The Google Way of Life

I mentioned in my last Management Friday post that I visited the Googleplex last week in Palo Alto.  The 12,000 employee  facility boasts all kinds of utopian benefits like free high-quality, organic meals; onsite childcare; onsite medical care; terrific outdoor space; and laundry.  The question is do these perks improve family life, or make it more difficult to leave the workplace behind each day.

Although I well understand that Google’s motive is profit and keeping their human capital onsite, I think these benefits are a huge boon to workers because they are small timesavers.  Nancy Rothbard in this Knowledge @ Wharton article on Google’s perks says it best: “Worries like childcare, cooking, going to the dry cleaners and visiting the doctor off-site during the week distract employees at the workplace.”  

These benefits also eliminate distractions that take away from quality time at home with family: no dashing to make the 6:30pm daycare bell, no having to preplan lunches, no worrying that the laundry won’t get done.  All of these things allow people to spend their time at home on leisure activities, not worrying about chores.  

Not everyone sees it my way.  Digital Journal writes about the dark side of working Google here; Vincent Cheung points out that Google’s benefits are designed so that you never have to leave the campus, and that if employees took advantage of all that was offered — including gym, haircuts, pool, volleyball — they would never get any work done.  TechCrunch talks about why Google employees quit here.

But I think the great takeaway from Google’s benefit model is that work and fun don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Many of us spend eight to ten hours a day at work.  The distinction between our “work” and our ”life” is silly — work is part of life, so making it as pleasant as possible is not just about improving professional lives, but about improving lives period.

It’s unlikely that most companies will adopt the Google way of life — providing such benefits is costly, and even Google is cutting back.  Employees have criticized the recent increase in costs for onsite childcare.  (Nevermind that I pay as much for less high quality care that’s far from my workplace.) 

However, it seems to me that there is something to be gained from companies finding pieces of the Google model to emulate.  After all, research suggests that employee happiness is good for business – that’s why Google offers the perks in the first place.  

Related links:

• The folks at About.com detail the many benefits Google offers here.
• Work It Mom! on the top five things employers can do to keep working moms happy.
• Workforce.com reports on research showing benefits of onsite childcare for employers.
• ED Talk by Sergey Brin and Larry Page discussing the company’s dedication to employee happiness among other topics.