Making a case for free meals at work
Redfin, with our free three lunches a week and liberal snack policy beats Microsoft, but the Google package sounds pretty nice.
From, Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective:
If an employee eats an average of $15 of food per day (the actual average at Google which is closer to $10) it would cost Microsoft $3,750 per year per employee to offer 3 meals a day. Instead of increasing starting salaries, switch to free food. Give everyone else half the merit increases we would have gotten AND ANNOUNCE THE FREE FOOD AT THE SAME TIME. For that quoted $10 average Google provides free soda, free organic drinks (odwalla, naked juice), breakfast, lunch, and dinner (most people only eat lunch), free sport drinks (vitamin water, etc.), and free snacks (trail mixes, nuts, chips, candy, gum, cereal, granola bars).
That single benefit gets people to work earlier because hot breakfast is served only until 8:30. And since dinner isn’t served until 6:00 or 6:30 the people with a home-life tend to skip it.
What resonates with me is the idea of using free food to lure employees in earlier and forcing them to stay later.
June 30th, 2007 at 12:10 am
I heard that Google has a restaraunt in the Googleplex called 300 or 400 or something like that - and it is all food that was grown within 400 miles of the Googleplex - now that is amazing… how would you like to be the Chef at that restaurant?