This Article from the New York Times talks about Yahoo is trying to get more of its workers to work in the office instead of working from home. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive, says she is trying to emulate Google, her previous employer. The article then goes on to describe the Google work environment in lavish detail. I won't put down every detail but the East Coast Google headquarters is about the size of a city block, has secret rooms, an ice cream truck inside one of its many cafeterias, a lego playroom, and many areas designed specifically for relaxation. Workers are also allowed to design their own work areas and bring their pets to work. Google's large profit margins make it able to maintain such an extravagant work environment. Google says it is trying to push the boundaries of the workplace. It appears to be working because almost all of Google's employees work at the office and are extremely efficient. This office setting is also supposed to encourage innovation, a quality that Google survives off of.
Do you really think this work environment is what has made Google so successful? Do you think Yahoo could benefit from creating such a work environment? Would you like to work for Google in an office like this?
I think that their workplace has definitely helped them attain the success they have. From my experience, I work much better when I'm relaxed and feel at home, rather than all tense. I think that if more companies adopted these policies around the workplace, production would improve. People would feel more comfortable and therefore work better. This would certainly raise the GDP of the country as a whole, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteCreating a relaxed workplace environment is necessary but we need to be cautious that it is not too extravagant. I think the way google is operating its workplace is a good example for the tech companies but it might not be true for every other company. Google is the only instance where such workplace exist and there is no strong evidence that yahoo would perform in the same way just by switching the environment of the workplace.
ReplyDeleteps. I would love to work Google.
I think this is the main reason why Google is the best company to work for. This is the dream working environment for everyone and if I were granted an opportunity to work for Google, I would take it for sure.
ReplyDeleteI have also read that if a Google employee dies their spouse gets half pay for ten years. That is incredibly nice. The thing about this working envoriment and employee benefits is that it creates loyal workers. In my organizations behavior class we talk about the effects of positive job satisfaction, motivation and production in a company. Google creates a company in which workers are happy and feel valued. There is no doubt that their company is more successful because of this. If a company can figure out what type of environment works best for their employees then they will be successful. Whether Yahoo is similar to Google should be considered but Mayer may have a good idea since they are similar types of employees (programers, engineers, etc.).
ReplyDeleteGoogle truly is an excellent and competitive company to work for. For obvious reasons. This is almost foolish to comment here, because the comments prior to mine all say nearly the same thing and so am I. But, I do not think all companies should mimic this. What works for some companies doesn't work for all. Innovation can be encouraged in plenty of ways aside from the workplace such as Googles.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Google and Yahoo are two separate companies and should be run two different ways. If Yahoo begins to try to imitate Google to much I believe it will get crushed by Google because of the hold Google has on the market. I think Yahoo should let their employees continue to work how they want for the fact that it has worked thus far. It my not have worked to compete on Google's scale but to overtake Google is going to take a lot more than just getting workers into work.
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