Appointing a new apartment, frugally

As mentioned earlier, I am working at the Google office in Sunnyvale, and I have rented a studio in San Jose that is 8 miles away. The distance to office is comfortable (15 minutes with no traffic, and never more than 30 even with traffic.) The community is lovely and has walking areas and a Starbucks :-).

When I moved in, it was of course bare, and I had the fun and challenge of furnishing. I slept on a blow up mattress for the first couple of weeks, like a teenager. Keeps me young at heart.

I didn’t want to spend much in furnishings - - Our house is in White Plains, and this is just a pied-à-terre. Plus, taking the job at Google has already come with lots of extra expenses...travel home to NY for 10 days every month, additional rent, gas, electric, etc. in California, an additional car….So my goal was to furnish on the cheap, but ensuring the space was pleasant and comfortable for the time that I spend in it.

I started with Craig’s list. I found great and affordable furniture from various posters in the San Jose area. But I still puzzle about the logistics of getting furniture from Craig’s list...how do you pick it up? If we are talking about couches, tables, desks...these don’t fit in my car. Renting a truck? Along with 2 big burly guys that can haul the stuff? And then driving from city to city as needed?

I did find a dining room table and chairs that I liked on Craig’s list from south San Jose (30 minutes away). I had to make 2 trips...one for the chairs, another for the table. The table is solid wood. (lovely!) And heavy (less lovely). When I got back to my apartment, I couldn’t get it out of the car. I found a burly guy in the garage area (works for Facebook) who helped me get it out of the car and to my apartment. And then my neighbor Ajay next door (who works for Apple) helped me assemble it. (At the time I didn’t have tools; now I do.) So this was not a model I wanted to replicate for all the furniture.

My colleague Michelle pointed me to a San Francisco startup, moveloot.com. Sort of like an upscale Craig’s list, that *delivers.* And if you have any, they will take your old furniture, and pay you something if they sell it. So that’s how I did much of the rest of the furniture, supplemented by other online shoppng for a new mattress, bed coverings, etc. I got some of the artwork on Amazon, and at Goodwill.

I had the clever idea of decorating the wall above my desk with interesting clocks. (Shout out here to our friend John Pitrelli, who once upon a time collected unusual clocks.) I got one clock with the time displayed as a word-finding game, one “melting” clock, and one that runs *backwards*. Fun! What I didn’t take into account is that all night long, there is a chorus of tick-tocks. Lulls me to sleep….

The open office - Part 2

I don’t know the architectural history of workspace design. My guess is that once, the norm for workplace professionals was offices, with doors. And windows. And then, someone came up with the concept of cubicles, the butt of jokes about workspaces in the 20th century. They were modular and could be reconfigured, they were smaller and cheaper than full offices, and the ¾ height walls provided a modicum of visual privacy and some slight buffering of sound,

The open office space became more popular in the late 20th century, aligned with startup cultures. A cluster of people launching a new service or product concept worked in whatever space they could rassle up, the proverbial garage. There were no barriers between sitting areas. There was no need for barriers, the start-up founding team were all developing the same concept. Any work-related discussion of one member was probably of interest to all, so nothing was a distraction; or, more likely, all distractions had some relevance.

Fast forward to 2015. Startups that survived are now all grown up, and in many cases are the leading companies of our times. And the open office origins have persisted.

As a strategic design decision, I don’t get it. I do get it as a financial decision, if companies in Silicon Valley or NYC can’t afford the costs associated with building full offices in prime real estate markets. But I don’t think that companies view this as an unfortunate financial compromise; they see this as creatively advantageous.

Let’s walk through a work day in a high tech environment. Most employees split their day with the following: Coding or technical work, creating documents or reports, talking to co-workers at their worksite, talking to co-workers or others at remote sites.

Is the open office preferable for any of these scenarios? I would opine that it is not.

People that are coding or doing technical work generally prefer to concentrate, and distractions are….distracting. Employees in these spaces block out the audio distractions with noise-canceling headphones, creating a cone of silence. This serves another purpose...it notifies others nearby that the person is in “do not disturb” mode, and “please don’t talk to me unless it’s important.” The person in deep concentration also needs to resist the visual distractions of people moving around in front of him/her. I’m not sure what the solution would be for that...horse blinders? Some “tent” around the coder’s head to block out all but the screen and keyboard?

Conversations or meetings with others not on site are managed through conference calls or videoconferences. In a closed office setting, a teleconference or videoconference can be part of the flow of your workday, right from your own desk. In an open office setting, the worker needs to find a room, for any 15 minute call with an external party. If this is happening spontaneously and you haven’t reserved a conference room a priori, the search scramble begins, and the room that gets scheduled might be some distance away. Loss of time and productivity.

Then, there is talking to co-workers on site. This is probably the optimistic intention of the open workspace; the idea that there will be creative and spontaneous interchanges. And there are. The problem is, once a company has some mass, not everyone is working on the same project anymore, and the creative exchange of co-workers A and B might be irrelevant and distracting to co-workers C and D. So again, the search scramble for space in a quiet room begins. Which sort of spoils what should have been the spontaneity of the conversation.

Finally, there is what I consider the social ab-norm of open office space. In a closed office environment, people will greet each other in hallways, ask how their weekend was, share some anecdotes. People might step into each other’s offices for a 5 minute catch-up chat with a close colleague. In an open office setting, where people work in very close proximity, there is (ironically) even less chatting and catch up. Think of the NYC subway - - you are standing so near to other people, that you develop a “zone out” mindset; other people are breathing on your face in very close proximity, but you don’t engage in eye contact that acknowledges their presence. Plus, from an efficiency point of view, if every person that entered the open space broached a conversation about what everyone did on their weekend, it would be a significant time drain. And, when someone enters the space, others might be in their quiet coding zone. So even saying “hello” to everyone can be seen as a distraction.

Curious to see what the workspaces of the future will look like. I anticipate that this will not be the final solution.

Cooking again!

I guess, unbeknownst to me, I have become a cooking/baking addict. With a large family and lots of people coming and going at all times, there is always reason to be cooking and baking in NY. Despite having an active professional life, I am certain that my boys and their friends have a sort of Betty Crocker image of me, working in the kitchen at all hours, for many hours.

Then comes the Google life in California...with no one to cook or bake for. Google provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner on weekdays; on weekends I am out and about or eating very simply by myself. If you open my refrigerator here, it's pathetic...a couple of sagging vegetables. A browning banana on the counter. If you know us from White Plains, you will know that we have refrigerators bursting at the seams...upstairs, and in the basement. The disparity was disturbing. Something had to change.

I have a relatively large kitchen for a studio apartment, so that's not an obstacle. But I am short on all of the tools related to food preparation. Our kitchen in White Plains is near professional-level. We have an industrial oven, and every utensil known to cooking-man...(in triplicate)...Lemon squeezers? we have three. Pots and pans of all sizes. Every scooping and slicing and grating apparatus. (in multiples, for dairy or meat...) A high end set of knives, courtesy of Adam's summer job of 2 years ago selling for Cutco.

So --how to equip a kitchen here, afresh? I start on the cheap, with cutlery from Target. And no lemon squeezer. (You CAN squeeze lemons without one - -wonder!) It's sort of fun to start again from the ground up, figuring out what you really need, and what you don't. I told Jordan I have exactly 2 tupperware containers, each with appropriately-sized lids. (At home in White Plains, we have the standard accumulation of gazillion sizes, with tops never matching the bottoms, and piles falling upon you when you upon the cabinet and pull one out, Jenga-style. Jordan was enthralled...2 tupperware containers with matching lids sounded zen-like...)

I have been going Israeli dancing since arriving in California, Monday nights and Thursday nights. It’s fun, and it’s exercise. So I have started using that as a catalyst for cooking/baking, bringing trays of borekas or brownies to the dance sessions. (I lag behind in the dancing, but I am getting known as the food-preparer…) Plus, I catered a full middle eastern lunch for my colleagues at Google last week. I prepared 6 pashtidot for a kiddush at Etz Chaim synagogue in Palo Alto. And I have had company for brunch, this weekend and last. So I am now getting my cooking-baking fix again, and I won’t be too rusty when I return to NY again next week…

Separation of work life and personal life

I have generally had a seamless separation between work and life. This has been especially true when it comes to electronic devices. At IBM, I had one cellphone, one computer. I had my IBM email address, and a personal gmail address that I never checked. This was nice and compact, until I left IBM and somehow had to tease out which files were personal, which were work-related, and separate the two. My email address for everything at the time was sbasson@us.ibm.com, and so I had to connect with every entity that I do any business with to inform them of the change of email contact. (the bank, Amazon, Netflix, Paypal, American Express, Macy’s, etc. etc. etc.) I am sure to this day that I have missed a few.

In my new, fully separated life streams, I have a computer that is personal, and a computer from Google. I have my personal iPhone and iPad, plus an Android phone from Google. Neat and clean.

BUT - - that means that I have this array of devices to manage, update, keep charged. On any given day, my bag includes my iPhone (plus chargers), my Android (plus chargers), a backup battery just in case, plus my Mac (and chargers.) It feels like I’m a walking IT department. Plus, it’s heavy. And inevitably, one of the devices is out of juice. I feel like I’m feeding triplets, making sure that each device gets its due and adequate time plugged into the wall. So I don’t think that I would advocate this new and fully separated work-life technological divide as the ideal solution. At least, not till they come up with batteries that last for (say) a full week….

Another funny consequence -- Now that I have a work-related google.com account, plus a personal gmail.com account, I am often unsure about where a particular email was created. Add to that messages from Facebook, and sms, What’sApp, and LinkedIn, and it is a constant puzzle.  My phone will flash a message alert that will disappear, and I am left wondering “was that from gmail? Or facebook? Or….?” Comment from my son Jordan….we need a new solution to sort it all out, like “What’s-MY-App” :-)

Apartment in California: Part 2

I have groused in the past about the absurd expense of apartments in the Silicon Valley area, given the rapidly rising demand and limited supply. Well, my corporate housing benefit expired mid-September, and so I had to bite the bullet and find a place. (The amenities at Google do make if possible to live on site….lots of food, showers, comfy sofas...but that is not encouraged :-) - -

My lovely real estate agent Rita took me on a couple of days of apartment touring. My criteria were, I thought, pretty modest, and I continued to fondly believe that I could find a bargain. (I don’t care about school districts, and I don’t need much space, and I don’t need too many amenities on site - - I can even do laundry at work if need be.) I did want proximity to work - - no more than 10 miles away, given the horrific Silicon Valley traffic. People pointed out to me that I could take the Google buses (very comfortable and equipped with wifi) that shuttle Googlers all over northern California, but I am too accustomed to the autonomy of driving. I don’t want to leave work at a particular time because that is when the bus leaves from my Google campus in Sunnyvale to community X; I want to leave work when I finish what I’m doing. I no longer have babysitters that I need to relieve at a certain time...I think I was an easy client to please.

I did find one place that was a few thousand dollars/month less than other options. I thought I had found the golden nugget. But when I did a google search on the property, there were lots of reviews of tenants saying their cars were broken into; their apartments robbed; and that management was unresponsive. Representative complaints? Outliers? Who knows...But since I don’t know the communities here, and even a “nice” complex can be abutting a less desirable and more crime-ridden area, I shied away…

So that brought me back to the more expensive units.

It occurs to me that there are no bargains in the age of the internet and comparative pricing. Just as we the consumer can compare the price of a car or a washing machine at 10 different online sites, so too can the landlords. They are so savvy about pricing, that the prices shift daily (based on demand? outlooks? who knows...)

Lots of housing designed for the growing tech community has sprung up in Silicon Valley over the last few years. Since the communities are competing with one another, there are certain basic amenities that most of the units have, such as pools, gyms, media rooms, computing and print facilities, meeting spaces. Not unlike the sorts of hotels many of us stay at on business trips. Given my modest needs, and given that Google already has all of these things, I didn’t need those peripherals. But you can’t strip them away - -they come with the package. (It would be nice to have a “cafeteria plan” of options -- where you can point out that you won’t be using all the amenities, and so you need not subscribe…)

The apartment I chose is a studio that is about 6 miles from my Google office, with no scary reviews on line. The complex boasts multiple olympic sized pools that I will never use…(I’m a bad swimmer, I can’t see well when I remove my glasses or contacts, if I wear a bathing cap, I don’t hear well, if I don’t, my hair gets frizzy - -  :-) It has lots of walking paths (that I will use). And a Starbucks and small grocery on site (that I will also use.) Funny how the Starbucks actually did play in my head as an important feature. While I was in corporate housing in Santa Clara for 3 months, there were no nearby stores that were walking distance. If you were out of coffee, you had to drive somewhere. Or go without. Not a big deal, but ability to get coffee on site is a nice amenity for me. I am reminded of taking kids on college tours to select colleges. I hear from parents how their student “felt right” on one campus and “less right” on another. On your walking tour you are not seeing the reputations of professors or the special majors offered by that school. You are seeing buildings, and kids wandering around campus. I wonder how many major decisions - such as which university to choose over the next four years - - are influenced by trivia such as walking paths and a nearby Starbucks.

This studio in San Jose (which is not the most prestigious zip code in the area -- Palo Alto would have been more expensive) - - will be $2300/month. I am told by friends familiar with the area that I got a real bargain.

I have just moved in. Some pictures included.

Beauty - Continuous, or intermittent?

My friend and former colleague John Thomas once shared the following recommendation: When you have a beautiful piece of art, you should place it carefully in your home. Don’t put it in an obvious place that you will see every day, because you will habituate, and stop noticing its beauty. Instead, put it in a more obscure spot, that you won’t encounter all that frequently, so that every time you see it, you will gasp.

I wonder whether that would be a good way to run a company like Google, too. There are so many exceptional offerings, but you are confronted with them daily. And you stop gasping. And you start saying: “why don’t they have pomegranate flavored water today?” Maybe intermittent reinforcement would be better, so that there are surprises on some days and not others. When there are surprises daily, they stop feeling like surprises.

There is so much to discover, though, that there are still lots of opportunities for me to catch my breath, and delight in the fact that “Google offers THIS, too??” - -I have captured a few of these in photos. 

We were at a meeting, and I noticed a dog park behind the building. Google is, by the way, a very dog-oriented company, with employees bringing in their well-mannered dogs many times a week.

Here was another wonder-worthy moment...There are (free) gum machines in Sunnyvale. Apparently the gum had an ingredient (xylitol) that is dangerous to dogs. Google influenced the manufacturer to change the recipe, so that if gum inadvertently falls to the ground and a dog eats it, he won’t become sick. 

Note also the terraces (and the views) outside the Google NYC building.

Accumulating "stuff"

Anyone who hasn’t moved in a long time can anticipate how daunting it would be to figure out what to keep and what to toss. To the point where I know people that opt not to downsize their homes, since they don’t know where they would put their stuff.

I had the experience of packing up everything we owned (including the boxes stuck in the eaves in the attic) before we left for our overseas assignment in India a few years ago. So I observed with horror and amusement the number of things we had accumulated, that we never or rarely used or looked at. I made a silent promise to self to be more mindful of what gets saved and stored, so that I don’t get overwhelmed with stuff.

I came to California in June, with 3 large suitcases.  As part of the Google benefit, I had fully furnished corporate housing for 3 months.

As the 3 months ended, and I had to move my personal items out, I anticipated having not much more than the same 3 suitcases. But I did have more. I am watching stuff accumulate, even as I try to be mindful. Some of it is needed. Some of it is “stuff” - -not needed, but too good or too new to throw away. The “may come in handy one day” category. Shampoo and conditioner are a good example. You get adventurous one day and buy brands you have never used. You discover over time that you don’t really like them as much as your original brands, so you buy those too. But you don’t throw away the barely-used other containers; maybe you’ll use them if your favored brand runs out; or maybe you’ll use them just to change things up. Voila; your bathroom cabinets get full. As do kitchen cabinets. And the clothing cabinets. So just “mindfulness” has not been enough of a deterrent - -

Giving something to charity, each time you take a free coffee...

In one of my earlier postings, I mentioned that workers tend to take more of the foodstuffs since they are all free for the taking. So on your way to the other side of the building, when you pass the coffee area, you’ll grab (another) latte. I had mused about setting up something for people to (voluntarily) donate a dollar every time they take a free coffee...and the money collected would go to feed people that are *actually* hungry and thirsty. Some of my blog reading friends thought that was a good idea to implement. But here is why I am wary.

First - - I recall an incident when my sons were young, that impressed upon me that “great ideas” for me may not be great for everyone else. I had the clever idea of changing the birthday party paradigm for my son’s nursery school class. I would send out a note to the parents, pointing out that my son, just like all the kids in this nursery school class, had way too many toys. How’s about we do the following: For any kid’s birthday, we will make sure that the kid gets a few highly desirable presents that he really wants. But instead of 15, he will get 5. The other 10 gifts (or the money they would have cost) would go to kids that did not have closets full of toys. Great idea, no? I shared it with one of the (non-working) mommies at one of the birthday parties. She pointed out that her daughter loved shopping with her to buy special gifts targeted for each birthday child. (Unlike our family situation - -where I ran to Toys R Us by myself after work or late at night, never with my kids, and bought anything that seemed age-appropriate.) So I realized that my clever suggestion would end up de-personalizing the birthday party present-buying experience for some families. What I thought was an incontrovertibly good idea would ultimately offend some of the families.

Second, for me, the amenities at Google are beyond what I - or anyone - “deserves.” But for people that have been at Google for awhile, it has become a norm; this is the way things are; the amenities are earned by the productive workforce. 

I remember a lesson from my (wonderful) professor for Organizational Behavior, Frances Milliken. We discussed under-paying, right-paying, and over-paying employees. An employer might think that exceeding employees' expectations and over-paying would be a great motivator. In fact, the research showed that you can't really "overpay" your workers. On the day they receive the news about their uber generous raise, they might be very happy. But people don't like to feel that they are getting more than they deserve. So the employees soon move into a mode where they believe that they do in fact deserve it, given all the work they do for the company, their major contributions, etc. etc...

And so instituting a pseudo “paying” system would seem odd, and inappropriate - -as though I put a charity box on my desk and expected contributions when people passed by.

Another good idea that I will allow to marinade for awhile…

“Work Rules”

I have referred to the exceedingly generous perks offered by Google in earlier postings. Google has repeatedly been named the best company to work for.  LinkedIn has described Google as the most sought after place to work in the world. Since the perks are most visible and so outstanding, the first blush conclusion is that Google’s desirability and strong culture is because of the perks. And the second conclusion is that only a company with Google’s resources could be that generous.

I recently read “Work Rules,” a book by Laszlo Bock, head of “People Operations” at Google. (Even the name of the department – “People Operations” – is telling, and lovely…. where did companies ever get the term “Human Resources,” and why doesn’t the community of “people” object to such a dehumanizing label?)

The book describes a lot about the culture of what makes Google, Google - - and claims that it goes way beyond the perks. (I concur). It also points out that a lot of the “perks” are really a small cost to the company, and any company can offer these if they open their minds and default to saying “yes.”

Some key features of Google culture, contributing to a happy and productive employee community:

• Google is a “high freedom” company, where employees have a lot of latitude. For example, the informal concept of “20% time” - - giving Googlers 20% of their week to focus on projects that interest them.
• Managers cannot make unilateral decisions about whom to hire or fire, how their performance is rated, whom to promote, the final design of a product and when to launch it.  (So what do managers do? “Managers serve the team,” according to executive chairman Eric Schmidt.)
• There is a belief that people are fundamentally good, and Google treats them like owners instead of machines…”Machines do their jobs; owners do whatever is needed to make their companies and teams successful.” If you believe people are good, you must be unafraid to share information with them. Google shares everything, and trusts Googlers to keep the information confidential.
• Many of the “people practices” at Google started when Google was neither big nor rich. Weekly TGIF meetings, hiring decisions made by groups rather than a single manager, the policy of welcoming dogs to come to work with you, “free meals” in the early days which comprised cereal and milk and lots of M&Ms.
• The Founders letter when Google went public is telling:  “We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.”

The microkitchens and the cafes promote efficiency and community….and are indeed expensive, and harder to replicate by companies with fewer means… As are the free shuttle buses that drive Googlers all around Northern California, and subsidized child care. But most of Google’s people programs are (almost) free…and can be duplicated by anyone. The goal of the people programs is to achieve efficiency, community, innovation. On site car washes, dry cleaning, and mobile haircuts are “free” for Google; Googlers themselves pay for these services. Entrepreneurs are happy to have permission to come on site, and Google can negotiate some volume discounts for employees.  Programs like “Take your parents to work day” (really!), events like TGIF, juggling clubs, networks for “Gayglers,” “Greyglers,” “Women at Google,” “Black Googler Network,” and nap pods… contribute to culture, but cost the company almost nothing. Googlers have organized talks by external speakers as part of their personal 20% projects - - (with speakers that include Presidents Obama and Clinton, Game of Thrones author RR Martin, Toni Morrison, David Beckman) 

So as the book suggests….Many companies could do more to replicate Google’s culture. It is part of a “belief system” more than a function of “generous perks.”

The no-dress-code, dress code

Google takes pride in the fact that there is no formal dress code. There are weekly TGIF events, where Google’s founders present a town hall meeting for Googlers only. (It is very impressive that they are “there” every week to share information to everyone on staff…) Larry Page and Sergey Brin appear in shorts and T-shirts. This clearly sets a tone. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is famous for going around in a hoodie. I remember earlier “business advice” was to dress for the next role you would like to assume. On any given day, if senior leadership is looking around for “whom should we promote today,” you should “look” like the executive that you aspire to be. In Silicon Valley, that probably means dramatically dressing down. If you want to become Mark Zuckerberg, and look like Mark Zuckerberg, that would mean dressing like this:

Google has recently hired a new CFO, Ruth Porat.  She comes to Google from Morgan Stanley, where she was CFO.  She appeared at a recent TGIF, dressed in jeans and a silk-looking shirt. I am betting that this is the first time she appeared in a formal company event, in blue jeans. In her previous role, she probably slept in a business suit…But now, she is dressing according to the “no dress code” dress code of Silicon Valley.

I hardly wore business suits at IBM Research. For the most part, I wore khakis and a shirt; sometimes with a sweater or jacket. Not all that fancy. I noticed here at Google that people wore (for the most parts) shorts, or jeans. Khakis seem a little too dressy.

I spent a couple of weeks working out of the Google NYC office. There, I noticed, there is a little more diversity of dress than Silicon Valley. Women in particular were likely to be wearing sleeveless sun dresses and flip flops or flat sandals. NYC chic appears to have trumped the techie environment dress-down.

California….and the livin’ is… PRICEY

Silicon Valley has become a popular place for tech businesses…after all, it now has its own television show.

It was a manageable section of the country just 15 years ago. The population of Mountain View is now about 80,000, with about 25% of the population working at Google.

But the infrastructure hasn’t kept up.

In 2000, Google had a few dozen employees. Fast forward to 2015, with >50,000 employees worldwide, and most of those in northern California. Real estate costs are absurdly expensive. One bedroom apartments near the Googleplex average $2000-$3000/month. I have been shielded from this by getting Google corporate housing for the last 3 months. But the 3 months will come to a close in another few weeks, and so I am in full-gear-apartment search.

There are lots of apartment complexes that have sprouted up. I refer to them as dormitories for grown-ups. The apartments don’t have much character, style, or soul; they are clean, new, and pricey. Some photos of the complexes in my community in Santa Clara are included.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNAPOs99u8F-q2oQKZmJ2nI5ZKUa75Ulqs8QDarEXNafoe1E3mLVihBpZI7jkicQQ?key=TlhFSEtpYldBWFM5ZV9zby1RaVdyaHR4SHN1RTBn

The closer you are to the hub of the action (or, if you choose to be in San Francisco), the more expensive the options are.I am now very close to the hub of the action. In my 7 mile drive to the Google office, I pass Oracle, Yahoo, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin…All contributing to the density of population.And, therefore, the density of traffic. You can get a more affordable living space if you are willing to drive 25 or 30 miles to work. No big deal in Westchester County, but here, you will be in traffic for hours. I have rather modest criteria for the apartment that I choose…but proximity to the office is high on the desirable list.

My recommendation to all the big companies here, and to the municipalities that house them: When you expand your complex and increase your population, you should be obligated to build with it a lot of housing, so that you increase supply and reduce the outrageous cost of housing. Sort of like the mandate to provide parking facilities if you build a housing project that will bring thousands of cars to the area. And if the communities and companies are going to allow tens of thousands of employees to come in for work, then housing needs to become more NYC-like - - multi-story, multi unit. It is lovely to have town ordinances that mandate pastoral garden apartments. But it can’t absorb the masses; and the intense demand drives prices haywire. Housing accommodations on the work site will also reduce some of the traffic burden, as these same employees won’t then crowd the highways.  I shoulda been a city planner…J

Designing the workspace

At IBM Research, we had private offices. The norm for new tech companies is the open space - -lots of desks and chairs, abutting.

I envision companies just launching, with a cadre of 10 people all feverishly inventing, developing, and discussing what needs to be done out of the proverbial garage.  The interaction is frequent, and collocation is key.

Fast forward to startups that are no longer startups, and now have thousands of employees.

Hundreds of people sharing the same open space are no longer all collaborating with one another, non-stop. It gets harder and harder to collocate all of the people that are working on a particular project; some of the team might be in a remote office location. So now people are abutting desks and chairs with others that may or may not be working on the same projects. Overhearing their conversations and issues becomes a distraction to your own work.

Even if people are all working on the same project, we aren’t always talking and strategizing; sometimes we need the quiet time to actually deliver. That is harder in a noisy space. It is also harder when you are just “out there” and so any random person that sees you might come over and start a conversation.

The solution? Headphones. You will see lots of people working with headphones on. They are either listening to music while they work, or they are creating a “signal” – like a closed door - -“I am working now, knock first if you want to interrupt.”

When you are going to have a meeting with a few people, or even a videoconference call, you can’t do it at your desk; you will disturb the others around you that are not working on the same project, or not working on the same phase of that project at this particular time. So you need to find a conference room. The open space model assumes that you do most of your work in a public space, and separate off into a quiet conference room space when you need to have lengthy conversations with other people.

I also think about the growing population with attention deficit disorder (ADD). Some estimates claim that this is 11% of the population, and that most of these are male (the dominant gender in tech companies.) Placing people to work in these bustling shared spaces is probably not ideal to get highest productivity. Unless we have inadvertently found a “cure” for ADD, through an immersion process..

I don’t suffer from ADD; our house was always rollicking and chaotic and so I can function just fine in that sort of setting. But I do miss my own office –with all of the personal touches of life around me; pictures of my family on the wall, and all the other nick nacks – that make your office feel more like the second home that it really is.

Free Food - -The economics, the psychology

Food at Google is free. And that doesn’t mean free lunch, it means free everything. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you choose; unlimited snacks, drinks, and coffee all day. There are some 30+ “cafes” across the campuses near me (Mountain View is 4 or 5 miles from my office; I am based in the newer Sunnyvale facility.)

When you join Google, there is reference to the “Google 15” (pounds) that people gain in their first year; akin to the “Freshman 15” when kids go off to college.

Google has recognized this, and made efforts to curb the trend. The visible snacks in the pervasive microkitchens are sorted according to their health value. The nuts, dried fruits, and cereal are in clear containers on the top shelves. There are M&Ms too; but they are in an opaque container so as not to draw your attention for an impulsive handful. The top set of drawers have granola bars, dried seaweed, dried edamame, etc. Plus some really irresistible and novel treats, like “coconut chips.” (How can you turn those down?)

The next drawers have popcorn and chips. You need to kneel to the bottom drawers to get the “bad stuff” like Kit Kat bars. The food in the cafeteria is healthy for the most part, and color-coded as green for vegetables; red for carbs, etc. I have eaten more varieties of kale over the last few weeks than I have ever eaten in my life. Plates are smaller than standard serving dishes, reducing the temptation to over indulge.

When we pay for food, we tend to “get our money’s worth.” I never ladle half a bowl of soup when I purchase soup….If I can’t finish it now, I’ll finish it later J But at Google, we aren’t paying for it. So I am trying to use this new reality as a catalyst to change that ladling behavior….Why NOT just take a bowl with a small quantity of soup? And just come back for more if you want some?

Not paying for food, though, also creates some bad snacking habits that sneak up on you. Like taking a handful of almonds every time you pass a microkitchen. (and there are microkitchens everywhere at Google - - ) Or drinking 3 cups of coffee over the course of a day. Paying for food creates a natural inhibitor. (Would I take that third cup of coffee, if I were paying $2.50, or would I recognize that I probably don’t really need it?)

So here is a suggestion for google. (Actually, just a suggestion to my blog friends, since googlers would shoot me for this suggestion…) Create an “economic barrier” to excessive eating. Make it such that you drop $1 into a bin, whenever you take a snack. That $1 will go to feed hungry people. They get to eat more, and we would likely binge less….

Being Googley

Google places a high premium on being nice, helping your colleagues, doing the right thing, not being “evil,” etc. Indeed, I am told that your evaluation and promotions are very contingent on how your peers evaluate you; your manager is not the key determinant for your perceived success in the organization.

So far, everyone really does seem…nice. And helpful.

And I wondered, what makes an organization generally “nice” rather than snarky and competitive?

It could be that these are the “shared values” of the organization, and people who join an organization espouse these principles because they know these are the behaviors that will enable them to succeed.

Or, it could be that Google “hires” for “Googliness” (a real term that is used here - -“being Googley” - ) - -and so the culture is created by populating the organization with like-minded people.

Or, as Amnon suggested, Google has created a culture where employees feel that their needs are met, that they can work hard and earn well, that the company values them with lots of perks, that there has never been a threat of layoffs, that they are truly treated as Googles “most valuable assets”…and so it becomes easy to be “nice”… -

The new coins of the realm

In the corporate world: How do you incentivize people to participate in meetings or come to a presentation? One of the incentives at IBM would be: “refreshments will be served.” Cookies are a great inducement.

What do you do when the cookies are already pervasive and plentiful? Food is no longer an incentivizer to “show up.”

But people still need incentives

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I am discovering the incentive system at Google. One is the full range of Google T-shirts that you get for participating in certain events. Some people proudly wear different Google T-shirts to work every day. Another incentive is…stickers. I participated in speech data acquisition this week. (You make recordings that the research team can use to improve speech recognition accuracy.) I have done this numerous times at IBM, and in return got a free lunch voucher. I now did this at Google, and got stickers to apply to my Mac. I wondered where people here got all the sticky “bling” for their computers. Now I know…you participate in stuff, and then you adorn your computer with these badges of honor. So we all need incentives, but they need to be provided in the context of what your society “values.” (Full disclosure…I would have contributed my voice for the advancement of speech technology…with or without the giveaways, at IBM or at Google…J)

Celebrating Diversity....Beyond the "targeted" group

I have participated in any number of “diversity events” in the past. Participants are often members of the diversity group you are celebrating (Hispanic heritage? Black history?), along with the diversity event organizers that are putting the event together. This sort of misses one of the goals of holding these events:  Sharing the culture with others unaffiliated.

Google hosted a Gay Pride event several days ago. It was held on an open air deck, immediately following the weekly “town hall” event (TGIF) with Google’s founders. So as thousands exited the auditorium where TGIF was held, they entered the space of the Gay Pride event. There were hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and entertainment. A DJ, comedian, dancers, and a grammy-nominated singer (Mary Lambert). People stuck around for hours – the closely-affiliated along with the less-affiliated. Everyone likes a party…

On the topic of sensitivity and awareness about LGBT issues: I neglected to fill in the field for “gender” (M/F) in one of my health care enrollment documents at Google. I got a note indicating that it was a compulsory field for government reasons, but with an acknowledgement and an apology that the gender selection choices were so “limited.” (For my particular case…it was just an oversight; I was perfectly fine just marking “F”…)

Green California

We live in the United States....where the rules and experiences (and language) are much more cohesive than, say, the more disparate states of India. But there are nonetheless notable state distinctions, between California and New York. (Since I am in northern California, maybe some of these are not state-wide? Maybe even unique to Sunnyvale or Mountain View? - - )

One noteworthy difference is ecological. 

The paper towel dispensers at Google often have stickers that state "these come from trees," to discourage waste. Funny...I can hear my mother's voice, when I was younger, saying "money doesn't grow on trees," (suggesting that if it DID, I could use as much as I wanted..:-) 

The waste at Google is distributed and color coded across four bins: non-confidential paper, compostables, bottles and cans, and landfill. (The "landfill" bin was clearly so named to sound particularly unpleasant ...) Google sources plastic utensils and plastic cups that are somehow plant-based, and these go into the compostable bin. It takes some extra time to think when you are discarding your trash here...

Plastic bags are no longer provided in the stores. You either bring your own canvas bags, or you can buy a brown paper bag for 20 cents or so. And to tell the sad truth, I miss the plastic bags from places like Target...I use them to carry my sneakers in my gym bag, to line garbage pails, and numerous other things! When I went home to NY last weekend, I packed a bunch in my carry-on luggage to bring back to California...But now, I treat them much more gently, since they need to last... :-)

Navigating new terrains

I have never been a good navigator. I imagine that even inherently bad navigators can improve, with focused effort. On the other hand, without focused effort, even your tiny latent abilities will wither. Amnon, on the other hand, is a superb navigator, with excellent memory for directions to places he has been, and an excellent sense for places he has not. As often occurs in marriages...you complement each others' skills and weaknesses. And so my already weak navigation has gone entirely to rest.

Fast forward to now...where I am navigating on my own in northern California. With considerable help from iPhone apps like Waze. OK, full disclosure, with pathological dependence on apps like Waze.

This afternoon, I got into the car with the goal of picking up some food supplies and stopping somewhere for dinner. To my horror, the internet was not accessible...through iPhone OR iPad...(My theory: There was a One Direction concert at Levi Stadium, 3 blocks from the apartment...and I think that volume of usage brought down the cellular network.)

It occurred to me that I had no idea where to go once I drove out of the apartment complex. I went back upstairs, to refer to a paper map. (I don't want to sound too much like a millennial...but paper maps are SO limiting, for the navigationally-impaired! I will inevitably make a wrong turn at some point, and then need to refer again to the map for "repair"...which you can't do while driving...)

There was an old TV commercial to discourage smoking...It showed a woman that woke up wanting a cigarette, and becoming progressively more frantic when she couldn't find one. It concluded with the woman saying, "That's when I knew I was addicted." This was my "ah ha" moment for iPhone or GPS addiction, too.

I don't know if I can fully wean myself, but it is time to start taking random drives around town, and developing a sense of what-is-where. Maybe even learning to distinguish north from south...

The Google Amenities - - Treating employees like "adults" - -(Actually, like royal adults)

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We all hear about the perks of working at Google. Let me start by saying...whatever you have heard, it is true. I didn't do a lot of research on the perks before coming here...I just knew about the perks touted most often, like free meals.

The list is...almost endless. Google takes pride in keeping employees happy, with the view that happy employees are productive employees. And happy employees will be less likely to leave for other tech opportunities that abound in Silicon Valley.

There is a micro-kitchen in every building. Coffees, teas, cashews, almonds, locally sourced fruit, and other healthy snacks. The juices are fancy organic carrot juice, mango juice, etc. On the 3rd floor, there is a barista, in case you prefer professionally-made gourmet coffees with designs in the microfoam in a coffeehouse atmosphere. There are multiple cafes on campus, with famous chefs at the helm, preparing culturally diverse dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The bathrooms have Japanese-made toilets with heated seats.The grounds are lovely, fragrant with flowers, and with interesting seating all around if you prefer to work outside. There are interesting clusters of seating inside, too, if you opt to leave your desk to work in an alternate setting.

I found another blog about the Google grounds, that includes lots of pictures (including the toilets...) - -I include it here:
 http://www.whereverwriter.com/how-to-get-a-tour-of-google-headquarters-mountain-view-california/

Right now, I discover all of these options with wonder, like a child, or a traveler to a new country. I am amazed at every turn, and taken aback at this ever-so-indulgent work environment. Others, over time, have come to take it for granted. New hires who have not worked in other places before probably conclude that this is the norm for the working world. It is not.

My cousin has commented in jest that I need to make sure that I don't look like a NY tourist, gaping in awe as I look up at the tall buildings that everyone else passes in stride :-)

But I want to challenge myself to *not* take any of this for granted, ever. These are exceptional amenities, and I want to stay grateful and in awe for as long as I'm here. Let's see how long *that* lasts....How long will it take for me to complain that they don't have my absolute favorite type of flavored water in stock, as though it's an entitlement...

The packing process

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I knew that I should expect many culture shifts between IBM and Google. One that became relevant even before the big transition was that IBM Research in NY has private offices, while Google has communal space. There are philosophical differences at play here... should employees work in private spaces, and then convene in communal spaces, or should "home base" be communal, with private spaces scattered about for private meetings, conference calls, etc.? I can leave these questions to corporate space planners...but for me, I had to figure out what to do with "stuff" that accrues after working in one place for nearly 17 years. and decorates your office.

I wish that everything had "expiration dates" like milk or yogurt. If something hasn't been looked at in 10 years, safe to say you can let it go...

Let's start with the shelves that I had at IBM and would not have at Google. The shelves had become museum ledges for all of my textbooks from graduate school. Even a few gems from undergrad. A dictionary of Ancient Greek....not opened, lately. Indeed, almost none of the books had been opened lately. Most hadn't been opened since graduate school. And even if I suddenly wanted to refresh my understanding of acoustic phonetics...would I open textbooks from 25 years ago, or would I seek something "fresher"? The answer is clear. Many, many books got donated. But sentimentality reigns...I still kept quite a few, which will probably live in storage boxes in the basement for more years than they should.

The most amusing collection of useless "saves" were business cards. I had hundreds of them in the archives.  As I looked at them, I realized that many of the companies represented on the cards are no longer in existence. Or the people that worked there then no longer do. And for most of the cards, I didn't have a clue about where they came from. Perhaps I gave a talk at a conference 5 years ago and someone gave me a card as we discussed the presentation afterwards? Maybe it was from a conference that was 10 years ago? In any case...There is no "networking" value for most of these business cards..."I met you somewhere, and I don't know when, but I wanted to follow up about something??" Nearly all of the cards got tossed. How cathartic.

To blog or not to blog?

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I created a blog during our family overseas assignment in India, that got a lot of traction, views, and comments. (Some 15,000 views over the course of the year - ) - I mused with the idea of creating a blog for California - "California Blogging" - -but thought that this would be inevitably less interesting than musings from India. I still think so, but there are nonetheless insights to share...about leaving a company you know where you have deep roots and deep affection (IBM Research) and transitioning to another company (Google!). Lots of musings came to mind - related to packing, and leaving, and living mostly in California, and the Google experience. So another blog seemed appropriate...