Gothamist: Gothamist Goes To Google

Kristin

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:15:13 -0500

All the perks in the world aren't enough to make me go back there. Don't let the press machine fool you - Google's corporate culture is oppressive, full of red tape and a million and one bullshit meetings and regulations. Their meetings have meetings. And then they have meetings about those meetings. Google keeps its employees in a gilded cage. They give you benefits, but they basically expect you to hand your life over to them. The hours are long and there's mandatory socialization (dinners, cocktail hours, etc.) that take up any remaining free time. It's easily the most "corporate" Office Space-like place I've ever worked.

Mike

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:07:25 -0500

Actually the building is around 2.5 million square feet. Google has about 10% of it.

nick

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:09:03 -0500

wow. how did a spam bot have such a detailed comment to make about the state of the meatpacking district?

★ ★ SearcH EngineS WeB ★ ★

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:52:49 -0500

It is really great to see that area of the city get invested - just a few years ago, it was the desolate meat packing district that few would want to be near after dark

cleon jones

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:08:32 -0500

Wow, this piece is well written and can I eat a meal at the cafeteria.

Moe

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:18:02 -0500

I don't get why anyone would call this one a puff piece - I'd say it's pretty much a fact that this is probably the dream work environment for anyone who works for a big company, particularly in this city. Personally, I'd just like to work with people I know I can share some kind of social experience with - even if its foosball.

IT is it

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:28:28 -0500

We Work hard and we play hard. Oh, how I love that Corporate BS.

grafittix

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:35:23 -0500

I can't wait for the press visit after the first round of layoffs

Tim

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:11:57 -0500

We work hard, but we don't work 60 hour weeks at Google. It's not a burn-out culture. And we're hiring.

edEx

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:03:52 -0500

bloomberg is very similar. and 60 hours a week is a far stretch to having no social life. 12 hours a day hardly a bad life. i work 8-8 and have a great social life, sans foosball. ;P

steve

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:24:11 -0500

I worked at that building, though not for google. It sends a cold shiver down my spine just seeing it. Remember when you were a kid, and your teacher took your class to the State Fair, but they wouldn't let you go on any of the rides or eat cotton candy, and instead, they forced you go to watch bad theater and and look at giant vegetables? That's what it was like.

Dingo

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:16:50 -0500

Didn't Bloomberg do all this twenty years ago?

Catherine

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:14:14 -0500

>>Which would you prefer - a social life or a foosball table? I fail to see the difference....

David McCaffredy

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:44:37 -0500

I'm willing to bet that all of those people are expected to work 60 hours a week there. Which would you prefer - a social life or a foosball table?

Gabriel

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:41:28 -0500

(And YES, I'm obviously bitter for not working in such a cool office myself, thank-you-very-much!)

Gabriel

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:38:14 -0500

Wait, I don't get it... I mean, this must be some form of irony, right? This long text lifted straight from Google's own publicity department and then presented as an article; it IS sarcasm right? Of some sort... but how? Where? I can't see it! I feel so dumb - where oh where are the small hints that signal that you ARE aware of the fact that this is just a fluff piece for Google and that you, the fine people at Gothamist, are in fact not complete whores for printing this? They must be hidden in there somewhere... right..?

mouse

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:34:13 -0500

Look at those smart people playing their smart ping pong eating their free lunches in their fancy office. They even have those comfortable ergonomic chairs in each cube. I'm jealous. I work across the street from Google and buy my lunch from the cart in front of the post office. My form of entertainment is sitting in a twenty five year old squeaky office chair stained by the fatasses before me and playing solitaire on my computer when no one is looking.

mg

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:10:18 -0500

someone has a good pr team...

adam

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:50:59 -0500

How does anybody get any work done?

evie

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:15:48 -0500

Right now, any corporation that doesn't force its employees to work on a national holiday sounds great to me.

okki

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:54:36 -0500

I wish I was smart enough to work at Google.

Gary

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:39:18 -0500

If you can make billions in revenue, bring on the scooters. It was the companies that were burning VC money on foosball tables without a profitable business model that went teats up. Of course, now it's a Web 2.0 boom so time for another round! Hey, it's more fun than cubicles.

Kevin Bracken

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:36:42 -0500

Wow, that place looks sweet! Curious, though: I am surprised they have cubicles.

Don-Don

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:33:33 -0500

Any place where I can request cases and cases of Guarana would be heaven for me.

jpcooper43

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:18:50 -0500

although it may be one of the "coolest" places to work at, I'd assumed that adult scooter riders were beaten into extinction during the first dotcom bust. Are balaclavas and jester hats par for the course too?