The idea of ​​"living by eating at a company and sleeping" · in the case of Google

ByBill Dimmick

There must be unavoidable people who have lived in the company to sleep and eat, but in the case of Google, there is a page called "Living on Google" in the company wiki, so that "I will stay in the office" Some people crossed "buying a car and living completely in the company parking lot". What kind of person was living life on Google,Bloomberg BusinessIt is summarized.

Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex - Bloomberg Business
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-07-22/thirteen-months-of-working-eating-and-sleeping-at-the-googleplex

In Silicon Valley, there is a myth called "to sleep in the office" after "to start with a garage". For example,Tesla MotorsYaSpace XEstablishedEarlon maskSlept on the bead cushion next to the office desk,YMCAIt is said that you took a shower at the facility and kept your own clothes at the facility locker. Also, storage service "Box"Aaron Levy originally used his home as an office, but when the company grew bigger and employees could not fit, we made an office separate from home. And at that time, I moved the bed at my home to the office, "I can date any situation, it is also known that I want to work anytime, even if I am bad." Yahoo! Founder ofDavid FiloEven after becoming a billionaire, I was asleep with a sleeping bag next to the desk.


It is reasonable for a founder who plays a role in making a company bigger, but it is reasonable for a programmer to live in a company rather than "devotion to a company" rather than "to improve the quality of the program There are more people who mean the meaning.

Matthew Weaver, who was 27 years old at the time in 2005, is also one who decided to "live in a company." However, Mr. Weaver who worked as a site ecologist at Google is not "living in the office"Recreational VehicleI chose to buy a car (RV car). Until then, Mr. Weaver spent 90 minutes on commuting, but one day,Department of Veterans of the United States of AmericaRobert McDonald's Secretary Robert McDonald's came to Google to recruit coders, so fierce competition with colleagues began and living with RV cars in the parking lot of Google headquarters to make a difference with their colleagues I decided to do it.

He was 24 feet (about 7.3 meters), which was released in 1995Road trekI bought an RV car and lived on a parking lot in Google and its adjacent building. It is said that around the car was laid with artificial turf, a white fence was set up, colleagues invited to a small barbecue and cocktail time. Since the dining room, bathroom, and gym are in the Google headquarters, it seems that there was no problem as a facility for people to live.

ByH. Michael Miley

However, although it is a life with a RV car that looked good, there was a problem of "weak against rain and cold". According to Mr. Weaver, it seems that the outside air was condensed on the outside of the RV car, which was unbearable cold. I took all the clothes in a plastic case and brought them to the office and instead brought desiccant from the office to the RV car, but it seems that I returned to living in an apartment in 54 weeks.

Also, Ben Disk, a programmer different from Weaver, lived in Google for 56 weeks from October 2011 until November 2012. Originally, Mr. Disk developed Google's fully automated driving car "510 Systems"It was a person who became a Google employee following Google's acquisition of 510 Systems by Google, which was held in 2011. It was Disk who was planning to buy a house in Hawaii, living with his wife, and planning to have a child, but since he got divorced in 2011 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in a hurry and was about to work for 510 Systems. Mr. Disk talks about the feeling at the time, "It felt like I hit the lottery with a tremendous prize money."

However, the problem with this lottery was that I had to borrow a house in the South Bay area. His annual income was about 17 million yen, but paying a divorce allowance and paying monthly rent of 250,000 yen was illogical to him. Originally Mr. Disk's parents met Zen as a trigger, and his father was a relic. It was not a big concern for "raising" for Mr. Disk who grew up in Hawaii and began to deeply immerse in computer coding at the California Institute of Technology. Mr. Disk, who noticed that her baggage is similar to the car as it is, is the classified community site'sCraig's ListWith about 220,000 yen paidGMCI bought a car named "Vandura".

ByDibaday / Lewis Adams Photography

Google's internal wiki used to have a page called "Living at Google." Based on the contents written by several predecessors on this page, Mr. Disk set up a twin mattress at the rear of the car and a shelf under the mattress. Vandura is a survival outdoor festival that builds a city in the desert "Burning manEven in a car that is often used, in the case of Disk, the inside of the car was decorated with green hand-made curtains and woodgraining panels. It functioned completely as a "house" and was not moved from the parking lot, but "If you were driving, everything would have been shattered," Mr. Disk says.

As Google's Cafe 150 in the company's cafeteria was organic, all the ingredients were taken within 150 mile (about 240 km) in radius, the disc not only can eat without food, it is healthier than ever before I was able to live a life. Moreover, because there are universities in the surroundings, we were able to use the cafeteria of the university if we got tired of meals at Google. Charging mobile terminals such as smartphones and tablets in the office, they said that the living expenses of Mr. Disk were nearly zero as it was possible to use a toilet and a shower if it returned to the company even in the middle of the night, and washing was possible.


However, unlike Weaver, Mr. Disk did not do barbecue or cocktail hour calling colleagues in his car. When I was thinking about my childhood and my life with my ex-wife, my life in van was never happy. He just kept paving early and save money to buy a farm in Hawaii. Although it is Disk who did not lease the room to say, "It is all to purchase places where my grandchildren will grow", but it is difficult to find a woman who thinks that it is okay to have a man living with a van and a child In the first date with a woman, he says that he said "I live in a small place close to my work place."

In 2012, Mr. Disk became a change in department within Google, but because I was bored with my new job, I left Google,Leica GeosystemsI changed jobs. Even so, I continued my life in the van, but the parking lot was not a company's "Hacker DojoI used something in the coworking space called. In the parking lot of Hacker Dojo, it seems that four coders were living in the van besides Disk.

According to Mr. Disk, who lived in Google's parking lot for 56 weeks, the sweepers came to the office at 2 o'clock in the morning. It is difficult to have privacy inside the Google company, and it is impossible to live a calm life. There is a nap space called "Google nap pods" inside the company, but if you tell Disk, Google nap pods seems to be "like a joke", so it does not seem to get used.

ByEllen Spertus

However, according to the information of the online forum, it is also possible to combine Google nap pods, bead cushions, a meditation room, a massage room, a windowless conference room, a sofa and so on for 13 months, There seemed to be some engineers who lived. In addition, Google refrains from comment on this article of Bloomberg Business.