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in America.

Meanwhile, Google’s monetary resources were severely cut and 12,000 employees were laid off. The reason is said to be slower sales growth in recent years. Now the employees let their frustration run free.

Memes on the Internal Google Platform

In the weeks since Pichai’s annual salary announcement was announced, internal Google platforms have filled with conversations and memes criticizing the CEO for his pay rise. (via CNBC)

Among other things, comparisons are drawn with the CEOs of other companies. For example, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, had his salary cut by 40 percent in January. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has even announced that his salary will increase 98 percent to cut back when he had to lay off 1,300 employees.

There are also less factual comparisons. For example, one employee expressed his frustration with a well-known meme of Shrek-Antagonist Lord Farkquaad Luft.

On the meme the lettering should be visible: Some of you may die but that’s a risk I’m willing to take (Some of you will die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take). According to CNBC, the Google employee writes the following:

In »Shrek«, the 2001 animated film, Lord Farquaad is the ruler of Duloc who banishes many fairytale creatures to the swamp. The picture is not the post of the said employee. But we assume that it was exactly this meme.

Much of the frustration among employees also stems from Google’s decision to buy back $70 billion worth of stock. This is a clear sign that the company actually has enough money at its disposal.

How are you doing? Do you understand the frustration of the employees? How would you have reacted to such a situation? Has something similar happened to you? What do you think of the reactions of other companies like Apple or Zoom? Is this the right way to deal with monetary problems? Let us know your opinions and experiences in the comments!