Field Trips Aren't Just for Kids

 
Can you guess where I went? I'll give you one guess.


Work keeps me busy at the office 99.9 percent of the time, but there are those rare instances when they release me from my cubicle and let me venture out amongst the normal people.

On this particular day we had a workshop at the Google offices in NYC. Normally I don’t think workshops are all that exciting, but in this case I was more excited about the tour they were giving afterwards. You hear so many things about what a great place it is work at and all the perks they offer—you can’t believe something like that actually exists. And if it does, you don’t understand why other companies aren’t adopting the same things in their offices.

The tour definitely didn’t disappoint and only reinforced everything I’d heard about their legendary offices. The cafeteria offered every kind of food you could want. Food stations were positioned near all major work areas. Pockets of “work areas” were made available all over that looked like subway cars or some other creative workspace. There was a Lego area and Pac-Man area and game room to help keep the brain thinking out of the box. A slide connected one space to another space with graffiti walls. We didn’t see everything, but I can only imagine that the rest of the space looked similar to what we’d already seen.

Wanna build something in the Lego room?


How about a game of Pac-Man in the Pac-Man hallway?


Need a snack? One of many food stations with healthy food options.

  A brief history of technology
As I walked along the hallways and saw all the employees diligently working or taking conference calls, I found myself becoming irritated about my missed opportunity to be one of those employees. I’d only gotten as far as the test before they decided I didn’t meet their standards, but I can’t help thinking how great it would have been to be called up to the Google offices.

Where the morning show magic happens 

My turn to be the DJ
After griping and complaining with my coworkers about how unfair it was that our office couldn’t be that creative and inspiring, we headed to our agency’s office to get some work done. But before we did, the girls in our little group decided to make a pit stop at Z100 to visit one of the girls’ boyfriends. We got the tour and was even able to sit in with one of the DJs and watch him work.

We eventually made it to the agency’s office and finished off some work before calling it day. I wish we had more work days like this one.