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Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

finance.yahoo.com

41–50 of 275 posts

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#41

This is not "a perk". This is homelessness plain and simple. (Tech) People glamorize campus life but at least in campus you have a bed, clubs, parties and other interaction opportunities, etc

In most other jobs, if you could not afford to make rent, or had other commitments that drained your income, you could not find the resources at work to even attempt this.

If they are lenient on this sort of thing, you could use this for other purposes. You decide to move and your leases don't quite line up, saving money to buy a house (as mentioned in the article)...

I would certainly classify this as a perk.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least in campus you have a bed, clubs, parties and other interaction opportunities, etc I think Google has all of the above.

Google has clubs as in nightclubs where you can pick up women? Or clubs like chess clubs and stuff?

You are correct

Interaction with other people, not the Google circle.

Concerts, arts, picnics. No, taking your Google buffet food on a table outside does not count as a picnic. Going to the Starbucks on Shoreline is not a social outing.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#43

Silicon Valley: Where highly paid ($100-$200k+) engineers sleep in cars to save money on obscenely expensive rent. Honestly, recently moving to Seattle has been refreshing to me in this regard. I find Seattle tech industry pay no less than SF, plus no state income tax, and for the same rent as SF you can practically live like a king/queen here. I wonder how long the housing situation in SV can keep up until everythin…

Yeah, but that noncompete really sucks.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#44

Silicon Valley: Where highly paid ($100-$200k+) engineers sleep in cars to save money on obscenely expensive rent. Honestly, recently moving to Seattle has been refreshing to me in this regard. I find Seattle tech industry pay no less than SF, plus no state income tax, and for the same rent as SF you can practically live like a king/queen here. I wonder how long the housing situation in SV can keep up until everythin…

I've been living in the Bay Area since the dotcom days and they've been asking the same question since I've been around. Until people in tech stop making money, I doubt SV will collapse, but it will go through boom and bust cycles. But the booms tend to be huge and the busts tend to be not as bad.

I had the opportunity to get a job in Seattle at Amazon about 10 years ago. I would have taken a paycut, but with the 0% state income tax and with the generous signing bonus it would have more than made up the difference. (I'm pretty sure property taxes are higher though.)

But then I had to contemplate exchanging 300 days of sunshine for 200 days of rain. At the time, I was playing rollerhockey outdoors at 8pm and came to the conclusion that I just couldn't do it because of the weather. And I grew up in Vancouver, BC so the rain didn't bother me as much, but I just got too spoiled by the amazing Bay Area weather. If you're not used to it, the rain in the Pacific Northwest truly is relentless, so it takes getting used to.

Mind you that was during the time when rent prices were high but not as ludicrous like they are now. Even during the dotcom boom there were similar stories of people living in their vans, so it's not really a new story.

But my friend was charged 5100/month for a 2 bedroom at mission bay, which doesn't make sense. If I had to make the same choice now, it would be a lot harder to make and Seattle is definitely compelling if you can get past the 200 days of rain.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#45
Heh I came up with this idea at another large company decades ago in another city.

Unfortunately they were in no way tolerant of it and when security eventually caught on they reported me to my manager and that was the end of that.

Google sounds far more laid back but I suspect if too many people do it, the loophole will come to an end.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#46
post #6

It sounds like Google will be making some rapid changes to their security policy. Part of me feels bad for the guys who just got ratted out. Homelessness is a pretty disorienting thing. Part of me feels like this is just another way of saying that there's a bay area housing shortage...

I doubt they'll do anything. Google management seems to be pretty leery of rocking the boat where the perks are concerned. As long as living on campus is a rare thing -- and it is -- they'll turn a blind eye. It's well known that Google's free meals policy is widely abused. At the end of day, you'll see lots of people getting on the bus home with their dinners, sure. But it gets a lot worse; some people bring home en…

Inevitably if you're generous with enough people, someone will try to take advantage of you. At what point do you stop being generous?

It's nice to know that management at Google isn't blind to what's going on. I suppose they'll find a clever way to curtail anything that gets really out of hand.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#47
post #9

Does anyone else feels like we're really getting towards the cyberpunk universe ? with corporations that completely own the life of their employees by providing them with everything, and a violent lawless and miserable outside world. And as always, it all started with the best intentions.

Keep in mind that factory / company mine towns used to be a thing. The cyberpunk dystopia you are alluding to is extrapolating company town lifestyle into the future.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#48

Silicon Valley: Where highly paid ($100-$200k+) engineers sleep in cars to save money on obscenely expensive rent. Honestly, recently moving to Seattle has been refreshing to me in this regard. I find Seattle tech industry pay no less than SF, plus no state income tax, and for the same rent as SF you can practically live like a king/queen here. I wonder how long the housing situation in SV can keep up until everythin…

It's weird. There has always been some water-cooler talk among the engineers about how it would be possible to live on campus. But these journalists actually found people who've done it. And they're engineers; most of our speculation focused on interns.

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#49
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe they could start building apartments which would be open for rent for public as well?

Where you unlock the doors by signing in with your G+ account?

Re: Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

#50
post #9

Does anyone else feels like we're really getting towards the cyberpunk universe ? with corporations that completely own the life of their employees by providing them with everything, and a violent lawless and miserable outside world. And as always, it all started with the best intentions.

Tech folks tend to live in their heads. Houses, etc, is just boring distractions.
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