Workplace Campuses Quiz

PDF page 311: renewable energy sources (Figure 10.5). Facebook and Alphabet/Google have plans for building megacorporate campuses that also include housing. Facebook plans to reserve 15 percent of its housing units for low-income neighbors, but, in both cases, it is anticipated that most residents of these campuses will be

PDF page 311: employees. Presumably, workers who do not have to commute to and from work every day will be happier and more productive.

PDF page 312: Figure 10.5 This herb garden at the Googleplex, Google’s headquarters, is an outdoor area where workers

PDF page 312: can sit and contemplate nature. The garden is part of a farm-to-table program to teach Googlers about how their food is grown. (credit: “Googleplex” by Pamela Carls/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

PDF page 312: New workplace arrangements like these effectively serve as fringe benefits for employees that presumably offer the flexibility and work-life balance promised by corporate recruiters. Yet, looking from a different angle, we might consider the motivations behind these complexes to be less than altruistic, because such campuses encourage workers to stay in the office far longer than they might otherwise. Is this the case? Furthermore, if so, do they result in the same or higher levels of productivity? What ethical challenges do they present for the employer and the employee?

PDF page 312: Traditional workspaces are designed to allow each person to get the maximum amount of work completed each day, spending most of the time alone in a fairly utilitarian environment with minimal distractions. The size and location of the offices indicate status (corner offices are prized), and lunchrooms or cafeterias and water coolers provide the only place for brief social encounters. State-of-the-art workplaces today, however, incorporate technology and encourage collaboration. Ergonomic furniture is available for comfort, and laptops and tablets allow workers to move around the facility as desktop computers could not. In fact, workers in the new flexible workplace spend less than 50 percent of their time at

PDF page 312: Traditional workspaces are designed to allow each person to get the maximum amount of work completed each day, spending most of the time alone in a fairly utilitarian environment with minimal distractions. The size and location of the offices indicate status (corner offices are prized), and lunchrooms or cafeterias and water coolers provide the only place for brief social encounters. State-of-the-art workplaces today, however, incorporate technology and encourage collaboration. Ergonomic furniture is available for comfort, and laptops and tablets allow workers to move around the facility as desktop computers could not. In fact, workers in the new flexible workplace spend less than 50 percent of their time at

PDF page 312: a desk. Moreover, as we discussed in the previous section, many enjoy the flexibility of telecommuting as needed. Furthermore, in open-plan spaces, all work positions locations are alike; status is not signaled by location or size.

PDF page 312: a desk. Moreover, as we discussed in the previous section, many enjoy the flexibility of telecommuting as needed. Furthermore, in open-plan spaces, all work positions locations are alike; status is not signaled by location or size.

PDF page 313: As early as the 1960s, large companies like Bell Labs built suburban compounds for their corporate headquarters, but they were a far cry from the campus settings of Apple and Google today. Bell Labs’ design, for example, was a series of laboratories and office buildings grouped together, with a functional cafeteria. Workplace campuses are also modeled on university campuses that provide a relatively complete work and living environment for students. As noted, Facebook and Google are building apartments near their corporate campuses. Facebook’s new project, named Willow Village, is near Menlo Park, California, and will include some

PDF page 313: As early as the 1960s, large companies like Bell Labs built suburban compounds for their corporate headquarters, but they were a far cry from the campus settings of Apple and Google today. Bell Labs’ design, for example, was a series of laboratories and office buildings grouped together, with a functional cafeteria. Workplace campuses are also modeled on university campuses that provide a relatively complete work and living environment for students. As noted, Facebook and Google are building apartments near their corporate campuses. Facebook’s new project, named Willow Village, is near Menlo Park, California, and will include some

PDF page 313: fifteen hundred units. Employees who lease an apartment there will be eligible for a company bonus. The future workplace campuses and mega-corporate campuses with housing bear a superficial resemblance to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century “company towns,” which existed around the world. In a company town, the stores, entertainment venues, and housing were all owned by the same company,

PDF page 313: fifteen hundred units. Employees who lease an apartment there will be eligible for a company bonus. The future workplace campuses and mega-corporate campuses with housing bear a superficial resemblance to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century “company towns,” which existed around the world. In a company town, the stores, entertainment venues, and housing were all owned by the same company,

PDF page 313: or Henry Ford, were often idealists who envisioned creating a social utopia. But the towns and their owners could also be paternalistic and self-serving. Indeed, company towns created what is called a monopsony in the labor market, where there is only a single buyer, and the economic analysis of monopsony shows that with the lack of competition for labor, wages of workers are suppressed. That is, “a monopsonist in the labor market