HIGHLIGHTS

Meta has cancelled extra vacation days for workers.

Google CEO believes that productivity is missing in the company.
Pichai and Zuckerberg have also frozen hiring for the rest of the year.
It seems that good times are ending in Silicon Valley. In the last two weeks, two
of the most powerful tech CEOs -- Mark Zuckerberg at Meta (formerly Facebook) and
Sundar Pichai at Google -- have highlighted that tech companies probably have way
too many employees, so many that there are people in these companies who are not
working and are just chilling. While Pichai said this in a subtle way, by bringing
a point about low productivity per employee at the company, Zuckerberg was direct
and blunt. He said recently, there are a "bunch of people at the company who
shouldn't be here."

The comments from Pichai and Zuckerberg come at a time when Silicon Valley
companies are tightening their purse. And it came during Pichai and Zuckerberg's
interaction with their employees, suggesting that their comments are a warning to
employees who are probably too focussed on taking it easy.

The comments are also likely a hint that the tide is turning in Silicon Valley.
Tech companies are well-known for pampering and showering love on their employees,
something that makes Google, Facebook and other big tech companies one of the best
places to work. But it seems that freebies might come to an end soon.

The first wave of shock came from Zuckerberg last month when he reportedly decided
to cancel extra vacation days for employees introduced during the peak pandemic. He
even went ahead to say during his June 30 internal call (via The Verge) that there
are a "bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here". It is also reported
that he's "okay" if workers think they don't belong at Meta.

"And part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and
just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might
just say that this place isn't for you. And that self-selection is okay with me,"
he added.

A few days later, Google CEO Sundar Pichai indirectly echoed Zuckerberg's
sentiments during a meeting with workers. He believes that productivity is missing,
and it is not where it should be considering the number of people Google has.

Pichai added, "There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not
where it needs to be for the head count we have. [We need to] cr