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Google's daycare wasn't like that in so many ways, though. * You don't just take your kids in to work with you. The Google daycares were not any closer to what

Google's daycare wasn't like that in so many ways, though. * You don't just take your kids in to work with you. The Google daycares were not any closer to whatever office you happen to work in than some third-party daycare. [edit: they weren't particularly close a long time ago when Google was concentrated in North Bayshore, and then became even less so as Google's offices were spread out more and people bounced around more often, and then became even less so with wfh...] * You can't actually get in. There was a waitlist and your position on it actually got worse over time (because sibling priority), then later a lottery system where you pay money to play but never win. * From what I heard recently from a daycare provider (I can't directly verify), it wasn't very good if you did get in. The typical tenure for a teacher was like a month, which is shockingly bad. Like how do you screw up pay/work environment so badly that's possible? And their understanding of children's needs wasn't great either. For example, they organized the kids into rooms by age (which is common but not universal) and...had no transition period at all or hint to the kids that these transitions were coming. They were just in one room one day with one set of teachers, then unexpectedly in another room with another set of teachers the next, which was super confusing and alarming to them. * It was supposedly subsidized but still strangely expensive. [edit to add: when I first heard about it, this was explained to me as a consequence of it having very high-quality staff who are paid well, but this doesn't match up with the bullet above. Maybe what I heard from the daycare provider was wrong. Maybe quality has gone downhill. Maybe it was never good. I think there are a variety of factors that would have allowed it to continue existing until now without ever having been good. An absolutely tiny proportion of interested people actually were able to try it. Those who did probably felt very lucky to get in and disinclined to complain/give up their exclusive spot, and folks on the waitlist disinclined to listen to their complaints... additionally, many of the parents who went there had never had kids in another daycare to compare against...]

napierzaza 3y ago
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kajecounterhack 3y ago
FWIW from a current GCC parent: > You can't actually get in. There was a waitlist and your position on it actually got worse over time This changed after covid. My understanding is that they struggled to fill classrooms due to people moving away from MTV / Palo Alto. We tried to convince friends to enroll their kids for fear of something like this happening. The closure was way worse than we expected (we thought they'd at least do a phased closure) and we kinda regret the advice we gave to friends since they're scrambling to find replacement care now. > From what I heard recently from a daycare provider (I can't directly verify), it wasn't very good if you did get in Daycare turnover has been bad industry wide, and our classroom had bad turnover in 2021 but it stablized since then. We've super loved our experience. Really great sanitary procedures, high quality learning objectives and measurement, healthy food, etc. > It was supposedly subsidized but still strangely expensive. Yes it's still shockingly expensive. Maybe this was self inflicted at first: I heard that when one of the Wojicki sisters had her kids there they changed out all classroom furniture every year, looked for way overqualified people to do the childcare (like Ph.Ds) and all that. It's not that over the top anymore today, but today they still pay the childcare workers very well by that industry's standards (they also get all the same days off as other alphabet workers) and the facilities are way bigger than others that you'd find on the peninsula, with a playground / yard for every N classrooms. My personal feeling is: I understand why they'd cut this benefit. I _don't_ understand why they had to cut it in this fashion. Having another daycare company buy it out and handing over operations, or raising prices so it's not subsidized, or phasing out classrooms over N years to give parents plenty of time to find alternative care -- there are just better ways they could have ended this longstanding benefit.
- scottlamb 3y ago
  Thanks for the updated perspective! > This changed after covid. My understanding is that they struggled to fill classrooms due to people moving away from MTV / Palo Alto. Ahh, that explains how my across-the-street neighbor has a kid there. > Daycare turnover has been bad industry wide, and our classroom had bad turnover in 2021 but it stablized since then. We've super loved our experience. Really great sanitary procedures, high quality learning objectives and measurement, healthy food, etc. From what this provider told me, the Google daycares' turnover was bad even by industry standards. Anyway, glad to hear you had a good experience there, and my sympathy as you try to find a replacement!
shaftway 3y ago
I looked into it pre-covid and was basically told that it's for the upper level executives. We went with an au pair for our 2 kids, and it cost less than having one kid in GCC.

napierzaza 3y ago

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kajecounterhack 3y ago

FWIW from a current GCC parent: > You can't actually get in. There was a waitlist and your position on it actually got worse over time This changed after covid. My understanding is that they struggled to fill classrooms due to people moving away from MTV / Palo Alto. We tried to convince friends to enroll their kids for fear of something like this happening. The closure was way worse than we expected (we thought they'd at least do a phased closure) and we kinda regret the advice we gave to friends since they're scrambling to find replacement care now. > From what I heard recently from a daycare provider (I can't directly verify), it wasn't very good if you did get in Daycare turnover has been bad industry wide, and our classroom had bad turnover in 2021 but it stablized since then. We've super loved our experience. Really great sanitary procedures, high quality learning objectives and measurement, healthy food, etc. > It was supposedly subsidized but still strangely expensive. Yes it's still shockingly expensive. Maybe this was self inflicted at first: I heard that when one of the Wojicki sisters had her kids there they changed out all classroom furniture every year, looked for way overqualified people to do the childcare (like Ph.Ds) and all that. It's not that over the top anymore today, but today they still pay the childcare workers very well by that industry's standards (they also get all the same days off as other alphabet workers) and the facilities are way bigger than others that you'd find on the peninsula, with a playground / yard for every N classrooms. My personal feeling is: I understand why they'd cut this benefit. I _don't_ understand why they had to cut it in this fashion. Having another daycare company buy it out and handing over operations, or raising prices so it's not subsidized, or phasing out classrooms over N years to give parents plenty of time to find alternative care -- there are just better ways they could have ended this longstanding benefit.

scottlamb 3y ago
Thanks for the updated perspective! > This changed after covid. My understanding is that they struggled to fill classrooms due to people moving away from MTV / Palo Alto. Ahh, that explains how my across-the-street neighbor has a kid there. > Daycare turnover has been bad industry wide, and our classroom had bad turnover in 2021 but it stablized since then. We've super loved our experience. Really great sanitary procedures, high quality learning objectives and measurement, healthy food, etc. From what this provider told me, the Google daycares' turnover was bad even by industry standards. Anyway, glad to hear you had a good experience there, and my sympathy as you try to find a replacement!

shaftway 3y ago

I looked into it pre-covid and was basically told that it's for the upper level executives. We went with an au pair for our 2 kids, and it cost less than having one kid in GCC.