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Walk the Walk, Google!

Mar 18, 2010 » by Cali & Jody

We were stunned (STUNNED!) to read this story about how Google wants the city of Mountain View, CA to change its zoning laws so that more homes can be built near the tech giant’s headquarters.

It seems that Google employees face such a tough commute (and have such limited access to public transportation) that the company actually sends around shuttle buses in order to make sure everyone gets in the building on time.

But wait a minute. Aren’t these the same people who gave us Google Wave, the tool designed so people can “communicate & collaborate in real time” from anywhere? In fact, a quick trip through Google Labs reveals all kinds of applications you could use to work remotely. And given that you have some of the best engineers on the planet, whatever capabilities Google doesn’t currently have they could certainly INVENT.

It all comes down to having the will to find the way. According to Google vice president of real estate and workplace services David Radcliffe (and no, we did not make that title up) the company wants “work/life balance for all” and yet they have fallen into the same trap of other tech companies: they bring services on site so that people never have to leave.

We understand that a global powerhouse like Google has all kinds of security concerns. As a tech company, they are probably obsessive about “culture” as well. But rezoning Mountain View is absurd. Show some humility, some ingenuity, and some heart, Google. As one of the architects of the future, you owe it to yourselves and your customers to build a place where we’d actually want to live.

  • http://thepeoplegroupllc.com/blog Kevin Kennemer

    Cali & Jodi, great blog post! It sounds like Google needs your help. Considering that Google is #4 on the Fortune Best Companies to Work For List (#1 last year), I wonder how they reconcile work/life balance vs. expecting employees to be on-site all the time?

    • Cali

      Kevin –

      Our question exactly. We almost fell off our chairs when we read this article. But just goes to show that you can’t assume that your perceptions of a company’s culture are correct. Google puts off the air that they’re forward-thinking and advanced in how they treat their employees, but walking the talk is the most powerful statement you can make…

      • Kevin

        It’s easy for a company to promote and “brag” about their excellent quality of work and life balance. But as that quality of life filters down through various levels of management, much is lost in the translation. Certain “perks” end up being frowned upon by lower level management which leads to employees not taking advantage of them.

        If you tell people something enough, they start to believe it.

        The old assembly line 40 hours a week mentality still rules much of our modern workplace and as people start to wake up, they’ll discover what the really want is to be in control of their time, not to live at work.

    • Chris

      Google is listed as #1 company to work for through some of their perk policies, and marketing of said perks which I think are unsustainable long term. Enterprises that build a forward looking strategy focused on long term benefit to their employees – not just candy and free restaurant food – will be the places that resources will be clamoring to work in the near future.

  • Lily

    Wow – that’s a good blog! Makes us all take a good, hard look in the mirror. Go ROWE!

  • http://www.schmielblog@blogspot.com Erin

    Way to take Google to task. Bravo. True, that if they’re the company redefining technology and bringing us into the future, than they should be at least consulting telecommuting options.
    I see their logic to keep employees close by and if that’s what their employees want, then maybe it’s what will work best for them.
    A well-written argument, good way to advertise your mission, services and philosophy.

  • http://www.schmielblog@blogspot.com Erin

    Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
    - James M. Barrie

  • http://www.anywhereman.com Dave Yankowiak

    Cali and Jody, I completely agree with your observation. However, there is one fact about Google that keeps them from initiating a “work from home” option: The Googleplex is AWESOME.

    Seriously, if I worked at Google, them telling me to work from home would be punishment. The place has swimming pools, sand volleyball courts, all sorts of cafeterias…even a dinosaur! They probably have to kick people out at the end of their shift as it is now.

    Great site, by the way! Somehow, some way I haven’t stopped by before. We’re even in the same state! I am now a subscriber. :)

  • http://conmergence.com/blog Ed Dodds

    Yep, I’ve made the same point about Microsoft and it’s distributed development tools (Visual Studio, etc.) over the years. FWIW, here’s a note I penned (o.k. typed) to the Ontolog Community of Practice on the announcement of their OntologySummit2010 Communiqué: Creating the Ontologists of the Future

    http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySummit2010_Communique

    I don’t know if you all (or y’all) are followers of the “results-only work environment movement” (plz see http://goROWE.com and the blog there if unfamiliar) but one of the concerns which I have, especially in light of events like yesterday’s announcement of the US National Broadband Plan, is that employers will continue to geo-lock job opportunities unnecessarily. By this I mean that when you will hear “I can’t find an ontologist anywhere” this should be translated “I can’t convince so and so to relocate his|her family for such and such amount of money in this turbulent employment climate”. My personal HIDDEN AGENDA is that I want to see technology opportunities (such as knowledge management, ontologies, etc.) as avenues to bring folks with disabilities (about 70% of which are unemployed) into the economic mainstream. This won’t happen if the management strata continues to demand folks to drive into cubevilles in order to complete work which they could have accomplished in home offices (a major matter for folks who lack accessible transportation and are in the catch 22 of not being able to buy such without a job–and can’t get a job without accessible transportation). I’d ask your help in encouraging employers to think thru their assumptions about how real work must be done in order to make these opportunities as widely available as possible. I now step down from the soap box…

    # # # #

    I continue to assert that InfoTech ought to be the poster child for ROWE. It holds such promise especially concerning folks with disabilities, rural economic development, distributed computing for medical research, eCare, etc. We who are share holders must begin the practice of asking C-Suites during quarterly conference calls what the firm’s position on ROWE is and how far along are they in its deployment.

    • Cali & Jody

      Ed – as always, you make complete and total sense. Geo-locking jobs is utter insanity and we are screaming that from the rooftops every chance we get.

  • Lynn O’Driscoll

    As a high school teacher, I’m aware that an entire ROWE workstyle will probably not be in the cards for me unless I taught online. However, I had an interesting conversation with a student that made me think that even students are ready for some ROWE.
    A student came into my classroom this morning asking to take some supplies to his first hour to work on a project he was doing in my third hour. I said that is great, but are you sure you will have enough to do in my third hour. He said I don’t know. I told him I would rather he didn’t work on the project in is first hour, but save it till he was with me. Then he asked it…..he said….”what does it matter when I work on my project as long as it done by the due date?” BAM…he had me. I couldn’t come up with an answer because my personal philosophy doesn’t match up with how we run our schools. So I let him take the supplies and I’m sure he will get the project done!!

    • michael

      Hi Lynn-

      Thank you so much for sharing that story. Your student definitely seems focused on results. Awesome! When you have a moment, please view this video on a “Results-Only Learning Environment (ROLE) presented by Richard Stewart.

      • Lynn O’Driscoll

        Thanks for the link Michael…..I’ve seen this video before and am trying to be creative in how this could fit into a high school environment.

  • http://www.girlscoutsgonerowe.com Jessica

    This helps confirm many of my long-held suspicion that Google uses sexy perks as a false front – instead of actually giving their employees opportunities for real work/life balance, they find every way possible to keep them chained to their offices.

    I looked a little bit more into Google’s benefit package and wrote a column for The Business Press this morning that should be coming out next week.

    I think it’s time that Google set a real example for how a “best company to work for” should behave.

    • Persephone K

      Exactly! I also wonder how often employees are truly allowed to use all of those wonderful perks. Is there any stigma associated with taking a break to use the pool or play foosball? I’m betting there is.

    • Cali & Jody

      Jessica – can’t wait to see your column for the Business Press! Pass it along and we’ll get it out from our end, too.

      The window dressing that companies tout drives us crazy. Don’t even get us started on the “Best Companies to Work For”, “Best Companies for Working Mothers”, etc. lists.

  • Matt

    I work for another Fortune 500 “100 Best Companies to Work For” and I am well aware of the hypocrisy involved with that list. Hopefully, someday that list will require that companies have a ROWE to be included on the list. Why do I say that? Not to get rid of the fakers necessarily (although illuminating the truth is always good), but to be able to see a list of 100 companies with ROWE as their culture would be mind-blowing!

    I was on vacation in Costa Rica the last two weeks and the comment about GooglePlex made me think of how Costa Rica solves that as far as ‘perks’ like swimming pools and such. In Costa Rica, the companies typically don’t supply those types of perks. Trade organizations and professional groups typically collect membership dues and maintain facilities in different parts of the country. That way, workers get away from their workplaces to enjoy time with friends and family and you don’t have to work for a specific company, just belong to a certain profession.

    GooglePlex is great, but I don’t think they designed it for the entertainment of their workers. It’s just a collection of distractions that makes workers think they don’t need to leave the offices.

  • Eddie Colbeth

    In Google’s defense they have 20% time, at least for their engineers and they were one of the first to do it(on day a week they can work on anything they want). Yes, it would be better if the implemented ROWE, hopefully they will. Though they do go the extra mile to make their employees happy.

  • HZ

    I think there could be a few reasons why Google’s idea of work/life balance at the office makes more sense than ROWE:
    - as mentioned by one of the commenters, they do have valuable intellectual property to protect
    - software development is an intensely creative process, whose effectiveness is amplified by the proximity of smart people who can bounce ideas off each other and brainstorm at any time
    - Google probably doesn’t even have schedules anyway (See http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/09/good-agile-bad-agile_27.html)
    - I would guess that most employees would prefer to be at the office in any case. Maybe most of the employees there are young single workers whose friends are mostly their coworkers (remember these are geeks we’re talking about)

  • http://hubpages.com/hub/Loopbaanadvies Natalie Loopbaanadvies

    If I work for Google, I wouldn’t mind the time spent in commuting from home to office. Such a great workplace! With all the perks, I will be motivated to come to work every day, ON TIME. I don’t think there’s really a need for some changes in the area.

    Natalie Loopbaanadvies