AFAICT the free food didn't really contribute to people staying longer. The campus was often a ghost town by 4PM and one of the common complaints was people fi

AFAICT the free food didn't really contribute to people staying longer. The campus was often a ghost town by 4PM and one of the common complaints was people filling up multiple takeout containers with tasty meats ... to bring home to their family! For me it just meant I was more likely to eat when I needed to, like right after a 45-minute commute. When I was there I heard stories from other parts of the company where the workers felt like they were obliged to stay until after their boss left (and the boss would leave at 7PM or something). I didn't really understand but later I found out a lot of people felt trapped by the visa system. When I worked at google I typically would show up pretty early, and leave pretty early. Over 10 years I don't think any manager ever commented about my hours. Note: I could typically choose "good" managers and I knew to stay away from Android, Nest, and parts of Cloud.