A nice work environment

Otay, so its been another week since previous posts . Its because (insert lame excuse here). Anyways onwards.

I was reading an article on MSNBC about George Hotz. For those of you in a closet, this 17 year wiz kid (with obviously to much time on his hands) cracked the iphone and posted the instructions on a blog. Meaning that if you follow the instructions, have some skill with a soldering iron, and have a lot of luck you can make the iphone work on a network other than AT&T.

Now what I find very interesting is the quote below from the article when they asked about this kid's future:

"I want to intern at Google next summer if I can. I've got a friend there and he's, like, 'Dude, they have a cafeteria 24/7. You can go in there and eat whatever you want. You can go to sleep, hack for a couple of hours and go eat some more'." Who said kids today don't dream big?

Yeah Google is sexy to work for, but if you read between the lines, here's what I see. People want to go work for Google because of the work environment and campus. Google "googleplex" and see the results (yeah it is odd to google google but so be it). Workout facilities, 24 hours free food, massage areas, and letting you bring you dog to work. Google has invested in its future by creating a work environment that employees want to go to.

Now I know a lot of business people think this is crazy to invest this kind of money into a facilities that don't directly increase the bottom line. The thought of grad-students with dot com dollars come to mind. But if Google is crazy, they're crazy like a fox. Here's how I see this type of campus adding to the bottom line:

1) From the quote from Hotz we can see it attracts talent. A kid that cracks the iphone can't be dumb, and attracting this kind of talent will increase revenues in the future.
2) Employees will stay at work longer. This means more productivity per week.
3) Employees are healthier. This means less sick time.
4) Employees are less likely to leave for other places. Meaning you retain your talent and don't have to pay the heavy expense of hiring new people. I know personally one of the biggest down sides to place I work is a dreary work environment. If I were to ever leave, this is one of the big reasons.
5) Employees are more likely to bond as teams, and again increasing productivity.

Anyways, just my ramblings.

Peace out.