Even within a small company cliques are a fact of life. But, something about the way this is worded seems...awful?
"which is open to any employee that meets some pretty strict requirements. A written test is given before an employee can access the facilities, and even then they must be deemed worthy of working on particular pieces of equipment"
I'd like to assume this is a safety issue, but this is Google which is known to be pretty elitist. Some employees will always get more perks than others (more money, more vacation time, more options...). Part of the very nature of picking "haves" is that you inherently devalue the "have-nots".
One step forward for having a more streamlined interview process, one step back for having interviews/tests for access to perks even after you're employed.
Umm... this doesn't sound 'elitist', it sounds like 'health and safety requirement' alone. My university opened up a facility like this when I was there, and had very similar requirements. That said, I (nor anyone else I've heard of) don't have any specific information about this lab/workshop...
It's a safety issue. Pressurized acetylene must be treated with great respect, and just the other day I read about a chem student that was killed in a lathe accident at Yale.
thanks for explaining. Still seems a bit like having a golf course and only letting employees with a certain handicap play. Maybe they could balance this out by offering an area with less dangerous equipment and/or lessons/instructors/supervision for everyone else.
When I still worked for Google the shops were split into four rooms with separate certification process and access for each. It was easy to get access to the EE or Woodworking shop, harder for the Metalworking and Welding.
Only certain employees at home depot can use the power saw to rip lumber. I doubt that is a sign of latent elitism.
I be more concerned if google let any employee walk in and pick up a torch. If you want to be paranoid not having certification requirements would be evidence of some scary social darwinistic elitism.
I guess it's the same in any company with "dangerous areas", and has nothing to do with elitism, but with common sense.
I work at a company that produces lithography machines, and to get access to the clean-rooms you have to do all kinds of extra courses and tests, depending on the kind of technology used in there.
"which is open to any employee that meets some pretty strict requirements. A written test is given before an employee can access the facilities, and even then they must be deemed worthy of working on particular pieces of equipment"
I'd like to assume this is a safety issue, but this is Google which is known to be pretty elitist. Some employees will always get more perks than others (more money, more vacation time, more options...). Part of the very nature of picking "haves" is that you inherently devalue the "have-nots".
One step forward for having a more streamlined interview process, one step back for having interviews/tests for access to perks even after you're employed.