After a multiyear bull run during the epidemic, the tech industry in the United States appears to be cooling off, with millions of people migrating to more virtual lives. However, Bill Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has devised a strategy to breathe new life into the sector: employ Ukrainian coders as Russia’s invasion escalates. American engineers, according to the wealthy hedge fund mogul, do not work as hard.
“Tonight, I had dinner with 15 startup CEOs who decried the work ethic of young American engineers, especially when contrasted to those in emerging markets. Engineers from Ukraine could be recruited. They are gifted, hardworking, and thankful, and you will do well with them.” Monday night, Ackman tweeted.
These 15 CEOs could simply be reacting to historically tight labour market conditions. According to the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States added 428,000 jobs in April, with unemployment remaining at 3.6 percent. Corporate America continues to struggle to locate qualified employees. Workers have been able to use the demand for labour to press for better pay and benefits, or to jump across businesses more readily than in the past, during the so-called Great Resignation.
To accommodate the demand, tech companies have scrambled. Employees questioned executive leadership about the “Googlegeist,” an annual survey that collects statistics on employee satisfaction, at a Google town hall earlier this year. Employees were dissatisfied with their pay and the performance assessment procedure, according to the findings.
In the town hall, Google employees directly criticised other businesses’ labour market solutions, noting Amazon’s decision to boost its maximum base wage to $350,000 to attract and retain workers, as well as Apple’s decision to provide restricted stock unit (RSU) bonuses. Sundar Pichai, the company’s CEO, modified the biannual review process to once a year soon after, despite his firm’s directives to have workers back in offices three days a week.
