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| Positive feelings coming from the radio |
For years, we talked about what it takes to create a successful
radio station. The response was usually something to the effect of, "it's
won in the hallways." Successful radio stations were fun places to be. You
could feel the positive attitude coming out of the speakers. In recent years, financial pressures changed the feeling in the hallway.
After spending my professional career in the radio
business, I moved into the tech world in 2013. I was delighted to see how the
employees are treated by the tech companies. Even though the employees are paid
modest salaries, workers are much more satisfied. It has to do with the overall
working environment.
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| Live365 kitchen |
At my office at Live365, the kitchen was always stocked
with all kinds of snack food for use by our staff of 50 employees. Gourmet coffee and a large collection of high quality teas was always available. Bins were
filled with various nuts, snack mixes, and even sweets. Protein snacks,
oatmeal, yogurts and all kinds of foods could be found in the kitchen. And the
drink fridge was filled with sodas, juices, flavored waters. Monday morning,
fresh bagels and cream cheese were brought in. And on some Friday afternoons
cocktails were served. Staffers could take breaks during their work day for a
game of ping-pong.
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| Facebook, one of the top 10 workplaces |
Facebook takes the concept even further. At their headquarters in
Menlo Park, they have game rooms full of pinball machines, old style video game
machines, Xbox360 consoles, foosball, chess boards, and even professional basketball
courts. They have a music studio where musicians on the staff can get together
and jam. Vending machines are full of all kinds of things like iphone
cords, flash drives and other computer products for employees to make their job more efficient. One of the things that
impressed me about the Facebook work area, they don't have the traditional work
cubicles, but rather private spaces in a large work area. The room is wide
open, but instead of walling off everyone in cubes, they have arranged the work
spaces so that each desk feels like it has privacy, but still gives each person
the impression of being in the room with everyone else.
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| Google campus |
I visited a friend on the Google campus in Mountain View.
It's a massive 26-acre office park including a 5-acre outdoor park. While there, he
invited me to lunch. He asked what kind of food I'd like to have: Thai, Indian,
Chinese, Seafood, Steaks, Sandwiches, Salads. Every restaurant has a master
chef leading the food team. They only use locally-sourced produce and organic as
much as possible. They have 18 world class restaurants on the Google campus, as
well as micro kitchens throughout the offices where employees can find espresso
machines, sandwiches, fresh-squeezed juice, cashews, dried fruit, cookies, and a variety
of sodas and chips. My friend told me there is food within 150 feet of every
office. They also have food trucks parked around the campus.
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| Gourmet food for employees at Google |
We finally settled on Japanese. We walked into the
restaurant, and a server greeted is with a tray of sushi. Have a few on your
way to the grill or the fresh table. Fill your plate with as much food as you
want. I could go on-and-on just about the food at Google, but the point is they
have everything on campus that anyone could possibly want and it's all FREE. They provide bicycles for employees to ride from one building to the next. They've really thought of everything to keep employees happy.
The key to this new working environment is employees are honored. Take a break and play a game, play your guitar, go have a fabulous feast - it's
all part of keeping employees happy. And here's the one thing that surprised me
- employees are allowed to, actually encouraged to, work on their own projects
during the day. There are no restrictive covenants. If an employee has other, outside personal
projects to work on, not a problem. The
end result is employees want to be at the office and they give their all to
their company work enthusiastically.
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| Is checking personal email a crime? |
This is in stark contrast to
the way employees at most companies have been treated in the past. It is
frowned on when an employee takes a personal phone call, is checking personal
email or going to Facebook, much less the employee working on an outside
project that has nothing to do with their job. This kind of restrictive
environment creates employees that are fearful of losing their job for doing
something that might not be allowed. But one little change - making the work
environment fun and honoring the employees will go a long way in making it fun
again inside the workplace!
