In Mountain View , Calif. , just a few miles south of the San Francisco Bay , there ’s a complex of buildings that serves as the headquarters for one of the most powerful companies in the technology industry . It ’s the habitation ofGoogle , the Internetsearch enginegiant . By some invoice , the Google campus is what you ’d get if you combined a typical high - tech Internet companionship ’s headquarters with an intellectual think tank and a heaping helping of Willy Wonka ’s chocolate factory .
Google call its campus the Googleplex , which compound the actor’s line Google and complex . It ’s also a romp on the worldgoogolplex . A googolplex is an tremendous number , but get ’s start small with just agoogol . A googol is 10100 - - a one follow by 100 zeroes . But a googolplex is 10 to the power of googol . So 10googolis a 1 follow by a googol of nada .
Google purchase the reason of the principal campus from a engineering science company called Silicon Graphics ( SGI ) . Silicon Graphics create the digital dinosaurs in the cinema " Jurassic Park . " A statue of aTyrannosaurus Rexstands guard over the campus , perhaps as a nod to the area ’s previous inhabitants .
An designer nominate Clive Wilkinson of Clive Wilkinson Architects designed the workspace in the Googleplex . Wilkinson ’s designs are famed for being inventive and whimsical . At the Googleplex , Wilkinson boil down on creating building that fostered teamwork and creativity .
As of 2008 , Google employs more than 19,000 hoi polloi [ source : Google Finance ] . Google has offices in several countries , so not all of those employees get to take reward of the Googleplex – only 8,000 or so knead out of Mountain View . The campus now has more than 2 million square feet of office space . The acquirement of a 42 - Akko campus adjacent to the Googleplex will add another 1 million square feet soon [ beginning : Helft ] .
While the Googleplex does n’t in reality have rivers of chocolate or gangs of Oompa Loompas wandering the campus , it does feature many amenities and perks that can entice potential employee to apply for a job . Feeling thirsty ? Pop into a cafeteria for a spare meal . Need to solve off all that gratuitous collation food that ’s within arm ’s reach ? Head over to the gym and hit the salt mine for half an hour . you could chance it all at the Googleplex – there ’s no need to provide the campus .
What are the buildings and earth like at the Googleplex ? Keep reading to find out .
Googleplex Facilities
With more than 20 construction as part of its Mountain View HQ , finding your means around the Googleplex can be a little restrain . Many of the employee atGooglestarted work straight out of college . Their young geezerhood adds to the impression that you ’re on a college campus . The heart of the campus is a group of four buildings : Buildings 40 through 43 .
As before long as you walk into a Google entrance hall , you hump you ’re not in a typical office surround . Lava lampsprovide a groovy vibe and in some lobbies a piano waits for a skilled musician . Most lobbies have a large computer sieve that displays search term in real time as people around the world use Google to chance search results . Google filters the stream of term so that offensive searches do n’t pop up at embarrassing moments .
Other interesting ornamentation you could recover in the Google offices stray from enormous whiteboards take with brilliant ideas and irreverent jokes to a replica ofSpaceShipOne . There are even interesting items in the hallways . Google advocates a green - conscious and salubrious modus vivendi among its employees , so it ’s not unusual to seebicyclesparked in Google construction .
The offices do n’t resemble a distinctive corporate environs . Google arranges the workstation so that group of three to four employees who work together sit in the same area . During the design phase , designer Clive Wilkinson confront a challenging problem : how do you group people together and still give them an environment in which they can condense on work without distractions ? And how do you do it without turning Google into a labyrinth of cubicles ?
Wilkinson decided to use ice wall to split the blank space into clusters . This design cuts down on much of the ambient noise inside the power . It also allows sunshine to filter in through the entire office . Each meth enclosure has a tent - like ceiling made of acrylic resin - coated polyester which contains the elbow room ’s light and sprinkler organisation .
Google executives want employees to be able to bounce ideas off each other . It ’s the company ’s Leslie Townes Hope that by promote fundamental interaction , workers will have greater problem gratification and may even make the next big Google ware . employee can personalize their workstation as much as they like , and even land dog ( but not cats ) to form if they want to .
Google ’s workspace may be invoke , but that ’s just scratching the control surface of the fringe benefit at the Googleplex . Some of the perk can go to undesirable consequences . There ’s a dreaded term called the Google 15 that many newfangled employee grapple with when they first part at the company . bump out more about this threat and its grounds in the next section .
Google Food for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
One of the most often cited perks of working atGoogleis thefood . Google feeds its employees well . If you make for at the Googleplex , you may eat breakfast , lunch and dinner party free of charge . There are several cafés turn up throughout the campus , and employees can eat at any of them . The main café is Charlie ’s Place . The café takes its name from Google ’s first principal chef , Charlie Ayers . Before creating meals for Googlers , Ayers was the chef for the Grateful Dead .
Although Ayers left Google in 2005 , the café still bears his name . The café has several stations , each offer unlike kinds of culinary art . Options range from vegetarian mantrap tosushito ethnic foods from around the world . Google ’s culture promotes the use of fresh , organic foods and intelligent meals . But when everything is liberal and you may rust whenever you require , it ’s promiscuous to go overboard . That ’s where the Google 15 comes in . It refers to the 15 Ezra Loomis Pound many new Google employee put on once they start taking advantage of all the meal and bite .
Other cafés at the Googleplex admit the Pacific Café , Charleston Café , Café 150 and the appropriately key out No Name Café . Each offers employee several choices for every meal . Google serve well up more than 200 recipe in these cafés every day [ beginning : Wu ] .
What if you feel your stomach growling in the middle of the afternoon , but do n’t want to trek out to a cafeteria ? Google thought of that , too . It ’s just a short paseo to the good bite room – most buildings have them . The snack rooms have confect , granola , chocolate - coat pretzel , succus , coffee and other kickshaw . All of it is free to employee . Google even bring some of these bins on the road – at the 2008 Google I / group O event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco , Calif. , Google allow bins filled with snacks to attender .
Google does n’t talk about how much it spends on its food budget , but that does n’t stop citizenry from take a shot at it . Blogger Vasanth Sridharan made one such effort in April , 2008 . He made some educate guesses regarding the issue of employee at the Googleplex , the number of meals they eat per day and the amount of money Google would have to drop per employee per day . He came up with a food budget of more than $ 72 million per year . But then , that ’s just a guess [ source : Sridharan ] .
Google render employee with unusual workspace and tons of food . But in the words of countlesstelevisioncommercials , " that ’s not all ! " Want to learn more about the style you may pamper yourself if you ’re a Google employee ? Take a gander at the next section .
Google Employee Perks
Many technical school diligence companies in Silicon Valley bid a cooking stove of fringe benefit and welfare to attract and keep employee . Several extend on - site benefit , which have the add bonus of keeping the employee workforce in the office more often . Give employees enough reasons to stick around and you ’ll likely see productivity go up . Why manoeuver home when everything you need is at body of work ?
With that in mind , here ’s a curt list of the perks Google employees get when they signal on at the Googleplex :
Many of Google ’s fringe benefit appeal to immature the great unwashed wise out of college . The Googleplex provides a gentle modulation from the donnish human race into the corporate environment . But what about employees who have move beyond the campus lifestyle ? Not all of their benefits have make out as well .
In 2008 , one of Google ’s perks deepen dramatically . The change impacts hundreds of Google employees , and many of them are n’t happy about it . What change in policy could make some Google employees break down in tears ? To find out , go to the next subdivision .
Google Benefits and Day Care
rumor of aGoogleday care facility leap up in 2004 . A inadequate sentence later , Google declare a programme with the Children ’s Creative Learning Centers , Inc ( CCLC ) . A schoolhouse 2 knot away from the Googleplex host the divine service . In reliable Google fashion , the company call the day care programme the Kinderplex .
The CCLC oversees several day care computer programme and follows a play - establish child care school of thought . The children in the Kinderplex political platform pursue in various gambling activities . They also learned yoga as part of an exercise platform .
The divine service was never free , but Google subsidized it so that more Google employee could take advantage of the programme . Part of the subsidy croak toward meals : tike have free breakfast , lunch and snacks at the center . Google leveraged the Kinderplex as part of its welfare programme when recruiting prospective employees .
A year after launch the Kinderplex , Google found a 2d program visit the Woods . Unlike the Kinderplex , Google execute the Woods platform itself . The Woods took a different approach to caring for children than the Kinderplex . It was also more expensive to keep .
In 2008 , Google decided to change its day care help to make the total program more like the Woods . The Modern programme will be employee more than twice as much as the one-time one . According to several reports , some Google employee were move to tears at the promulgation . Why the sudden hike in price ?
One intellect is due to the flair of learning . While the Kinderplex focus on play - ground learning , the raw child care program follows theReggio Emiliaphilosophy . Founded by Loris Malaguzzi , this feeler depends upon each single child . As the baby begins to show interest group in picky activities or subject area , the teacher adjust the programme to give the fry more approach to those things . Communication and interaction are authoritative , as are aesthetic concern like the physical surroundings and graphics in the room .
Class sizes are small and the teachers have comparatively high salaries . The time lag inclination to get into Google ’s day care plan is century of names long . Google is now charging parents to stay on the waiting tilt . Coupled with the new higher prices for day care , the tilt ’s length has decreased over fourth dimension . Some the great unwashed within Google argue that the only multitude who can yield in - house day concern now are top stratum executive director .
discourse regarding the day maintenance situation are likely to keep . Google ’s program unremarkably receive an adequate assortment of praise and fear . The day care program is a rarefied example of an internal Google initiative that attract critique .
Most of the Googleplex ’s facilities and broadcast cover to attract potential employee . While Google may have hit a speed blow in the day care program , other initiatives still garner positively charged attention . The Googleplex and its computer programme help put Google at the top of Fortune cartridge ’s 100 Best Companies to make For lean in 2008 [ source : Fortune ] . There ’s no shortage of masses want to conjoin Google ’s rank . And once they get there , they might get word that they do n’t desire to leave . That ’s just how Google like it .
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