Please help with this question. Please help with this question. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Google CEO Pichai tells employees not to 'equate fun with money' in heated all-hands meeting As Google tries to navigate an unfamiliar environment of slowing growth, cost-cutting and employee dissent over cultural changes, CEO Sundar Pichai is finding himself on the defensive. At a companywide all- hands meeting this week, Pichai was faced with tough questions from employees related to cuts to travel and entertainment budgets, managing productivity, and potential layoffs, according to audio obtained by CNBC. Pichai was asked, in a question that was highly rated by staffers on Google's internal Dory system, why the company is "nickel-and-diming employees" by slashing travel and swag budgets at a time when "Google has record profits and huge cash reserves," as it did coming out of the Covid pandemic. "How do I say it?" Pichai began his measured response. "Look, 1 hope all of you are reading the news, externally. The fact that you know, we are being a bit more responsible through one of the toughest macroeconomic conditions underway in the past decade, I think it's important that as a company, we pull together to get through moments like this." The most recent all-hands meeting comes as Google parent Alphabet, Meta and other tech companies are staring into a slew of economic challenges, including a potential recession, soaring inflation, rising interest rates and tempered ad spending. Companies that, for the past decade-plus, have been known for high growth and an abundance of fun perks, are seeing what it's like on the other side. In July, Alphabet reported its second consecutive quarter of weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue, and third-quarter sales growth is expected to dip into the single digits, down from more than 40% a year earlier. Pichai admitted that it's not just the economy that's caused challenges at Google but also an expanding bureaucracy at Google. Still, he at times sounded annoyed in the meeting, and reminded staffers that, "We don't get to choose the macroeconomic conditions always." After the company's head count ballooned during the pandemic, CFO Ruth Porat said earlier this year that she expects some economic issues to persist in the near term. Google has canceled the next generation of its Pixelbook laptop and cut funding to its Area 120 in-house incubator. Google launched an effort in July called "Simplicity Sprint," which aimed to solicit ideas from its more than 174,000 employees on how to "get to better results faster" and "eliminate waste." Earlier this month, Pichai said he hoped to make the company 20% more productive while slowing hiring and investments. How to be more productive One of the top- rated questions posed by employees at this week's meeting asked Pichai to elaborate on his commentary regarding improved productivity and the 20% goal. "I think you could be a 20-person team or a 100 person team, we are going to b.

1. Please help with this question.
Please help with this question. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Google CEO Pichai tells
employees not to 'equate fun with money' in heated all-hands meeting As Google tries to
navigate an unfamiliar environment of slowing growth, cost-cutting and employee dissent over
cultural changes, CEO Sundar Pichai is finding himself on the defensive. At a companywide all-
hands meeting this week, Pichai was faced with tough questions from employees related to cuts
to travel and entertainment budgets, managing productivity, and potential layoffs, according to
audio obtained by CNBC. Pichai was asked, in a question that was highly rated by staffers on
Google's internal Dory system, why the company is "nickel-and-diming employees" by slashing
travel and swag budgets at a time when "Google has record profits and huge cash reserves," as it
did coming out of the Covid pandemic. "How do I say it?" Pichai began his measured response.
"Look, 1 hope all of you are reading the news, externally. The fact that you know, we are being a
bit more responsible through one of the toughest macroeconomic conditions underway in the
past decade, I think it's important that as a company, we pull together to get through moments
like this." The most recent all-hands meeting comes as Google parent Alphabet, Meta and other
tech companies are staring into a slew of economic challenges, including a potential recession,
soaring inflation, rising interest rates and tempered ad spending. Companies that, for the past
decade-plus, have been known for high growth and an abundance of fun perks, are seeing what
it's like on the other side.
In July, Alphabet reported its second consecutive quarter of weaker-than-expected earnings and
revenue, and third-quarter sales growth is expected to dip into the single digits, down from more
than 40% a year earlier. Pichai admitted that it's not just the economy that's caused challenges at
Google but also an expanding bureaucracy at Google. Still, he at times sounded annoyed in the
meeting, and reminded staffers that, "We don't get to choose the macroeconomic conditions
always." After the company's head count ballooned during the pandemic, CFO Ruth Porat said
earlier this year that she expects some economic issues to persist in the near term. Google has
canceled the next generation of its Pixelbook laptop and cut funding to its Area 120 in-house
incubator. Google launched an effort in July called "Simplicity Sprint," which aimed to solicit
ideas from its more than 174,000 employees on how to "get to better results faster" and
"eliminate waste." Earlier this month, Pichai said he hoped to make the company 20% more
productive while slowing hiring and investments. How to be more productive One of the top-
rated questions posed by employees at this week's meeting asked Pichai to elaborate on his
commentary regarding improved productivity and the 20% goal.

2. "I think you could be a 20-person team or a 100 person team, we are going to be constrained in
our growth in a looking-ahead basis," Pichai said. "Maybe you were planning on hiring six more
people but maybe you are going to have to do with four and how are you going to make that
happen? The answers are going to be different with different teams." Pichai said leadership is
combing through more than 7,000 responses it's received from employees regarding suggestions
from the Simplicity Sprint effort. "Sometimes we have a product launch process, which has
probably, over many years, grown more complicated than maybe it needs to be," Pichai said.
"Can we look at that process and maybe remove two steps and that'll be an example of making
something 20% more efficient? I think all of us chipping in and doing that across all levels, I
think can help the company. At our scale, there is no way we can solve that unless units of teams
of all sizes do better." Pichai also briefly acknowledged the recent employee survey, in which
employees criticized the company's growing bureaucracy. Another employee question concerned
how the company will share its plans for potential job cuts, after news leaked about the
Pixelbook pullback and the cuts at Area 120, which affected workers' "ability to focus on work."
Pichai responded by saying that telling the entire workforce of cuts is "not a scaleable way to do
it," but he said he will "try and notify the company of the more important updates."
He added that the company is "still investing in long-term projects like quantum computing," and
said that at times of uncertainty, it's important "to be smart, to be frugal, to be scrappy, to be
more efficient." Bret Hill, Google's vice president of "total rewards," fielded a question about
raises, equity and bonuses and how they will be affected by the changes. He said the company
doesn't plan to deviate from paying workers "at the top end of the market so we can be
competitive." Pichai reiterated that sentiment. "We're committed to taking care of our
employees," he said. "I think we're just working through a tough moment macroeconomically
and I think it's important we as a company align and work together." A Google spokesperson
said, "Sundar has been speaking to the company consistently over the last few months about
ways we can be more focused." The spokesperson added Pichai reinforced that company "leaders
are working to be responsible and efficient in all that their teams do" in a moment of uncertainty,
and that they're "ensuring that our people are working on the highest impact / highest priority
work." Regarding the New York visit, the spokesperson said it's a place "where we have invested
significantly and become an important and proud part of the local community.
"I do understand some of the travel restrictions at a time like this and RTO and people wanting to
see each other, definitely is not ideal," Pichai responded. "If you haven't seen your team in a
while and it'll help your work by getting together in person, I think you can do that. I think that's

3. why we are not saying no to travel, we are giving discretion to teams." Kristin Reinke, head of
Google finance, said at the meeting that sales teams will have more leeway to travel since their
jobs require meeting with customers. "We know there's a lot of value in being next to your team
but we're just asking simply to be thoughtful and limit your travel and expenses where you can,"
Reinke said. For example, she asked that employees temper their expectations for holiday
parties. "Where you have summits and big meetings, please try to do them in the office," she
said. "We definitely want people to still have fun. We know there's holiday parties coming up,
there's yearend celebrations, we still want people to do that. But we're just asking them to keep
them small, keep them informal - try not to go over the top." Towards the end of the meeting,
Pichai addressed a question about why the company has shifted from "rapidly hiring and
spending to equally aggressive cost saving." Pichai disagreed with the characterization. "I'm a bit
concerned that you think what we've done is what you would define as aggressive cost saving,"
he said. "I think it's important we don't get disconnected. You need to take a long-term
The all-hands, known as TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) was in New York, where Pichai took
questions in front of a live audience of employees. "It's an interesting choice for Sundar to be in
New York for TGIF the week after travel for employees is cut to only the most business critical,"
an employee wrote on Dory. "I'm sure Sundar has business-critical meetings in New York."
Pichai responded: "I think so. I think it qualified." Some in the audience erupted in laughter.
Pichai dodged employee questions asking about cost-cutting executive compensation. Pichai
brought in total pay last year of $6.3 million, while other top executives made more than $28
million. We shouldn't always equate fun with money' He did address the bigger theme of cost
cuts, and indicated Google's culture can still be enjoyable even if some things, like certain swag
items, are getting taken away. "I remember when Google was small and scrappy," he said. "Fun
didn't always - we shouldn't always equate fun with money. I think you can walk into a hard-
working startup and people may be having fun and it shouldn't always equate to money."
Employees wanted to know why management is asking employees to adhere to the return-
tooffice policy "while also saying no need to travel/connect in-person."
3. Identify communication approaches that the company could have employed in order to not
miss opportunities for sharing with employees.