Google’s best practices: valuing workers

Engineers in bluejeans glide by on scooters at the Manhattan office of Google, the absurdly young and wildly successful pied piper to a changing work force.

There are cafes for 24/7 snacking, and gourmet cafeterias serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course, the food’s all free.

There are spaces to lie down for a massage, stretch out on a yoga mat, pump breast milk or curl up in front of the basketball finals. The game room has Ping-Pong, Foosball, air hockey, aerobics and weights. Happy hour — beer, wine, snacks — is Thursday at 5 p.m.

The amenities at Google’s West 16th Street office in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood mirror those at the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters of the world’s leading Internet search company.

The stir-fry of fun, food and work is central to the eccentricity of Google, which went public in 2004 with a prospectus that began:

"Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one."

By Beth Fitzgerald

Newhouse News Service

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004197487_jobsgoogle24.html