Worklife Balance, Employee Benefits, and Google’s Strange Choice

Cross-posted at Examiner.com

Google has placed number one on Fortune’s list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" for two years in a row, now. In 2007, it was the company’s unusual perks, like free meals, a swimming spa, free doctors, and the prerogative for engineers to spend 20% of their time on their own projects that set the company apart. In 2008, the magazine focused on the generous stock options coupled with  great stock performance. And that’s why this summer’s controversy over Google’s daycare benefit came as something of a surprise.

Earlier in the summer, Google announced to its employees that it was going to have to raise the employee contribution to the cost of onsite daycare 75%. The tuition for an infant would rise from from $1,425 per month to almost $2,500 per month and the tuition for preschoolers would rise from just over $1,000 per month to about $1,700 per month. This move would price many of the workers out of the benefit. The childcare didn’t start much below market rates and would move to much above.

Not surprisingly, Google employees revolted, but the company didn’t budge much, eventually settling on a 68.34% hike, according to valleywag.com, which has posted internal e-mails discussing the changes. A vocal group of employees went to the media, and the last word from Wired.com is that Google has proposed building a new facility down the road. Employees suggest that a particular vice president wants the extremely high-quality daycare for her own child and is not willing to accept the less extravagant care preferred by the overwhelming majority of employees.

To suggest that onsite childcare is an employee benefit at Google after this would be illusory, something that the management seems to have recognized, since it no longer advertises it as a benefit. That loss is sad, but the story would have a wonderful ending if this event sparked a real discussion about childcare and work within Google and outside of it—what should childcare look like and how much should it cost? Who can afford it, and is it enough of a productivity booster that the employers should facilitate it and national policy should support it? These questions and more are things we’re just beginning to talk about, and I’d like to see the discussion begin in earnest.

MM