Confessions from employees who used to work for large tech companies have been emerging online, admitting that they collected paychecks without doing any real work. However, these confessions have not come as a surprise to industry professionals, who have been aware of the way tech companies hoarded talent from competitors during the height of the pandemic through hiring sprees. Amidst the mass layoffs in the tech industry recently, many laid-off workers have expressed similar experiences of feeling there was not enough work for them to do in their hired roles. As a result, there have been criticisms of the work culture in Silicon Valley and how it has allowed people to be employed without doing much work for companies.
See "Tech workers admit being paid to hardly work, revealing the effect of hiring sprees amongst tech companies during the pandemic", Te-Ping Chen , Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2023