Welding and Google are two words that no one expects to hear used together. Yet that is exactly what you would hear if you worked at Internet giant Google. Employees are able to use high-tech workshops to work on everything from Google projects to personal projects.
Google has long been known to be a company that cares about its employees. Free food is just one of the many perks of working at Google. These high-tech workshops are the newest perk and are becoming quite popular among the workforce. Google is very careful about who has access to the workshops however. So far only around 300 workers making up just 1 percent of the workforce of over 26,300 employees have been given access to the workshops.
Each employee who wants to use one of the high-tech workshops has to pass a test, just like they did to get hired at Google. They have to be certified to turn the machines before they will be issued a badge to enter the workshop. The “Pi” shop is managed by a veteran machinist who screens employees carefully. Thanks to this tough system of monitoring who is allowed to use the equipment, there has yet to be an accident in the workshops.
There are four rooms that encompass the whole “Pi” shop. There is a room for welding, metal, wood, and electronics. Employees with access can tinker to their hearts content. Some of the things that are built are clearly for Google to use, such as giant tricycles that allow Google to haul camera equipment into areas cars can't go for use with their online mapping service. Work has also been done in the workshops on the smartphone prototypes that use Android software.
Yet employees are welcome to work on personal projects as well. Employees may create amazing decorations for the holidays, cabinets for their homes, or some other venture, such as a pedal-powered airplane. The majority of the projects are those chosen by employees and employees are actually encouraged to drop off scrap metal and other junk so that there is plenty of material for projects.
The idea behind the workshops is to get the company back to its roots. Google is also a company that thinks happy employees mean a successful company, and what better way to de-stress and relax than creating something new and amazing in a welding shop with plasma cutters and other high-tech toys?
