Antonio MomocAny person on Earth that uses internet, search engines, email, blogs, social media, or any other tool from the 2.0 era should have the right to visit Google Headquarters at least once in his/her life. People like me, who are very involved in social media studies, consider Googleplex the Mecca of the internet users.
Last month, we – all the SUSI scholars from 16 countries (Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Ukraine, Zambia and Zimbabwe) – had a once in a lifetime opportunity within our program at the Ohio University, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism: to visit the googelers and to discover life at Google from inside out.
The Google Headquarters is situated in California, in a place beyond the mist of Silicon Valley, not very far from San Francisco or Stanford University. More than 11.000 employees are living their daily lives and are enjoying their unique job in Googleplex. Their original work style makes them most probably the happiest employees in the US or even in the entire world.
The work conditions that Sergei Brin and Larry Page created for each of their employees are unimaginable in countries like the ones from which we, the SUSI scholars, come from. The managers have thought of everything: from lunch to free time during pauses. One of the most important values of the company is to create a fun environment for its employees. Lunch is a very social thing, so each employee from a different culture has lunch in Googleplex and meets his/her colleagues. Everyone can bring their dog at the workplace; anybody is free to play if they feel like it: there is a climbing wall, several bowling rooms, pool billiard tables, and seven gyms – in short, a fun place to be and to work for cool stuff. You get the best ideas when you are hiking, playing volleyball or relaxing. So this is the reason why everyone at Google has 20% free time: you can work on your idea, to finish your own projects, and this might actually generate new Google products.
Anything one could wish is found at the Googleplex: free food, free coffee, and free soft drinks. The company provides food 24/7. The management encourages employees to eat healthy, to enjoy fish or salads: only last year, Google employees ate 3 million bananas. The most popular food here is Indian food, because of the many Indians who are working at Google. But also Asian, Mexican, Japanese and Italian food is popular among Google employees. Working 24/7 will make you useless, so that is why the engineers are free to chose the time table when they come to work: some are coming from 6:00 to 14:00, others prefer from 10:00 to 18:00. They can always work from home, from their local office, and are not obliged to come to the office. What other company would do that?
Almost none, at least in the US. According to Business Insider, “one of the big reasons the US economy is so lousy is that big American companies are hoarding cash and maximizing profits instead of investing in their people and future projects… unfortunately, over the past three decades, what began as a healthy and necessary effort to make US companies more efficient has evolved into a warped consensus that the only value that companies create is financial (cash) and that the only thing managers and owners should ever worry about is making more of it. This view is an insult to anyone who has ever dreamed of having a job that is about more than money. And it is a short-sighted and destructive view of capitalism, an economic system that sustains not just this country, but most countries in the world.”
This is not the case at Google. The Google employees do not have this kind of issues to worry about. In fact, this could be the main reason why so many Americans would love to work for Google. Because this company is not only the place to work for your own projects, or to have fun, or to eat for free, but it is also a way of living the American dream: work hard, earn a lot of money, and be part of something that is changing the world.