At issue: Work perks (Detroit Free Press 5-1-2011)
Google staffers can tinker in shops
They are a way to stimulate creative ideas
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Amid all the free food and other goodies that come with a job at Google, there’s one benefit a lot of employees don’t even know about: a cluster of high-tech workshops that have become a tinkerer’s paradise.
Workers escape from their computer screens and office chairs to weld, drill and saw on expensive machinery they won’t find at Home Depot. Besides building contraptions with a clear business purpose, Google employees use the shops for fun: They create elaborate holiday decorations, build cabinets for their homes and sometimes dream big, like the engineers working on a pedal-powered airplane with a 100-foot wingspan. The Google Workshops are the handiwork of Larry Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in a rented garage. Page authorized the workshops’ opening in 2007 to try to reconnect the company with its roots. Google, which has kept the workshops under wraps until last week, gave the Associated Press an exclusive tour shortly after Page reclaimed his original job as CEO on April 4. The workshops offer a peek into ways Page may try to make the Internet giant work with the verve and creativity of a garage-bound entrepreneur. Page says the 13-year-old company needs to return to thinking and acting like a feisty startup as it faces competition from younger Internet stars such as Facebook, Twitter and Groupon. “There is a feeling here at Google that all good things start in a garage,” said Greg Butterfield, an engineering lab manager who oversees the workshops. “Larry wanted to create the same kind of environment he and Sergey had when they started Google — a sort of a playground or sandbox for pursuing their ideas.” Originally known as the Pi Shop, the geeky getaway is open only to a privileged few among Google’s 26,300 employees. To gain entry, workers must pass a test that includes such questions as “When you are using a band saw, what speed would you use to cut through aluminum?” There are four separate rooms — for metal, wood, welding and electronics — tucked into an isolated corner of Google’s 4.3-million-squarefoot headquarters in Mountain View. Besides heavy-duty equipment, such as an oscilloscope, plasma cutter and miter saw, there are some children’s toys. One piece of gadgetry under construction in the shops partially consists of Legos — the same material that Page once used to build an inkjet printer, years before creating Google. The projects that have emerged from the workshops include a giant tricycle that was designed to haul around 250 pounds of high-tech photo equipment. The trikes are used to supply the company’s online mapping service with pictures of streets and other areas inaccessible by cars. Engineers have used the shops to work on early prototypes of smartphones that run on Google’s Android software, and they have customized parts for the automated, driverless cars that the company has been testing. There are other products still under development in the shops; the company declined to discuss them. Most Google employees, though, use the shops for personal purposes. The ideas percolating in the workshops are so unpredictable that employees are encouraged to drop off scrap metal or other detritus just in case the junk might suit someone’s project. During the AP’s recent visit , a couple of old wheel axles and the rusted tailgate from a truck were sitting in the welding shop. “You never know what you are going to find in here,” Butterfield said. Google isn’t the only place in Silicon Valley where computer-coding engineers can show off their industrial might. A venture called Tech-Shops sells memberships starting at about $100 per month to use heavy machinery for wood, metal, plastics and textiles. Besides the San Francisco Bay area, TechShops operates in Raleigh, N.C. Google’s workshops are free to all employees, like virtually all the company’s perquisites . But the workshops are much more exclusive than Google’s other benefits. All employees must be certified to run the machinery before they are issued a badge to enter. The screening usually falls to Rodney Broome, 63, a veteran machinist who teaches the craft at nearby San Jose City College when he isn’t busy as the foreman of Google’s workshops. Just as they do when they are trying to get hired at Google, employees have to pass a test. About 300 Google workers, or 1% of the workforce, have been certified so far. Most of them are engineers, although badges have been given to a few who work in ad sales. Broome said there have been no injuries in the workshops so far. The screening standards are so strict that a college degree in mechanical engineering wasn’t enough for Google software engineer Ihab Awad. He attended a local high school’s wood shop class for a semester before earning Broome’s clearance.
GROWING IN MICHIGAN
Younger Bush is working for education reforms
And as the 2012 presidential contest begins with no one rising to the top of the GOP side of the ledger, some are quietly sounding a drumbeat about Bush, Florida’s 43rd governor, who served from 1999 to 2007.
“When it comes to education, he is a modern-day Superman who has bold ideas and knows how to get things implemented,” said Tom Watkins, former Michigan state school superintendent who worked with Bush in launching the first charter school in Florida in the 1990s. “With the Republican field open, he offers a pragmatic, measured response to issues that could make the electorate ready to embrace another Bush,” he added. Since leaving office, Bush, who runs the Foundation for Excellence in Education ( www.excelined.org ), has been advising governors and legislators about how he implemented his “Florida Formula” to reinvent education in his state. The 58-year-old younger brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush was in Minneapolis this week talking to legislators. Bush, who has also been in touch with Gov. Rick Snyder’s team about education, dismissed talk of his running in 2012. He also didn’t want to discuss political prospects in 2016, instead focusing on education. But as is sometimes the case with politics, saying no isn’t always the final word. Snyder last week laid out a plan that included changes involving merit pay, teacher tenure, charter schools, online learning and more. “I’m very impressed,” Bush said after examining Snyder’s dashboard of educational plans he hopes to implement. “It’s a comprehensive sweep of reforms rather than just one thing.” In Bush’s formula, digital learning is paramount. Others agree, including an organization in Belleville . “We can reinvent education to personalize learning, offer opportunities in and out of school, prepare kids for the hyper-competitive global economy and opportunities for international collaborations,” said Glen Taylor, coexecutive director of WAY — Widening Advancement for Youth ( www.wayprogram .net ). Taylor and Beth Baker, who co-founded the program, met recently with Bush in Florida, where they are expanding. Getting back to the national political stage and education, Bush took some heat when he stood alongside President Barack Obama at a Miami school as they both talked of reform. “The president’s heart is in the right place on education,” said Bush, who told me he doesn’t agree with all of Obama’s ideas. “It’s better to embrace the things we agree on than fight over the things we don’t.” Sage advice for Michigan. • CONTACT CAROL CAIN: 313-222-6732 OR CLCAIN@CBS.COM . CAIN HOSTS “MICHIGAN MATTERS” AT 11 A.M. SUNDAYS ON WWJ-TV CBS DETROIT.
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