This story may sound quite strange to some people, as the perks at the Google campus have been known to be among the best in the industry, if not the best. But the blogosphere was abuzz after Valleywag reported on Sunday that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will be taking dinners off the menu. Not just that, but while breakfast and lunch will remain free, the rumor had it that there would also be "No more tea trolley. No more snack attack in the afternoon."
The initial reaction to this may be, really, this is what they're whining about? Don't they know many Americans would love to trade with them and "worry" about such things instead of worrying about paying their mortgage or losing their jobs? Why concentrate on a story of "less riches"?
Well, one possible reason this has grabbed the attention of many after all is because of the scary signal it may give. Could this be a sign that the economic hardship has reached even tech darling Google? Are there no safe havens? And with recent concern that the dollar rally could hurt Google's result, the 'no dinner' story has indeed been blown out of proportion.
And then it turned out to be mostly untrue. Dinner isn't canceled at Google, only the cafes offering dinner have been consolidated. Still, the story put the subject of Google's employee perks in focus. Google employees have some great perks, including the much more important daycare service, on-campus dentistry and dry cleaning service. But they also have some quite superfluous perks. It only stands to reason that at some point the company may want to cut costs and that those would be the first to go.
For now, though, Google employees feel safe about their dinners, and investors, at least from this standpoint, feel safe enough as well. What tomorrow will bring if (when?) the company matures, delivering less robust growth and shareholders demand action on costs, who knows?
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