

Google gets frugal - rochers
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1864136,00.html?cnn=yes

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patio11
Looking at the photo for this article, all I can say is that I'll chip in an
extra $10 on my AdWords bill for this month if you guys will send someone out
to clean that sign off. I don't know, maybe I've just been in Japan too long,
but I see that and I immediately think "organizational decay".

(My company -- and a few American companies I know, including Disney -- would
have had the CEO out front with a bucket of soapy water within 10 minutes of
seeing that photo run.)

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flashgordon
Well it had to happen sometime. But I doubt the frugal measures like removing
free lunches will have a huge impact on motivation. Given that the employees
have been rewarded during good times, the expectation may be that this
frugality is only a short term blip.

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snprbob86
The thing about the free meals is that empirical evidence suggests that they
get more bang for their engineering buck.

I found out first hand that if you feed me, I'll be in the office a lot
longer. I will still work the same amount because I will take more frequent
breaks to stretch my day out to accommodate dinner.

When I actually do work, I'm well rested and well fed. I'm easily over $10
dollars worth more productive and I used a lot my extra break time to attend
mind-expanding Tech Talks. It would be more expensive NOT to provide free
food!

That said, this is also one of the key reasons I chose Microsoft. I actually
like spending some fraction of my life off campus being a normal person.

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ojbyrne
I agree. And the article says at the very end, "So for now, at least, the free
lunches are still a go."

