Since the beginning of 2019, the value of NVIDIA shares has risen by a record 3776% due to the high demand for chips for training artificial intelligence. Among other things, this has led to the fact that the company's employees began to receive a lot of money, but also to the fact that they have little time and opportunity to spend this money. This is stated in a new report from Bloomberg, whose journalists anonymously spoke to 10 employees of the company.
NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang has reportedly set expectations of overwork with a chaotic structure. The result is that one manager can have dozens of subordinate employees. Instead of firing employees, Huang says it's better to "torture them to greatness."
A former employee from the corporate customer support team says that management expected him to work seven days a week, often until 1 or 2 a.m. According to him, employees on other teams, including engineers, worked even longer hours. He also says that even though the work environment is very pressuring, no one wants to leave because of the high salary. Despite this, he left the company in May 2024.
This employee also described work meetings as attempts to shout each other down. Another former employee, who worked in the marketing team until 2022, describes similar meetings. She says that she could attend 7 to 10 meetings a day, each attended by more than 30 people. These meetings were also filled with shouting and arguing, but she was also held in such conditions by "golden handcuffs" that allowed her to become even richer.
However, you can't get paid at NVIDIA by just sitting in a chair and pretending to work all day long. This is prevented by the company's internal policy, where even other employees may start to look down on those who are lazy. One current NVIDIA employee says that it's not socially acceptable to work from the beach and he would be ashamed to do so. Some employees even complain to Huang that others are not working to their full potential.
One of the former engineers says that during 2023-2024, NVIDIA began to see more and more wealthy employees at almost all levels. He regularly saw his colleagues casually mentioning new homes and attending sporting events with the best and most expensive tickets.
However, it is also Huang's own leadership that helps to keep employees engaged. He directly reports to 60 employees and has little time for meetings. Nevertheless, employees often send him emails listing the top 5 tasks they are working on, and sometimes he even responds with clarifying questions. He says that he encourages his employees to do their best work, and practice shows that most of them like it.