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Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent

finance.yahoo.com

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

#51

Post by arrrg »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #30
bsaul wrote: 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.

You mean China? That isn't totally fair, but a lot of Chinese workers live in small shared rooms provided by their employer, they then send money "home" to their villages. I wouldn't call China lawless, but it is is a bit miserable, particularly if you get fired from a job.

Or Europe (probably also the US?) during the industrial revolution. Worker housing really is nothing new. I can see the architectural remnants all around me. (The small town I grew up in was connected to the railway in 1863 and got a huge train repair complex. The red brick buildings that provided housing to the workers right next to where that complex used to be are still there today, now just ordinary apartments.)

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

#52

Post by [deleted] »

Shivetya wrote: post #26
bsaul wrote: 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.

nah, most housing problems can be traced to regulation, usually of the sort that if you dig deep enough is, we don't want their type here. Hide it behind protecting the environment, quality of life, or whatnot.

[deleted]

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

#53

Post by krschultz »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #41
raverbashing wrote: post #20

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.

Really?

I worked at McDonalds in high school. One of the other guys there (in my estimation, one of the smartest) was homeless. He was about 17 years old, and had run away from home. We were in NJ, I believe he was from the Carolinas. He used to work FT at McDonalds, and then I would spend most of the rest of his waking time at the library or a QuikCheck in town. I wasn't totally clear on where he slept, but I believe he mixed sleeping outside with crashing on another guys couch that worked at McDonalds. I don't know what happened to him, but I hoped things worked out. I moved on to another job and never talked to him again.

I would have had absolutely no idea he was homeless before he told me. It was an eye opening experience for me.

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

#54

Post by mithras »

jkldotio wrote: post #34
mithras wrote: post #8

maybe change the link to the quora thread? The article adds literally nothing. http://www.quora.com/Which-Googler-holds-the-record-for-livi...

The article definitely adds a narrative which isn't there in a forum discussion. I also don't think the Quora link should replace the current one given Quora's practices in the past.

Most of the narrative consists of direct quotes from the top two Quora answers.

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

#55

Post by watwut »

[deleted] wrote: post #52
Shivetya wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nah, most housing problems can be traced to regulation, usually of the sort that if you dig deep enough is, we don't want their type here. Hide it behind protecting the environment, quality of life, or whatnot.

[deleted]

Someone disagreed.

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

#56

Post by minikites »

krschultz wrote: post #47
bsaul wrote: 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.

All we need is the return of company scrip, which low-margin retailers are trying their damnedest to bring back.

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

#57

Post by zak_mc_kracken »

electrograv wrote: post #15

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…

Don't extrapolate based on one sensationalistic article.

Most engineers employed at Google (or any other company) in Silicon Valley have enough to rent or even buy houses. Actually, a lot of other workers who make one half (or even less) that salary manage as well.

People who choose to live in cars or on campus have something else going on with them. It's not just about money, most of us will always choose to have their own place, no matter how small, than living this kind of life.

I don't doubt what the Quora discussion describes happens, I'm just claiming these are very few and far between exceptions.

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

#58

Post by viewer5 »

blazespin wrote: post #50
bsaul wrote: 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.

I'm sure some people are like that, but you can hardly say that most techy folks do that.

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

#59

Post by mtbcoder »

ellysetaylor21 wrote: post #19

Yes, highly paid employees do deliberately go homeless in the Bay Area. This isn't unique to Google. If you own the right vehicle, sleep in it.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were ordinances in place to discourage/prohibit that though.

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

#60

Post by impendia »

Morphling wrote: post #36
onion2k wrote: 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?

The whole reason for the housing bubble is that companies who want to build apartments are prohibited from doing so.

If zoning laws were relaxed, the bubble would disappear real fast.

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