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Googletopia or Just Good Planning?
Posted by Julia Klaiber on April 12, 2010 |
TechCrunch recently published a letter from Google to the City Manager of Mountainview, CA. In it, the company's Vice President of Real Estate and Workplace Services made the case for zoning changes in the area known as North Bayshore, where Google is headquartered.
Currently, most of the area is zoned for commercial development and characterized by low-rise office buildings. Google, which is well known for the generous, on-site amenities it offers employees - recreation, dining and childcare, for example - hopes to bolster its headquarters location with mixed-use development, including housing and retail.
TechCrunch speculates that Google may subsidize such development for the benefit of its employees, but the one-page letter simply states Google's goal to "provide a vibrant community and work/life balance for all."
Austin’s Big Gig
Posted by Julia Klaiber on March 23, 2010 |
A group of ambitious volunteers is committed to making Austin a pilot community for one of Google's planned gigabit network demonstrations. This network, which will be 1005 fiber optic, completely open and boast speeds up up to one billion bits per second, sounds impressive, but we're just as impressed with the grassroots effort behind this great site.
Daycare - The Story Never Changes
Posted by on July 05, 2008 |
Regularly throughout my career a story re-emerges on the so-called "trend" of women with children leaving the workplace to raise their children full time. But when the numbers are examined closely, the story turns out to be false. Women with children continue to work, and that means they have to find childcare.
I was reminded of this when I read today's NYT's front page story on Google's struggle to provide its employees with on-site daycare. It's expensive (the company provides a $37,000 annual subsidy per child!), and it's about to get more expensive for employees. There is a long waiting list, nonetheless, and employees are charged to stay on it.
The piece, written by Joe Nocera, was breathlessly critical of Google, but the question finally asked was a good one that can be asked of companies and society in general. Nocera wrote, "Google may be providing the greatest day care ever, but so what? It doesn't matter how good the day care is if only its wealthiest employees can afford it. If Google had really wanted to do something path-breaking about its day care crisis, it would...spend more time figuring out how to 'scale' day care for everybody no…