Joined a friend for lunch today at the Google offices in London, and I had the distinct impression of dying and going to corporate heaven. Full buffet of gourmet food, ranging from venison sausages to fresh sushi to french cheeses. Not to mention a range of loose leaf teas, Magnum ice cream bars, and anything else you could possibly want. All free to employees, and, by association, their freeloading guests! Down the hall was a lounge with hammocks and large beckoning beanbags. When employees actually do work (and the do), it’s at large conference tables, essentially, not cubicles that double as blinders. It was amazing, though in fairness, my status as an underfed graduate student might have biased me.
Much has been written about Google’s corporate culture – the notion that a happy employee is an effective employee. It certainly doesn’t hurt, I suppose, but I do firmly believe that our work environment profoundly affects how well we do our job. Cubicles, lab benches, and desks certainly serve a functional purpose, but are they the best components of a workplace? Where’s the inspiration, the whimsy, the creativity? Science, like anything else innovative, thrives on creativity, interaction, and intellectual freedom, and I think it’s time labs try to provide that.
Having dined at the Googleplex in CA, I have to share your amazement. The food was fantastic! I am assuming that the hairdresser, masseuse, dry cleaner, and whoever else they have on staff at that campus are all equally amazing. Google seems to do well by ensuring that their employees never have to leave the office. More time spent in the office is more time spent pondering problems and finding solutions. Problems get solved when one is stuffed full of the most delicious organic falafel I have ever had.
Labs are not whimsical in the least, as you mention. The furthest my labs ever got to whimsy was keeping copious amounts of beer on hand. Corie blogged about this a while back. Seems like many attempts to better the lab space environment, by eliminating walls or making “movable” benches have ended poorly. What would you change?
I’ve also been at the Googleplex in CA (at SciFoo, with Anna, last year) and there is a hard, mercenery side to all this. Good programmers are hard to come by and thus very demanding about their work conditions. If one company doesn’t provide hot and cold running Ben abd Jerrys, or whatever, they’ll go to another company that does.
Nature gets round this by locking all the programmers in the basement.
I fail to see the downside.