Google’s first office was just a garage in Silicon Valley, California in the year 1998. The office was crammed with desks resting on sawhorses.
After five years, in 2003, the Google moved to a huge campus called Googleplex. On this campus, offices were airy and open. Even the quirky common spaces set a standard for what an innovative high-class workplace should look like.
Then in the coming years, the facilities heaped up. The employees got their food free, transportation free. So, staying there all day was very easy.
Today, Google is trying to redefine its offices. It plans to create a post-pandemic workplace for employees who have adapted to working from home.
The company has not made it mandatory for its employees to be vaccinated when they start returning to the offices. Probably in September, they might make it a compulsion.
In the coming years, Google will try out various new office designs. These designs might be in millions of square feet of space or about 10% of its global workspaces.
The planning began before the coronavirus crisis sent its workforce home. Google took the advice of numerous groups of consultants, sociologist who study “Generation Z”.
Designs
The first design that Google is planning is called “Team Pods.” Each pod is a blank canvas: Chairs, desks, whiteboards and storage units on castors. These units can be wheeled into various arrangements.
The company is also creating a new meeting room called “Campfire” to blend both the remote and office workers. In this room, in-person attendees sit in a circle with large vertical displays. The display shows the faces of people who are in the meeting via videoconference.
Google is constructing outdoor work areas in some locations around the globe. This plan will be formulated due to rising concerns that the virus could easily spread in a traditional office.
At Silicon Valley, the campus’s lawn and parking area are converted into “Camp Charleston.” Many tables and chairs are kept under open tents, along with state-of-the-art videoconferencing kits.
Google is also trying to change the walls and the heating and cooling systems in the campuses. It is developing a collection of different movable walls that can be packed up and shipped flat to offices around the world.
Google expects to build a system that allows every seat to have its air diffuser to control the direction or amount of air needed to be blown on them.
For privacy, there is a robot that inflates to become a translucent, cellophane balloon wall.
It also built a desk that adjusts according to the employee’s personal preferences.
