Not only is Google the biggest Internet search engine, it also has one of the biggest, most interesting, workplace ever. Located in Mountain View California, it holds 8,000 or so employees. Because of this, it faces a lot of everyday challenges such as serving food for everyone: because Google has engaged itself to give free food to a minimum of three times a day. This commitment is the reason behind the urban legend of the Google 15. The Google 15 is the 15 pounds every new employee gets at the beginning of their hiring. Having one of the leaders in architecture, Clive Wilkinson Architects, gave them the opportunity to have a creative working environment. This company is responsible for giving a fresh and different look to the Googleplex. When we enter the Googleplex, you know it’s not like any other workplace you’ve been. The cozy atmosphere, the bicycles all around you, everything is different. Each and every single employee can use of his creativity to do his job. They are also allowed to bring pets at work, but mainly dogs. Furthermore, breakfast, lunch and dinner are all free of charge. The main cafeteria, The Charlie’s Place, was named after the creator of Google, Charlie Ayers. The different cafeterias around the campus, offers a lot of variety. Food such as sushi, organic food, meals from around the world can be found pretty much everywhere on the campus. If you feel hungry during the afternoon it’s easy to get something to eat. According to a blogger, Vasanth Sridharan, Google would approximately spend $72 of food, for each employees.
Google came up with a fun working environment to help their employees to be more creative. October 2nd 2006, the newly moved Google building opened. It’s the second biggest Google office around the world after the original Googleplex in California. Googlers have all the reason in the world to stay at their office. Imagine everything you want : pool table, TVs, Sushi Bars, showers... It is probably there. Food at Google is really important; we could assume that it's food for thought. All the food from M&M to sophisticated espressos is free. The Campuslike atmosphere gives Google’s employees a new twist. In fact, instead of leaving on lunch hours, as most of New-Yorkers do, they are encouraged to stay at the office and socialize. They even created on Thursday a party called Thank God It’s Almost Friday. Dressing there is pretty casual, from jeans and t-shirts to classy suits wore with no tie. It’s important to say that even if most of the are Googlers young, the party they throw is a lot more mature than what their dot-com competitors would do. Going back to food, cafeterias encourage local food, which is an excellent thing. Everything is so good at the Googleplex that, as James Tipton say, everyone gains 10 to 15 pounds in their first months there. Giving opportunity to work freely and having fun during breaks seems to be very profitable. Being able to use free will in creation is a really interesting feature. Some even say that Google is interesting as a start-up because you can really follow your own ides! This means that you don’t have to take the risk in starting a business but you have just as much creativity as if you did. Imagination is also used to make social events interesting. As an example, on December 14th, one of the employees decided to organize an art show. For the very first event, employees were allowed to bring guests for the first time of Google's history. A good way to resume how it’s like working for Google is by stating that it is like academic life all over again, but while getting paid.
