Some of that must be a California thing. In an European office of one of the mentioned companies, most people almost always eat lunch with their team in a canteen and plenty people do 3-4 day long weekends to go on trips all the time (+ normal 1-2 week long vacations of course). Yes, sometimes I go online during my vacation or when travelling during the weekend to perhaps look at emails or do some simple work, but that is because I'm motivated - nobody is making me do it.

Thank you for the feedback! True is I took all of the worst examples. We might not be there yet, but just wanted to warn ourselves...

They keep their employees' minds free of any (non professional) trouble. And this is good productivity. Believe me - if you are thinking about the strange sound form the car your productivity can fall 20%. If you are going on a road trip tomorrow - productivity can plummet to 0.