A serious question about Google

[JJChicken]

Hopefully the vast knowledge contained by ATOTers can help me on this. I'm doing a group assignment on how to effectively design work teams, job roles and organisational culture and we have choosen the all mighty Google Inc. to be our case in point.

Has anyone worked at google or knows somebody that works at google? If you provide some input on whether you had job satisfaction, what you thought about the company's culture and why you enjoy/don't enjoy working there, that would be great. Alternatively, if you could shoot off an e-mail to any google workers you know to answer these questions that would be great as well.

Thanks :beer:

Edit: Also, if don't work there and want to work there, why do you want to work there?

 

[gamepad]

pcslookout

 

[rival]

i wish i worked at google, that would be great

 

[Eeezee]

I hear they hire really good chefs to work at the Google buildings so that their employees can have good food. I wish all companies did this... cooking is an art.

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: gamepad
pcslookout

Maybe I should shoot him a PM :laugh:

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
I hear they hire really good chefs to work at the Google buildings so that their employees can have good food. I wish all companies did this... cooking is an art.

So far with my group's research, we've found out that Google lets each employee have 20% of their working time devoted to whatever project pleases their minds. Also, they have fooseball tables! They also test all their products (e.g. gmail) in house with all their employees before releasing it to the public.

 

[Epic Fail]

google works for me.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama

Originally posted by: gamepad
pcslookout

Maybe I should shoot him a PM :laugh:

He is a janitor.

 

[hellokeith]

I'll give you the little I know from friends' occupational interactions with Google:

1) They outsource *almost everything*. So it's kinda hard to describe company culture when, for example, your whole Accounts Payable / Accounts Receiveable department is actually at IBM.

2) IT at Google is a monsterous 16-headed beast with people working on all kinds of platforms/OS's/environments.. and they don't necessarily communicate effectively between those groups.

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: hellokeith
I'll give you the little I know from friends' occupational interactions with Google:

1) They outsource *almost everything*. So it's kinda hard to describe company culture when, for example, your whole Accounts Payable / Accounts Receiveable department is actually at IBM.

2) IT at Google is a monsterous 16-headed beast with people working on all kinds of platforms/OS's/environments.. and they don't necessarily communicate effectively between those groups.

a company that size doesnt have its own AP/AR dept??? I call shens

 

[Fenixgoon]

yeah, a friend of mine at college worked there for 6 months

 

[ultimatebob]

Ya know... I'd love to hear some BAD things about working at Google. Their PR team makes sure that everyone knows about those gourmet lunches and 20% free development time, but every job has a bad side to it... right?

 

[zoiks]

I have a few friends that work there. The recruiter there also recently contacted me for a position but I'm not ready yet to leave the company I'm working for.

 

[troytime]

my workplace has a google-like environment, its great

i also know several google employees. I'll email them with a link to this topic

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: troytime
my workplace has a google-like environment, its great

i also know several google employees. I'll email them with a link to this topic

Thanks!

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: z0mb13

Originally posted by: hellokeith
I'll give you the little I know from friends' occupational interactions with Google:

1) They outsource *almost everything*. So it's kinda hard to describe company culture when, for example, your whole Accounts Payable / Accounts Receiveable department is actually at IBM.

2) IT at Google is a monsterous 16-headed beast with people working on all kinds of platforms/OS's/environments.. and they don't necessarily communicate effectively between those groups.

a company that size doesnt have its own AP/AR dept??? I call shens

I thought alot of companies are outsourcing AP/AR these days. At the firm I work, AP/AR is in a completely separate building to everything else.

 

[chiwawa626]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
So far with my group's research, we've found out that Google lets each employee have 20% of their working time devoted to whatever project pleases their minds. Also, they have fooseball tables! They also test all their products (e.g. gmail) in house with all their employees before releasing it to the public.

From what I've heard the 20% time bit is a little overstated by Google PR. Your project has to be related to improving an existing Google product (usually the one you work on) and must be management approved. That doesn't really sound like "your time" since you are really just doing your job. The other bit I usually hear is that Google already works you hard enough that you rarely find that 20% to put into the project. Besides, if you only get to work on what YOU want to work on 20% of the time, you should find a new job

Also the idea of testing all your products in house with your own employees is done at most companies, its more like an internal beta than anything. It is referred to as "Eating one's own dog food" or "Dogfooding" and commonly credited to Microsoft.

I suggest you scrub Google's "culture" of its PR spin and then take a look at why its effective.
* Free food on campus keeps lunch down to 40 min rather than employees going out and blowing 1.5hrs somewhere else for lunch.
* Free dinner starting at 7pm keeps your employees there into the night
* On-site dentist (rumor or true?) keeps your employee from having to waste the first half of their day going to the dentist, instead they sit productively on their Aeron chair until the dentist is ready to see them.

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: chiwawa626

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
So far with my group's research, we've found out that Google lets each employee have 20% of their working time devoted to whatever project pleases their minds. Also, they have fooseball tables! They also test all their products (e.g. gmail) in house with all their employees before releasing it to the public.

From what I've heard the 20% time bit is a little overstated by Google PR. Your project has to be related to improving an existing Google product (usually the one you work on) and must be management approved. That doesn't really sound like "your time" since you are really just doing your job. The other bit I usually hear is that Google already works you hard enough that you rarely find that 20% to put into the project. Besides, if you only get to work on what YOU want to work on 20% of the time, you should find a new job

Also the idea of testing all your products in house with your own employees is done at most companies, its more like an internal beta than anything. It is referred to as "Eating one's own dog food" or "Dogfooding" and commonly credited to Microsoft.

I suggest you scrub Google's "culture" of its PR spin and then take a look at why its effective.
* Free food on campus keeps lunch down to 40 min rather than employees going out and blowing 1.5hrs somewhere else for lunch.
* Free dinner starting at 7pm keeps your employees there into the night
* On-site dentist (rumor or true?) keeps your employee from having to waste the first half of their day going to the dentist, instead they sit productively on their Aeron chair until the dentist is ready to see them.

Thanks for the different perspective, will probably incorporate that as well into our presentation. We're looking at comparing google to microsoft and yahoo! (moreso MS). Google is slowly becomign bureaucratic if anyone notices. It's no longer the david, its the goalith.

Thanks for the info guys, keep it coming!!

 

[knawlejj]

I'm actually interested in this as well as I'm writing a report for my Management class over Google. Some type of organizational layout would be awesome!

 

[Gibson486]

Places have great cultures for a reason: to keep you there.

Free dinner? You probably have to stay past 6 to get it.

Game room? Sress reflief? No, it keeps you relaxed so you may want to stay at work.

Laundry? So you do work while you wait for your clothes.

Yes, it seems awsome, but it's awesome because they want to keep you there.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
Places have great cultures for a reason: to keep you there.

Free dinner? You probably have to stay past 6 to get it.

Game room? Sress reflief? No, it keeps you relaxed so you may want to stay at work.

Laundry? So you do work while you wait for your clothes.

Yes, it seems awsome, but it's awesome because they want to keep you there.

Yeah, I've had freinds of friends work there and from what I get the impression is that people more or less LIVE at Google like 12 hours a day maybe even 6-7 days a week, It might not be required, but they deffinitely draw you in towards that. I mean there is nothing wrong with that, its the perfect job for some, but its like Google IS your life. Which again is fine since most people there are all uber nerds and probably have no lives anyways .

EDIT: i mean I'm sure even as we bash Google here most of us would go there in a heartbeat if they had offered us a job . I know I have no life anyways, so why not have no life all at the same place I work and and their dime?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama

Originally posted by: gamepad
pcslookout

Maybe I should shoot him

Interesting decision.

 

[thomsbrain]

I had a roommate who got a temp job there in their recruiting department. They picked him up in one of those limousine buses every morning and drove him the 45 minutes to and from work every day. He got free fillet mignon and crab for lunch. He got to choose whether he wanted a Mac or a PC laptop. They had on-site dentists, doctors, and laundry services. He said his co-workers were nice and there were a lot of pretty young women who worked in his department. They have all these bicycles lying around that anyone can just pick up and ride from building to building. Last I heard, he was really enjoying working there, but I don't know if it ever turned into a normal gig or if they let him go at the end of his temp window.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
Places have great cultures for a reason: to keep you there.

Free dinner? You probably have to stay past 6 to get it.

Game room? Sress reflief? No, it keeps you relaxed so you may want to stay at work.

Laundry? So you do work while you wait for your clothes.

Yes, it seems awsome, but it's awesome because they want to keep you there.

So if you lived there, you wouldn't be paying rent, wouldn't have a commute, and would get free food and free laundry.

Hrmm... If you had limited social life outside of work, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad deal.

 

[troytime]

its NOT about "keeping you there" (unless you're referring to low resignation rates)

is about keeping the employee happy

a happy employee is a productive employee
a happy employee is passionate towards their employer and therefore does a better job, comes up with better ideas, doesn't introduce negativity into the workplace 'mood', and is less likely to quit