Google voted world’s best employer

MUMBAI: On Monday, Fortune named Google the finest among the world’s 100 best companies to work for.

 

Work is such a cosy place that it’s difficult for Google employees to leave office — precisely why the company justifies the expenses. Life for Google employees at the Mountain View campus is like college, says Fortune. It feels like the brainiest university imaginable — one in which every kid can afford a sports car.

 

Food, however, is the real killer app. Legend has it that company founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page ordered that at any given point, food - free food, that is — should not be more than 150 feet away from an employee.

 

So Google runs 11 free gourmet cafeterias and scores of snack rooms, which contain cereals, candy, nuts, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit and other snacks, and dozens of drinks, including soda and make-your-own cappuccino.

 

Oh, you can also do laundry or drop off worn clothes for dry cleaning; get onsite free massage and haircut, and an oil change or wash for your car.

 

Want to buy a hybrid car? The company will give you $5,000 for your environmentally friendly effort. Have a baby? Company will give you $500 to buy baby stuff. Engineers can spend 20 per cent of their time on independent projects — which is one of the two causes of worry for the company: start-ups by exiting staff and those “resting before vesting” their stock options.

 

Oh yes, you can also get your pet dog to work, provided it adheres to the company’s dog policy. But the owners will have to clear up whatever the dog leaves behind.

 

Even people who don’t work here like to loiter: the company has become a stop on the world lecture circuit,

 

attracting the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher and Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus.

 

“You’ve got to ask yourself why these people are coming here,” 24-year-old engineer Neha Narula said. “I think they come here to be energised by the people at Google.”

 

Feel like working for Google? You are not alone. The company gets 1,300 job applications a day.