There was an interesting news item on TV this week.  It was making a big thing of how well Google treats it’s UK staff at it’s headquarters in London.  It was motivational enlightenment!

I was intrigued because having worked for 8 companies over the years, I wanted the lowdown on one of the top companies in the world that employees just love to come to work for.  My experiences(I used to be a maintenance engineer) generally are of managerial indifference.  As long as you turned up for work everyday, and did as you were told, life was tolerable.  Their idea of motivation would  be to shout and criticize, and would never recognize a job well done. But if you messed up,  God help you.

There have been line managers that could not manage a kiddies’ birthday party never mind an engineering department.  These incompetent individuals could make live a misery, as they possessed power and a bad attitude.  With the inevitable result that there would be a regular turnover of staff.  I’m sure these ‘types’ can be found lurking in all businesses, from the street corner shop to big multi nationals.

Down at Google headquarters, the TV report continued, the staff enjoy free food, as much as you can eat.  There is also a games room, where you can wind down playing table tennis.  Apparently Google lets it’s employees work on whatever they want to for approximately 8 hours a week.  Some of Google’s best product ideas come from employees messing around during their 8 hours of ‘free time’.

Steve Yegge an ex Googler (employee) though, maintains that much of Google’s employee motivation comes from the expectation to make huge amounts of money. That may be, but it’s said that as an employee, you just can’t help but want to do your level best for the company, because you owe it to them for taking such good care of you.  Well done Google.

I can picture it now, me and Mr Bolt the cold, heartless manager from years ago, playing table tennis together!