'Like working in pyjamas? Go work for Facebook, Google': Tech Billionaire Thomas Siebel

Thomas Siebel, a tech billionaire and CEO of AI company C3.ai has spoken out about the 'craziness' of over-hiring at companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google. Siebel is of the opinion that these companies hired employees when they didn’t really have jobs for them. 

In an interview with Insider, Siebel said that the market needs to 'clear itself out' and that it was 'weird' for these companies to go on a hiring spree during the pandemic.

Siebel, who runs the enterprise AI company C3.ai and has a net worth of $3.5 billion according to Forbes, said that many of these employees were “doing nothing working from home.” Both Meta and Google went on hiring sprees during the onset of the pandemic but have since laid off tens of thousands of workers amid fears of a recession.

Siebel claims that his company takes a more cautious approach when hiring new workers. C3.ai subjects candidates to a highly competitive interview process and filters potential hires based on whether they fit the company’s hard-driving culture. He made strong claims saying that out of 4,000 interview candidates over the last year, only 300 were hired.

Siebel joked that his company instituted a 'voluntary' work-from-office policy in 2021. Here it means that the employee will voluntarily work from offices or voluntarily look for a job elsewhere. 

He also took a jab at Google by showing a screengrab of Google Maps. He claimed the screengrab was taken on Friday, February 24 at 3:30 p.m. The image showed C3.ai’s office parking which was full while Google’s office parking space was empty.
 

Also read: ‘My entire team was eliminated,’ Indian techie shares layoff experience at Microsoft

Meta and Google Layoffs

Meta announced that it will let go of 11,000 employees late last year, which amounts to 13 per cent of the entire workforce. Google decided to let go of 12,000 employees earlier this year. These are one of the biggest rounds of layoffs impacting tech companies. Reportedly, the over-hiring spree is one of the reasons why the layoffs were put in action.