This ends my first week at the GooglePlex (or, simply, “The Plex”). It’s not like Zurich, that’s for sure. There are some 4000 employees here, spread out in more buildings than I care to count. The atmosphere is a cross between a typical big company and a university campus, especially at meal time.
Google is well known for the food it provides to its employees. We get breakfast, lunch, and dinner at any one of nearly a dozen places, all for free. Each restaurant has it’s own theme. “Charlie’s” is the main cafeteria and on a typical afternoon you can get anything from pizza to burritos to curry to asian stir fry to fettucini to sandwhiches to hamburgers to salads to soups, etc., etc. The menu at the entrance always lists at least 15 to 20 different dishes that are seldom repeated, not counting those that are always present (like soup, salad, burritos, etc.). Of course there are also some freshly made cookies or small cakes, and a fridge full of drinks, and a freezer full of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (the little 1/2 serving cups that are just about right). Other places on campus specialize in natural “health” food or fruit smoothies or… or I don’t know because I’ve only managed to make it to four of them so far!
It seems most people work about the 10-6 shift. It’s easy to find parking at 8am, but don’t even try at 5pm. Many seem to grab dinner to-go and then head out. My hours have been longer, but then I have nothing here to go home to and many cool, interesting things to play with at work. Those hours will get cut back to normal once I’m with my family again, but for now I don’t mind.
Incidentally, if you want to see what the GooglePlex looks like, install Google Earth and go to…
1600 Amphitheatre Pky, Mountain View, Ca
Then check the “3D buildings” and zoom in. Google is currently building a huge solar array, which is already shown on the model. I’m in the south-east (lower-right) building, about the middle of the curve on the top-right.
Now, if you move your mouse to the top-right of the screen, you’ll see a horizontal slider bar. Click the icon on the right end and watch the map tilt so you can see the elevations better. The patio you see is just outside of Charlie’s.
