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Google's New Campus Will Open Its Restaurants To The Public (recode.net)
Google's new 18-acre campus will feature a 595,000-square foot building for 2,400 employees, most of them engineers -- and its bottom floor will be open to the public. An anonymous reader quotes Recode:
People will be able to walk through the middle of the building, where they can shop in retail stores and dine at cafes also frequented by Googlers... A summary of plans from Google also describes spaces for workshops and demonstrations of new technologies such as virtual reality. Visitors might encounter a pop-up store devoted to virtual reality or demonstrations of smart-home devices made by Alphabet subsidiary Nest, according to the spokesperson... This is the first time Google has built a campus from the ground up...
Generally speaking, Bay Area tech companies have tended to of cut their workplaces off from the communities surrounding them. Employees take private buses to their campuses, and stay on-site for non-work activities like meals in private cafeterias and exercise classes. Google offers similar amenities to its employees, but makes its open, grassy areas open to anyone.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Google's new building will be "shaped to resemble a puffy white cloud, with solar panels on the roof... The campus also will have a plaza where the public can soak in performances."
Generally speaking, Bay Area tech companies have tended to of cut their workplaces off from the communities surrounding them. Employees take private buses to their campuses, and stay on-site for non-work activities like meals in private cafeterias and exercise classes. Google offers similar amenities to its employees, but makes its open, grassy areas open to anyone.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Google's new building will be "shaped to resemble a puffy white cloud, with solar panels on the roof... The campus also will have a plaza where the public can soak in performances."
I work in SF, I'll keep the name safe, for a company who does not provide food perks. The reason they don't is that it destroys local businesses. I was not really sure about the impact until Google opened an office not far away. The bottom floors of most buildings in SF are local restaurants. Within a few months of Google opening with free food for their employees, the bottom of the building was vacant. Hundreds of jobs lost, from cooks and restaurant workers to food delivery and cleaning services.
Not that Google cares mind you, as is obvious with this new deal.
The populace does not need this, and it creates a public dependence on Google. So much for the small guy and competition.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Going to eat at a Google restaurant probably sounds great. Plenty of food, most likely good wifi and access to all things Google. Yet one wonders about Google's intentions inviting the public into their domain?
It's a "tech" company so we the penguin fucking Linux lovers of Slashdot are obligated to cheer when the billionaire oligarchs take what we gave them for free and use free open source software to fuck over the world. Praise Google, which takes from us and gives us shit in return.
has kind of a nice ring to it, no?
Generally speaking, Bay Area tech companies have tended to of cut their workplaces off from the communities surrounding them.
Does this have a measurable advantage/merit?
I can think of one maybe: Small chance of [trade or intellectual] secrets "leaking" out.
or Stuff that Matters?
I still don't see it.
It's all about power. The slaves must be completely dependent on their owners for their livelihood and the food they require to continue living.
DEATH TO GOOGLE
Trump's a bitch with small hands and a small dick. Just like his supporters.
I'll never knowingly use any of their products and neither should you. Have a nice day.
So, like hobos living in tents?
Have gnu, will travel.
Everyone's missing the fact that if you eat at a Google restaurant, Google can see what you eat, just like they can read your email for any reason!
They wanted to build a fortress campus in the middle of downtown and the City Council shut them down.
What language is that?
Perhaps you meant "tended to have cut off"
You call yourself an editor? No wonder I have so little regard for you soft skilled types.
Then replace the guest workers with directly-hired citizens and all shall be well.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
If I buy something, will I be able to use cash and remain (relatively) anonymous or will I have to use Google Wallet?
It's all about power. The slaves must be completely dependent on their owners for their livelihood and the food they require to continue living.
Getting a job in the bay area is insanely easy if you can program. Any engineer at Google can leave work, drive less than a mile making random turns at every intersection, walk up to whatever building they end up in front of, walk in, and have a job offer on the spot.
The new job might not pay as well, in money or free food. That is why many people choose to work at google.
> It's all about power. The slaves must be completely dependent on their owners for their livelihood and the food they require to continue living.
Suppose Google cut the food to one meal a day, and cut pay to only 10% over the average salary in the area. Do you think the "slaves" would starve to death, or go bankrupt?
That Bring Free Stuff.
I've worked at several places with restaurants. The thing is, they tend to be whoever *paid* the most for the privilege to be there to get a big captive audience.
So the on-campus food tends to be overpriced, low quality, so people tend to go off campus.
Would be great to actually make the campus space available to outside businesses and customers, to save employees the drive to go somewhere.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Come on Alphabet, are you competing with Apple for the title of world's most ugly megacorp hq? Tent slum vs giant hubcap.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I once worked for a Fortune-500 company that had a public shopping mall compete with a food court in bottom floors of its office complex. I brown-bagged since I was too cheap to pay mall-food prices.
Later, in another city, I worked for a different Fortune-500 company that had a several cafeterias around its sprawing campus. The food was about what you would get at a family restaurant with prices slightly below retail. I ate in the cafeteria almost every day.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
ALPHABET soup for the unwashed masses!
Are you going to stop supporting this restaurant service in the middle of my meal so I starve?
At this point I just don't see Google as a reliable company. For anything. Except for gathering and selling as much of my personal data as possible.
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Not just Silicon Valley. Almost everywhere I've worked since the 80s, the work place is not near what one would call normal restaurants. Most cubical farms, labs, and manufacturing areas are not located in dense urban hubs. Within walking distance it's either a grubby corporate cafeteria, an overcrowded sandwich place squeezed in among the warehouses, or a roaming roach coach. So the majority of workers who didn't bring in their lunches got in their cars and drove elsewhere. This is a big loss of productivity for companies. So getting and improving the cafeteria is not just a perk it's a way to get more value out of the employees.
I wonder if Google seriously trained their engineers so that they do not discuss sensitive project during lunch, since there are now many potential listeners at the next table.
Does this have a measurable advantage/merit?
Several:
* Walking to a cafe in the next building and eating with co-workers is much faster than walking/driving to a restaurant some distance away. Plus employees tend to talk shop over lunch. => more working hours per day.
* The company has some control over the food served, and can encourage healthier eating. => lower health care costs
* For large campuses, the surrounding area simply cannot absorb that many people for lunch.
* Happier employees (with more money in their pockets)
* Catered meals for events are much cheaper.
Some years ago a company where I worked got rid of their nice coffee machine and replaced it with a cheap model that people hated. Many people started taking breaks to walk to a coffee shop a block away (30-60 minutes of lost work depending on the weather and context-switching), and morale took a big hit.
It follows earlier attempts to build from the roof down, which were unsuccessful.
...that the serves the BEST corn souffle for lunch on Wednesday. Ex-patients and visitors return to the dining room to have it again and again. Yes, a freaking hospital! So, what's good at Google?