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The second passport thing is definitely true. When I'm abroad--even, recently, Buenos Aires--I have access to office space, free food, a gym, and even a music r
by asdfman123 3y ago
The second passport thing is definitely true. When I'm abroad--even, recently, Buenos Aires--I have access to office space, free food, a gym, and even a music room where I can practice guitar and piano.
- leidenfrost 3y agoThat's the office near the port, right? Beautiful neighborhood and the commercial part is very tourist friendly.
- asdfman123 3y agoYep. Another perk is that Google always seems to lease the best/coolest office real estate anywhere. Most of my time here I feel vaguely gross about how nice everything is.
- parthdesai 3y agoNot a googler, but their office in Toronto is in pretty meh area tbh
- otalp 3y agoDo they have a dev office in Toronto? Thought it was in waterloo
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoIn the past it was sales&marketing only with smattering of a few "guest desks" for visiting engineers. And the site leads at Waterloo (at least) lobbied hard to prevent Toronto from ever really having engineering for real. Probably out of worry about centre of gravity being sucked away, etc. IMHO it limited Google's hiring ability in Ontario. And it made me (and others) have to sell my house in Toronto and move when my employer was acquired. I tried the van/bus commute for 6 months and it was too hard. Then the Geoffrey Hinton folks moved in there I believe. And I think some AI R&D was happening there? And then COVID happened, and everyone was WFH but when you did go into the office and book a desk, it became possible to go into the Toronto office instead. I left after that so can't say how it is now. Google goes through waves of "defrags" where small groups and teams in peripheral offices are... purged and merged because there's a feeling that "strength in numbers" for a particular project pays off. I wouldn't be surprised to see what happen post-layoffs. The Toronto office, when I visited it, was small. Food was good though.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nik_0_0 3y agoDon't work for Google, but been to the Toronto office (it is on the smaller side). It is in the heart of the Toronto downtown, near Richmond & Spadina, next to the old & new City Hall. Definitely disagree with GP, I'm not sure what better area you would pick (but I love downtown). Similarly in Taipei, the Google office is right in Taipei 101 (like having an office in CN Tower - very cool.) To be fair, Amazon's office in Toronto is next to the CN Tower and has a great view of it - so maybe Amazon takes the cake here. You have to pay for the cake though.
- parthdesai 3y ago> It is in the heart of the Toronto downtown, near Richmond & Spadina No, it's Richmond and University or Richmond and Bay. It's basically in financial district which is as boring and corporate as it comes. My point was to the GP saying "Google always seems to lease the best/coolest office real estate"
- dboreham 3y ago> best/coolest office real estate anywhere Hence the focus on RTO.
- monksy 3y agoSigh
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoIn reality they were out of room at many of their offices pre-COVID, and they hired like crazy during COVID, and had no room for everyone to RTO. Before I quit you had to book a desk if you wanted to come into the office, hybrid. I pushed to get myself my own assigned desk because I despised the stock monitors, etc. At that point (fall 2021) hardly anybody was coming in, so it was a ghost town. But they would not have been able to fit everyone in if they'd demanded people come back.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoMy friend/coworker made the observation: Elysium. (the movie) Always felt kind of gross to me.
- GreedClarifies 3y agoMeta also has exceptional offices. Both are amazing.
- elwell 3y ago> Most of my time here I feel vaguely gross about how nice everything is. Tell me more about this.
- asdfman123 3y agoIt just feels like none of this is sustainable. There's too much fat. I feel big tech in general is looting its brands for profit, that while it's not 100% obvious yet, we're in the decline phase.
- gniv 3y agoSince big tech has such high margins and relatively few employees, it's sustainable for as long as the company wants to keep doing it.
- 0______0 3y agoMy girlfriend works for Google. I just moved to the Bay Area and I can definitely relate. She gives me tours of the Mountain View headquarters (and the campus) quite often and I just feel... it's too tranquil... it's too nice... it's too serene and it's just such a privilege to be here. The atmosphere is calm, the location is on beautiful rolling hills of California, the food is fantastic, there is a strong focus on biking/walking/community. Just lovely.
- jhallenworld 3y agoThe Dublin office was nice (we were a contracting firm for them, had a meeting there). https://www.google.com/search?q=google+dublin&oq=google+dublin&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORiABDIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABNIBCTM3MTNqMGoxNagCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#rlimm=5904853765037746311&lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D,ik:CAoSLEFGMVFpcE4tTWxxR0pTUTlBb2stel9Xa0J3WWZpXzFhTTNQMGVkN2FDNWNf https://www.google.com/search?q=google+dublin&oq=google+dubl...
- jeffbee 3y agoIt's almost literally a sidekick passport. If you fly into a city with a major Google office and you say you are there for work and you work at Google, the customs agent might ask to see your badge.
- eloisant 3y agoIt has nothing to do with it being a passport, when you tell a custom agent you come for work and you work for company X they can ask for some proof. Nothing more to it.
- goalonetwo 3y agoI know you guys are being told you are special but this has nothing to do with Google. I Had the same thing happen to me for different companies.
- 3c6bYDXLMj 3y ago[dead]
- asdfman123 3y agoBeing told I'm special is an important part of my annual compensation.
- decaffjoe 3y agoIt's common for Google offices to have gyms and pianos?!
- dilyevsky 3y agoGyms yes, pianos - only really big/fancy ones like MV, Zurich, London, etc
- bigmanwalter 3y agoEven some smaller ones too. The Google Montreal office has an excellent music room!
- asdfman123 3y agoIn my experience nearly every Google campus has a music room, and nearly all of them have at least a weighted keyboard. In the Bay Area there are a lot of acoustic pianos available. There's even a special building that has like 12 practice rooms, each with an acoustic piano.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cbarrick 3y agoGoogle Pittsburgh has a music room. We're definitely a smaller office.
- 3y ago
- latenightcoding 3y agoTIL google has an office in Buenos Aires, wonder how that works with the current inflation, do engineers get paid in pesos? do they have to re-adjust their salaries every few weeks?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoAbout 50% of my comp as a Canadian was in the form of RSUs which were in USD, so there's that. But of course, the amount you're given is indexed (in the past quite generously, but less so over time) against local compensation rates.
- jedberg 3y agoIt's funny because later in the article he mentions the difference between Google and Amazon, and this is a huge one. At Amazon you can't even open the building next door without approval.
- rescbr 3y agoWhen I went to other sites I just had to file a ticket and that was it. If something were to be approved, it was automatic, unless it was a restricted office/building. Maybe it depends on the job role. Not too unusual, other companies I've worked were very similar.
- marricks 3y agoI think there's a pretty big difference between filing a ticket to open the building next door and having free workspaces around the world you don't have to do paperwork to use.
- rescbr 3y agoIIRC it was a very simple ticket with just the building code and expected dates you would be there. Once badged in, you got to use everything inside. I get that just badging in is a way better experience, but when I travelled to other offices it was just another bullet point on my travel to-do list. I don’t know/remember what the policy was regarding same-city buildings, as there was just one office in my country.
- bushbaba 3y agoSame city buildings were also restricted until the ticket was approved or the front desk allowed you in
- tynorf 3y ago> At Amazon you can't even open the building next door without approval. This is not true.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoDoesn't work in China (I've heard).
- GreedClarifies 3y agoWorked for me. Maybe someone filled a ticket to make it happen, I sure didn't have to do anything.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI've heard blockages in the Beijing Wudaokou office, but that was before I started working at Google (I left China in 2016 and started at google in 2020, so maybe a big gap). Maybe it changed? (or my info was wrong)
- kccqzy 3y agoDefinitely did work. At least the Shanghai office before the pandemic.
- Rebelgecko 3y agoShould be fine (although your ability to access work materials might be limited). Visiting the Shanghai office is a decent alternative to the tower's paid observation deck (similar situation at the Taipei 101 office)
- oh_sigh 3y agoAnother great thing is you can usually find someone who is up to have fun, even if you have no social connections in a place you're travelling to. I was visiting Barcelona a few years ago and emailed the misc- alias seeing if anyone wanted to visit Montserrat with me, and 5 of us went up there and had a great day together. Best part is, it is usually cool people who say "yes" - the abject nerds aren't going to respond to that kind of email.
- Gnurou 3y agoThat's because the abject nerds are busy creating value for the company while the "cool people" plan their holiday during work time.
- oh_sigh 3y agoNope, not even close to true in my experience. Almost all of the high performers I know have a huge social network they can tap into and you can't finger them as SWEs from a mile away.
- precompute 3y agoI suppose being complicit in the largest government sponsored spying program on the planet has its perks.
- pradn 3y agoI worked from the Buenos Aires office, as part of my week long trip there. I was new so I didn’t have a million PTO days. The office space was beautiful, centrally located, with incredible food, and genial colleagues. We watched a World Cup match together. Same deal in Istanbul.