Some Google employees aren't happy about CEO Sundar Pichai's pay packet amid the company's cost-cutting.
Several workers have been venting on internal systems, sharing memes criticizing the chief executive for receiving a pay increase during a difficult time for the company, CNBC reported.
Per the outlet, one meme showed Lord Farquaad from "Shrek," quoting his infamous line, "Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make." The accompanying text read: "Sundar accepting $226 million while laying off 12k Googlers, cutting perks, and destroying morale and culture," the report added.
Google laid off around 12,000 workers — or 6% of its global workforce — in January. At the time, Pichai said he took "full responsibility for the decisions that led us here" as the company had "hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today." Since then, the company has continued to cut back on its infamous perks.
Pichai's pay packet was boosted last year due to stock awards worth $218 million. According to court filings, the executive was paid $226 million in 2022, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the US.
Pichai is awarded shares every three years. In 2019, he was paid more than $280 million, significantly more than the $7.4 million he made in 2020 and just over $6 million he collected in 2021, per CNN.
However, at the company's all-hands meeting, he said Google executives would take a "very significant reduction in their annual bonus," as Insider previously reported.
Google declined to comment to Insider.
