6 ms·

Can't Google just setup dormitories? It's halfway on being it's own city, so why not go all out and have cheap living quarters?

w1ntermute 12y ago
Do you think they haven't thought of that already? > if it could house employees on federal property, those people could work, eat at Google cafes, and go home again without ever leaving Google’s island. http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/26/5444030/company-town-how-google-is-taking-over-mountain-view http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/26/5444030/company-town-how-g...
blahpro 12y ago
I would argue that this could be counter-productive. 24/7 immersion in an employer-owned and operated environment doesn't sound healthy from a work/life balance perspective.
- Symmetry 12y ago
  Not in the long term certainly, but there are lots of people in the military, on cargo ships, etc who do that. Back when I was working at Lincoln Labs I considered going out to Kwajalein for a year.
  - VLM 12y ago
    Antarctica If you're looking for a moderately entertaining light read try a book called "Big Dead Place". The author's life is pretty dark but the book is funny light reading. Its basically the movie "old school" with a lot of snow and a screwed up male/female ratio, combined with a bit of Dilberts PHB is both your boss and your landlord with predictable results. His writing is more or less reportedly true with the obvious exception of the "blind men talking about the elephant" issue where you get 1000 people and none of them have the whole total story and experiences will vary. The author had a pretty interesting blog which responds with a blank white page today. Its worth your time to read it off the wayback machine. The books name is big dead place so search for bigdeadplace.com He eventually got banned from working in Antarctica because of his writings, and then suicided, shotgun from what I heard. Long term addiction to alcohol didn't help much.
  - jiggy2011 12y ago
    People on cargo ships or oil rigs still usually have regular homes that they live in when they are not working which is often for weeks or months at a time. Google uses it's employees year round. I wonder if this might be a good solution for the software industry to avoid burnout. Have people live in SV for designated "crunch" periods where you work for 70 hours a week for 2 months, then go home to somewhere cheaper for 2.
    - jschwartzi 12y ago
      You couldn't pay me enough to work 8 back-to-back 70-hour weeks.
      - corin_ 12y ago
        I on the other hand would love that. I can't see it working for my job, but from a personal time point of view I'd love it. Everyone's difference.
onion2k 12y ago
And thus, Google becomes The Circle completely. I'm being a bit flippant, but really the last thing Google employees (and every other successful tech businesses to be fair) need is to be more isolated in their ivory towers. Meeting people outside of the tech industry keeps you grounded and stops you forgetting that there are vast numbers of people who aren't so intelligent and happy with massive changes every couple of years. If a tech is going to be inclusive and produce a better society in to the future it's important that the people making things are integrated with the rest of society.
- Raphmedia 12y ago
  If I could save rent by living in my office, I would. Hell, I would have double the income to put in my "let's have fun!" budget.
  - morganvachon 12y ago
    But wouldn't you eventually get burnt out? For me at least, going home every day is my release from the pressure and stress of work. I even have a real-world example: My boss is getting divorced, and as the president of our small company, he has the alarm codes and keys to every door. We have a full kitchen, multiple bathrooms, etc. The only thing we don't have is a shower. He figured he could sleep on the conference room couch, shower at the gym since he goes there every day before work anyway, and wouldn't have to pay rent in an apartment while making house payments too. That lasted about a week before he became so sick of being in the building he was ready to quit. He's now living in a hotel while he searches for an apartment.
- pestaa 12y ago
  Absolutely agreed. A happy world is at least a tiny bit suboptimal.
- Morphling 12y ago
  Maybe they could start building apartments which would be open for rent for public as well?
tarekmoz 12y ago
What a sad life it would be.
Pxtl 12y ago
Or they could just move out of the polically dysfunctional SF-bay area. Seriously, why do so many companies put up with the broken real-estate market and government that completely fails to manage it?
- Iftheshoefits 12y ago
  The comments here that express positive sentiment toward Company Towns ought to be a clue. There is a large supply of qualified people willing to subject themselves to such conditions here--much larger than these companies will find practically anywhere else. It boils down to this: the environment is extremely advantageous for the very wealthy.
  - chillingeffect 12y ago
    Yes that's true, but viewing the whole thing daily via HN from 3,000 miles away, it seems like there's much more than just wealth about it: there's adventure, mystery, the Unknown as well as camaraderie, being around optimistic, productive people like ones' self, and being part of a bigger thing at a critical time in (tech) history. I ponder daily ditching my utterly satisfying life Here for SV but mainly family and the housing prices keep me away. I, like you, think the over-corporatization is unhealthy.
jimbokun 12y ago
This is very common in Japan. I lived in a company dormitory during a one year internship at NTT Data. Was nice as a foreigner. Meals provided in a cafeteria, and lots of opportunities to get to know my coworkers out of the office. Having company dorms seemed almost a necessity for young workers, until they had saved enough for the enormous deposit needed for an apartment. Maybe that's the direction Silicon Valley is headed.
praptak 12y ago
Didn't the hotel owners lobby make such things illegal?
ef4 12y ago
If I recall, the local municipality shot down the idea. Those cities are all notoriously anti-building, which is why housing is so expensive in the first place.
arrrg 12y ago
Hah, it seems worker housing (from the times of the industrial revolution, when many employers attempted to control every aspect of their employees’ lives) is coming back.
- VLM 12y ago
  That "tradition" actually goes back a little further to cotton operations in the deep south, and for that matter feudalism in the middle ages. That tradition is still at least minimally present for Ag workers today.
raldi 12y ago
No; though they desperately want to, Mountain View strictly regulates how much housing can be built, and where. Why? Because only the people who already live there get to vote for local representatives, so everything's biased toward what's best for established homeowners -- not struggling would-be homeowners.
- xster 12y ago
  This. The root conflict of interest in the whole bay area housing issue. Existing residents vote on propositions to block new construction that were approved 20 years ago. New residents prop up the region's economic vitality with new industries benefiting existing residents and existing residents further restrict housing supply, further increasing their own home values while preventing new residents from coming in.
cbhl 12y ago
If you've been following local news, the local city council hasn't been enthusiastic to let them do it: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2014/09/08/mountain-view-city-candidates-split-on-housing-in-north-bayshore/ http://sf.streetsblog.org/2014/09/08/mountain-view-city-cand...
xster 12y ago
Can't. They would have done it a long time ago and stop clogging the freeway if they could but Mountain View doesn't allow zoning of any additional residential areas in the city. Typical bay area NIMBY-ism.

w1ntermute 12y ago

Do you think they haven't thought of that already? > if it could house employees on federal property, those people could work, eat at Google cafes, and go home again without ever leaving Google’s island. http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/26/5444030/company-town-how-google-is-taking-over-mountain-view http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/26/5444030/company-town-how-g...

blahpro 12y ago

I would argue that this could be counter-productive. 24/7 immersion in an employer-owned and operated environment doesn't sound healthy from a work/life balance perspective.

Symmetry 12y ago
Not in the long term certainly, but there are lots of people in the military, on cargo ships, etc who do that. Back when I was working at Lincoln Labs I considered going out to Kwajalein for a year.
- VLM 12y ago
  Antarctica If you're looking for a moderately entertaining light read try a book called "Big Dead Place". The author's life is pretty dark but the book is funny light reading. Its basically the movie "old school" with a lot of snow and a screwed up male/female ratio, combined with a bit of Dilberts PHB is both your boss and your landlord with predictable results. His writing is more or less reportedly true with the obvious exception of the "blind men talking about the elephant" issue where you get 1000 people and none of them have the whole total story and experiences will vary. The author had a pretty interesting blog which responds with a blank white page today. Its worth your time to read it off the wayback machine. The books name is big dead place so search for bigdeadplace.com He eventually got banned from working in Antarctica because of his writings, and then suicided, shotgun from what I heard. Long term addiction to alcohol didn't help much.
- jiggy2011 12y ago
  People on cargo ships or oil rigs still usually have regular homes that they live in when they are not working which is often for weeks or months at a time. Google uses it's employees year round. I wonder if this might be a good solution for the software industry to avoid burnout. Have people live in SV for designated "crunch" periods where you work for 70 hours a week for 2 months, then go home to somewhere cheaper for 2.
  - jschwartzi 12y ago
    You couldn't pay me enough to work 8 back-to-back 70-hour weeks.
    - corin_ 12y ago
      I on the other hand would love that. I can't see it working for my job, but from a personal time point of view I'd love it. Everyone's difference.

onion2k 12y ago

And thus, Google becomes The Circle completely. I'm being a bit flippant, but really the last thing Google employees (and every other successful tech businesses to be fair) need is to be more isolated in their ivory towers. Meeting people outside of the tech industry keeps you grounded and stops you forgetting that there are vast numbers of people who aren't so intelligent and happy with massive changes every couple of years. If a tech is going to be inclusive and produce a better society in to the future it's important that the people making things are integrated with the rest of society.

Raphmedia 12y ago
If I could save rent by living in my office, I would. Hell, I would have double the income to put in my "let's have fun!" budget.
- morganvachon 12y ago
  But wouldn't you eventually get burnt out? For me at least, going home every day is my release from the pressure and stress of work. I even have a real-world example: My boss is getting divorced, and as the president of our small company, he has the alarm codes and keys to every door. We have a full kitchen, multiple bathrooms, etc. The only thing we don't have is a shower. He figured he could sleep on the conference room couch, shower at the gym since he goes there every day before work anyway, and wouldn't have to pay rent in an apartment while making house payments too. That lasted about a week before he became so sick of being in the building he was ready to quit. He's now living in a hotel while he searches for an apartment.
pestaa 12y ago
Absolutely agreed. A happy world is at least a tiny bit suboptimal.
Morphling 12y ago
Maybe they could start building apartments which would be open for rent for public as well?

tarekmoz 12y ago

What a sad life it would be.

Pxtl 12y ago

Or they could just move out of the polically dysfunctional SF-bay area. Seriously, why do so many companies put up with the broken real-estate market and government that completely fails to manage it?

Iftheshoefits 12y ago
The comments here that express positive sentiment toward Company Towns ought to be a clue. There is a large supply of qualified people willing to subject themselves to such conditions here--much larger than these companies will find practically anywhere else. It boils down to this: the environment is extremely advantageous for the very wealthy.
- chillingeffect 12y ago
  Yes that's true, but viewing the whole thing daily via HN from 3,000 miles away, it seems like there's much more than just wealth about it: there's adventure, mystery, the Unknown as well as camaraderie, being around optimistic, productive people like ones' self, and being part of a bigger thing at a critical time in (tech) history. I ponder daily ditching my utterly satisfying life Here for SV but mainly family and the housing prices keep me away. I, like you, think the over-corporatization is unhealthy.

jimbokun 12y ago

This is very common in Japan. I lived in a company dormitory during a one year internship at NTT Data. Was nice as a foreigner. Meals provided in a cafeteria, and lots of opportunities to get to know my coworkers out of the office. Having company dorms seemed almost a necessity for young workers, until they had saved enough for the enormous deposit needed for an apartment. Maybe that's the direction Silicon Valley is headed.

praptak 12y ago

Didn't the hotel owners lobby make such things illegal?

ef4 12y ago

If I recall, the local municipality shot down the idea. Those cities are all notoriously anti-building, which is why housing is so expensive in the first place.

arrrg 12y ago

Hah, it seems worker housing (from the times of the industrial revolution, when many employers attempted to control every aspect of their employees’ lives) is coming back.

VLM 12y ago
That "tradition" actually goes back a little further to cotton operations in the deep south, and for that matter feudalism in the middle ages. That tradition is still at least minimally present for Ag workers today.

raldi 12y ago

No; though they desperately want to, Mountain View strictly regulates how much housing can be built, and where. Why? Because only the people who already live there get to vote for local representatives, so everything's biased toward what's best for established homeowners -- not struggling would-be homeowners.

xster 12y ago
This. The root conflict of interest in the whole bay area housing issue. Existing residents vote on propositions to block new construction that were approved 20 years ago. New residents prop up the region's economic vitality with new industries benefiting existing residents and existing residents further restrict housing supply, further increasing their own home values while preventing new residents from coming in.

cbhl 12y ago

If you've been following local news, the local city council hasn't been enthusiastic to let them do it: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2014/09/08/mountain-view-city-candidates-split-on-housing-in-north-bayshore/ http://sf.streetsblog.org/2014/09/08/mountain-view-city-cand...

xster 12y ago

Can't. They would have done it a long time ago and stop clogging the freeway if they could but Mountain View doesn't allow zoning of any additional residential areas in the city. Typical bay area NIMBY-ism.