Google Spends $72 Million On Free Employee Food Per Year

Silicon Alley Insider:

Sick of hearing about the great, free, food at Google? Skip this post. Want to know how much it costs Google to pay for all that grub? Read on.

Here's the math: Googlers in the U.S. get two meals a day free, according to the jobs page, but people we talk to at the Mountain View Googleplex tell us employees there are often chowing down three times a day. Google is open 251 days a year. So let's say that Google is providing about 600 meals per year, per employee.

By its own count, Google has about 8,000 workers at the Googleplex in Mountain View, and another 700 at the office on Ninth Ave. in New York City. Buying DoubleClick netted Google 900 more U.S. employees (after laying off 300). So that's a total of about 9,600 employees in Mountain View, New York, and from DoubleClick.

The rest of Google's American employees get fed, but Google doesn't break down employment for its other offices. Internationally, benefits vary -- employees in Australia get a free lunch, whereas employees in Ireland get a fully subsidized canteen.

Read the whole story: Silicon Alley Insider

Comments

[MadMadamMin]

We are what we eat.

[WilliePilgrim]

One thing I like about Google, one of many, is that it circumvents the tedious aspect of benefits being computed as "income". Just as Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google.com has subverted the paradigm on what charitable giving is all about. Of course this is not something that every company can do and Google seems to be acutely aware of its rather unique postion in this regards and in my opinion deserves all the more credit for its bold and innovative approach which goes against so many of the models proffered by the so called experts who themselves are subject to the insecurities of a screwed up culture as much as the rest of us.
Thanks Google. Keep up the good work and use your good fortune and sharp insight to help bring about a keener awareness of the old tired models we blindly follow under the worn-out notion that it increases bottom line so it must be good, and instead asks the big question "bottom line for who?".
I remain, your most enduring fan.

[MissingAmerica]

This would be a bad thing? Cheers to the company that sees to the welfare and wellbeing of its employees. In these days of rising food prices and fast food, too many don't eat well.

Many people work hard, are too tired to cook, and end up living on fat, fast and cheap food which widens the waist and narrows the arteries. It is a wise company that sees the importance of a well fed workforce!

[PatCroft]

Cool! A new corporate model. It is a good beginning. An easy way to measure a corporation and an appreciation of employees, is to evaluate the toilet tissue used in their public restrooms. Hence if the tissue is of high quality the corporation is probably not going to great length to infringe on their employees quality of working environment. Generally corporations have a track record of standard employee abuses and punitive management practices.

[gcallaghan]

Now, if only google will hire the hungry everything can turn out perfect

[WilliePilgrim]

If only the hungy who are actually able to work will work it would be good for all of us.

[FZliveson]

I sell some food equipment to Google and it is a joy to be on that campus and watching the pride and dedication that the employees have there. This is one corporation which takes care of its people and shares its wealth with those who help make it so. They do Friday oil changes for a token sum, have massages, entertainment and many other perks which make people want to stay there and play.
Thanks Google for your business and for the example you set.

[Trittydi]

I have no problem with this. If this is one of the perks for their employees - more power to them.
*

[CaptainHowdy]

Food crisis solved!

[ChicagoBob]

!

I like this thread. Google is right to provide great perks to its people.
They have indeed created products that have changed the world.

DMcD, you sound like you are unhappy with your present situation and your sour grapes are showing.
Get over it, or get a job with a better company than what you have now.

!

[DMcD]

"JUST to help out a bunch of people you don't care about"

Well, that about says it all --- my point taken. A real gem of a humanitarian you are.

Sidenote: Careful, you're showing your true colors ------ Flash -- most of the rest of us "work" for a living and have 'earned' our keep as well -- many of us are also very good at what we do. But gee , you're so swell that you can look down on the rest of us.

The difference lies in whether a person has a good heart , or no heart at all. This is where our lack of
common ground comes into play ----- you are obviously a heartless self-absorbed troll -- I have nothing in common with your type so, this conversation is over.

[Lamethrower]

That's it: I must be heartless because I won't give up one of the biggest perks I have, and one of the biggest reasons I chose to work for Google instead of Microsoft.

Course, I couldn't expect you to grasp that, what with you not grasping the concept that I don't care if you're "good at what you do"--I'm saying I'm one of the BEST at what I do (as in, planetwide), and I am rewarded for it. Furthermore, I don't look down at everyone--just people who either can't comprehend or refuse to acknowledge and reconcile in their own minds that they're dealing with someone who happens to be smarter than they are. It's nothing to be ashamed of, it's just the hands we were dealt.

But oh no, you have to go get all indignant and call upon your superior sense of humanity and empathy to try and compensate. You can't just leave the chips where they are.

[Gary47]

And, how much are they donating to the local food banks?

[Lamethrower]

What does it matter?

I work at Google. Do you know why? Because they treat me like a valuable member of a team, not just a corporate asset. I put in long hours there sometimes, but it's completely offset by a number of factors:

1) I eat gourmet meals every day I show up. It makes working a little less "worklike"
2) They do my laundry for me. Hours I don't have to spend doing my laundry I will gladly exchange for hours I spend looking over code.
3) They pay me well. Yeah, they're a little more demanding than a lot of companies in terms of what I do for them, but they also don't try to pay me 12 bucks an hour for knowledge I spent 140,000 dollars learning - or threaten to outsource my job.
4) They make the workplace "fun". I can take off just about any time if I feel like it; I can decide not to show up if I feel like it, they give me everything short of a shopping mall that I can utilize at my leisure.

And the end result of all this? You get the best products on the planet; something that completely changed the world. I'm one of the best and brightest; Google recognizes this and rewards me for lending my skills to them. Don't hate on my company just because it treats me better than yours.

[sculptor]

They also WalMart the service employees that do all those wonderful things for you by employing them for less than the number of hours that would require them to pay them benefits.

So, does it still feel like a wonderful place to work?

[DMcD]

As an impressive and worthwhile "give back" gesture , the spoiled Google employees should consider giving up one of their meals and use the savings to buy some basic food supplies for the masses now starving to death around the world. $36 million bucks could uncoubtedly go to save the lives of untold thousands (including children) instead of being consumed for what (?) , an un-needed form of decadence for people that can surely afford their own meals (like the rest of us) --------- just a thought on my part.

What do you think ?

[Lamethrower]

Why? Why is it our responsibility to do that so you can feel better?

Do you have any idea how much money this company donates every year? It's astronomical. The things we make, the things we've designed...they've improved the world as a whole in ways that are barely able to be calculated. And that's not enough for you? Now we're supposed to solve the world's hunger crisis, too?

Sour grapes, sounds like to me. Maybe I should trade in my BMW for an 85 Honda Civic because my car is an "un-needed form of decadence" that I can do without too, huh?

Or not.

[DMcD]

Not !! Sounds like a "lame" excuse ---- the rantings of a "spoiled brat" trying to legitimize his spoiled perks , no matter the lack of logic. You seem "all consumed" , with "YOU" ------ back to the 70's with you.

[falco]

Thank you Google for your generosity. It is rare in todays world. Corporations with such high profits should give back - it makes for happy employees who work better when treated well. How about Google put some jars around the cafeteria with the words "Katrina Victims" on it. Perhaps Google workers can put a dollar into the jar each time they get a free meal with the proceeds going to the many people who lost their homes, who had insurance, but lost their benefits to fine print (not covered for flooding caused by levees breaking). Employees will be even happier knowing they have passed on the spirit of generosity.

[Knowledgeseeker]

great, how can I get a job with Google....
this is the best company ever...