I've been thinking about how if you look at our culture as, well, a culture, then it's pretty sad how the places where most of us spend 8 hours a day are these miserable, depressing, stupidly ugly dungeons, with plastic fruit and noisy robots making battery-acid coffee. I imagine some future historian talking about the corporations of the second dark age to a horrified classroom. Then I have a cup of coffee and cheer up. Wouldn't mind working in this place.
What flashes through my mind when I see this type of corporate fetish, even it being Google, is that the future is much more likely to be version of Brave New World than 1984.<p>We consume not because we're told to, but because we want to. We become vehicles in an economic equation.<p>Something is unnerving about the fact so many of us feel privileged to have the ability to dedicate our lives to what is essentially an organization to make money. I know it stikes odd to think that's the only purpose of Google (it seems not to be) but it certainly is for a significant portion of the corporatocracy.<p>Those two factors combined (variables in an economic equation and we have blind faith in corporations) can undermine the basis of a free society whose goals go beyond the enrichment of a handful of shareholders.
Some of the corporate speak on there is horrific.
"We enable innovation" Ugh.<p>I'd probably shuffle off to a quiet, dimly lit corner somewhere with my headphones, and try to block out the intense primary colours and lack of sound insulation.<p>I must be getting old.
Looks good, but do people really work on those "work pods" (for example, the red 'e' with the guy in a laptop)? Maybe a soft-skilled employee could (text writing, excel crunching, etc), but what about the developers at google? I couldn't let go some multi-monitor, confy chair setup to sit there...
Negativity here, the pictures are horribly warped (possibly to capture more of the room in one shot) which gives a skewed perception of office sizes, and of course the people look staged. Could be actors, given the surreal-looking male/female distribution (or it's not a developer office). (not a sexist remark, just a comment on the poor male/female ratio in software development in general)
In case it isn't clear from the article, these pictures are actually from a number of different buildings. They're all together on the street, so it's still one "office", but only some of the pictures are from the newest building. We've been enjoying the rest for a while now :).
What I like best about promoting offices like these is not so much the decoration (although personally I like it, especially the library room), but the furthering of the idea that work can be accomplished anywhere -- not just at your desk.<p>I doubt there's much of a question as to whether the people at Google work hard and get a lot accomplished during their days. So you'd think that if such a productive company could accomplish that in a distributed (distributed meaning people working at places besides their desk) office, so could your more run-of-the-mill companies.
I love the colors, but I can't wrap my brain around captions like "our bench marks are enabling highest efficiency with ultimate creativity". A desperate, naive part of me likes to think they are satire..
Google has always cool offices! I believe that's part of the his effort to attract the best talent.
It seems a minor detail, but it connect with your emotions regarding being cool.
Wow, nice to see the variety, but most of it is really tacky and tasteless, in my humble opinion. This is going to look really dated in 10 to 20 years.
There's something dangerous in such working conditions. It ends up being the place you spend most of your 24 hour per day allowance. If you are single and friendless this is perfect. If you have a family and friends outside of your work life - that is a shame because you'll see them less and less. There is a price for an in office bar, pool table, free food and amazing decor... hmm...
All the money obviously spent elsewhere. And then, open space -- not even cubicles.<p>So sad.<p>Well, Google's quite successful, so who am I to judge? But... not my cup of tea. And, somehow, it puts me in mind of the crap customer support for "end users". I guess, in my experience, the more internal distraction, the less outward focus and attention.<p>So far, gains through automation keep Google on a winning pace. But, I wonder...
Check out the ones in Tel Aviv tambien:<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-offices-in-tel-aviv-2013-2" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-offices-in-tel-aviv-2...</a>
Google, how about using some of those office colors and tones in your web interfaces instead of stark white everywhere? You wouldn't paint your walls all white so why must everything you do in the browser be on a white page?