throwaway12522

My point is less about the t-shirts specifically (as I said, it's a minimal cost) and more about the company culture as a whole. If you can make a silly request for an office fire pole and the company will give you a fire pole, does that foster an attitude where you'll just throw more servers at a problem instead of thinking hard about your systems, or an attitude where a cool project will stay in development for a long time, even when the business case for it stops making sense.

[using a throwaway here to avoid offending anyone]

I actually think there's a LOT of fat that could be cut at Google without affecting innovation. One person I know - I've literally never seen him wearing a shirt that he didn't get for free at Google. I've seen people get new Mac power adapters because the tech stop was closer than their desk.

These things are pretty small compared to salaries - and they do serve a purpose - having to buy your own t-shirts and pay for your own gym membership is a pretty good reason never to quit, but I wonder how much they foster a culture of just throwing money at problems instead of innovating? I wonder how much they make Googlers soft and entitled.