Google techie on working over weekends: 'You don't get paid for your work-life balance'

'Being on call in a FAANG company is much tougher than in startups, and the impact is bigger,' Google software engineer Anu Sharma said. (Image credit: Anu Sharma/X)

A software engineer with Google in Hyderabad, has reignited the debate on juggling personal and professional responsibilities. Anu Sharma, 22, revealed on social media that she had to work for four hours last Sunday due to a production issue and cited her experience as an example of how work-life balance is difficult while working in the top global tech companies as compared to startups.

"Spent the last four hours on a production issue on Sunday. Being on call in a FAANG company is much tougher than in startups, and the impact is bigger. Trust me, you don’t get paid for your work-life balance,’" Sharma wrote on X.

Spent last 4 hours in a production issue on Sunday. Being on call in FAANG company is much tougher than startups, and the impact is bigger. Trust me, you don't get paid for your work-life balance.
Anu Sharma (@O_Anu_O) April 27, 2025

By FAANG, she was referring to the five top tech American companies Facebook (now Meta), Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Sharma's post gathered more than two lakh views with people debating whether employees are right in demanding an adequate work-life balance or companies are fair in asking them for extra work outside the regular hours.

A section of X users recognised the pressure Sharma had to operate under on call for a leading company. "I can feel your pain. Saturday and Sunday are a pain for a software engineer. No one knows [how] a small production issue can take many hours to fix," commented Pal Sahab (@realdharm). Another X user Amandeep Singh (@Amandee9576471) said, "I can really understand your pain. I also went through a situation where I had to fix a bug in production just three hours before my client had to pitch the product to someone. I was so stressed that I started to get a headache. That day, I realised what work stress feels."

But several others disagreed with working at startups or in other non-FAANG companies being easier, with one user stating that he had to work for over 14 hours on his birthday.

"We handle oncalls every month, you might get one once in a blue moon. I work at a big product company managing 3trillion dollar funds. Worked 14+ hours on my birthday, that's just the tip of the iceberg," wrote JetLagMonk (@jetLagEngineer). "Needless comparison with startups and prod issues. And no, not all big companies want you to solve prod issues on off days," added Yash Vardhan Singh (@yash_v_s).