Flightster

Gallivanting Around the Googleplex

• by Colin Wright
• on August 16th, 2010
• 1 Comment

“This is the coolest college ever.”

The thought goes through my head as I pose for a photo, neck-deep in a giant ball pit with a handful of other bloggers a few floors up in one of the buildings at the Googleplex.

I’ve been hearing the rumors for years: Google’s main headquarters in Mountain View, California are crazy. The people ride around on children’s bikes, there are weird statues all over the place, all employees have access to free, high-quality food and drink all day long, and there is no dress code to speak of.

I don’t know if the latter is true – though people definitely seemed to dress however they wanted – but I know the former are.

One of the first things that became apparent when I saddled up to the main building was that people traveled by bike at this office building, and there are hundreds of Crayola-colored, back-pedal-to-break-style bikes strewn about the campus, ready to be snatched-up and ridden by any willing passerby.

And ‘campus’ is the right word for the mentality and personality of the Googleplex: the place is a college student’s wet dream.

One is never far from a free cafe, food kiosk, mini-fridge or candy dispenser. There are white boards all over the walls, covered in graffiti and humorous mathematical equations and the occasional productive bit of whatever. There’s a statue of Spider-Man dressed up for a luau and a giant sand sculpture of a steampunk-style mechanical fish, surfacing from the ground in one of the lunch areas.

Free massages, childcare and dry cleaning. Ironic posters adorn the walls. Coding tips are placed at eye-level by the urinals in the bathrooms.

There are fountains and walkways and bean bag chairs and dramatic architectural decisions. There are projectors and TVs and more computers than I’ve ever seen in one place.

Walking through the halls, you can’t help but stare at some of the ‘science fair’ projects they’ve got set up. My guide, Jenny Blake, showed me a rotating globe that displayed by color and particle cloud massiveness how many Google searches are going on around the world, and in what language. There were a trio of visitors playing with a 3-D Google Map navigation system that surrounds the user with enormous screens and arms him with a gyroscopic mouse…a ‘game’ that wouldn’t feel out of place in a high-end arcade or a tech convention.

There are seminars to attend, clubs to join, inside-jokes to be a part of, futures to build.

The most collegiate aspect of the Googleplex, however, are the people. There are employees of all ages running around with smiles on their faces, laptops open and clung to chests with one hand while the other roots around in a bag of chips for a tasty morsel. Geeky t-shirts abound, as do elaborate dress pants, ironic glasses and tennis shoes.

The employees at Google definitely look geeky, but they also look incredibly happy, even when clearly rushed and overworked.

People were holding doors and welcoming us everywhere we turned, and even the most rank-and-file janitor seemed to be pleased with the environment, allowing the energy and activity infiltrate their less intellectually-stimulating job.

I think the real power behind Google’s incredible success in finding the best people and holding on to them (even after they stop working there, in some cases), is that they have established a work environment with the ultimate feng shui for their kind of people.

The folks they want working with them are knowledgeable, detail-oriented and academic, and they feel most comfortable in situations where most of the world’s clutter is handled for them. Think about the geekiest person you know. Is their laundry even done? The dishes? Is their fridge ever full of anything but Red Bull and Pizza Rolls? Is socializing easy for them?

In most cases, the answers to these questions are no, and the forces that be at Google know this and have taken these mental loads off their employees, freeing their energy up so they can do what they do best: think and innovate.

As I lay here in this ball pit, I can’t help but think ‘yeah, if I had to go to work somewhere every day, this wouldn’t be such a bad place to do it.’

But as we walk past a row of (elaborately-decorated) cubicles I mentally amend my previously thought ‘but I’m perfectly content to just be visiting for now.’

Colin Wright

Colin Wright is a minimalist, branding expert and serial entrepreneur. While running his blog Exile Lifestyle ,his branding studio Colin Is My Name and his e-publishing business ebookling. Colin travels the world (moving to a new country every 4 months), meeting up with amazing people, giving talks (to audiences ranging from tech industry professionals to college students to Catholic school girls) and hunting down new and interesting experiences.