Thursday, October 30, 2008

World Ending - Just Deserts At Google


Phott by Everett Bogue, via NY Mag

Ah yes, early signs that the on-going meltdown of capitalism is impacting even Google, or at least the lavish perks Googlers have come to take for granted. The notice, as reproduced below -and thanks to Silicon Alley Insider for this one - was sent round the New York offices of Google. (Please do though take a look at the linked article to see the inaugural menu so you can get a taste of what, err, you won't be tasting.)


Hi Everyone,
Changes have been made recently to programs throughout our company to ensure cost effectiveness and consistency across offices. In New York City, our food service team has closely examined cafe usage, food consumption and labor costs to find areas where efficiency can be improved without compromising food quality and nutrition. We would like to announce the following NYC-specific changes to the food service program:


* Meals: The below hours were determined to be the most cost effective to serve meals based on traffic flow to cafes.

* Breakfast will be served from 8:30-9:30am (formerly 8:00-9:30am) and the menu will be simplified.

* Lunch will be served from 11:30am-2:00pm (formerly 11:30-2:30pm).

* Dinner will be served from 6:30-8:00pm (formerly 6:00-8:00pm). Please note that dinner is provided for those working late in the office and is not intended to be taken home.



* Microkitchens: Those of you who have been around for a while know that the microkitchens started for a variety of good reasons, including a genuine desire to make it easy for folks to grab some food while working long and/or odd hours. While we are staying true to that original purpose, we are also looking for ways to be smarter, more cost-efficient, and more earth-friendly in the usage and product offerings of our microkitchens.

* There will be changes to the selection of snacks in the microkitchens. We will be sending a survey to Googlers in NYC soon asking for them to vote on their favorite snacks.

* Socials and Guest Policy

* Afternoon tea on Tuesdays will be suspended. Similar to Mountain View, there may be occasional surprise "snack attacks" in the future.

* On those occasions when a senior executive would like to speak at TGIAF, temps, contractors, vendors and guests will be restricted from attending, for confidentiality reasons.

* To maintain consistency with other Google offices, we are going to adopt the guest policy announced in MV last month. Please see below for more detail about this policy.

We look forward to continuing to provide Googlers with a great meal experience every day. Questions, comments or concerns can be sent to [REDACTED]@google.com.
Thank you,


Shocking. Next they will ban pyjamas in the workplace and actually make people work on real stuff that matters. Fancy that. And for those of you who can spell schadenfreude without first looking it up, bets on when we'll see the first round of Google lay-offs? April '09 gets my vote.

1 comment:

I said...

I love the comment "...for those working late in the office and is not intended to be taken home"

You can imagine hundreds of kids just out of colleage having google feed them all week. What do you think they do for food at a weekend? load up on a friday? ;-)