It’s not often that you hear of the internet giant Google messing up and
really making people mad, yet that is exactly what has happened. The problem
isn’t with one of Google’s search operations or its ad selling practices.
Rather the issue at heart is daycare for the children of Google employees.
The New York Times says that two months ago Google
began having a series of meetings with its employees that take advantage of
the in-house daycare offered at Google headquarters. The topic of the meetings
was to see how parents would feel about a massive 75% increase in the cost of
its in-house daycare program.
According to reports the reaction was not good from the parents, with some
openly weeping in the meetings. The 75% increase would mean that a parent with
two children in Google’s daycare center would be paying out $57,000 per year in
daycare expenses as opposed to the already heady $33,000 per year they paid
previously.
The first response to some regarding this daycare dilemma may be to say to
the parents, stop whining or get a new job. However, it is very easy to
understand why the parents are so upset when the in-house daycare program was
one of the benefits used to lure many of them to Google as opposed to the
competition.
Google first offered its in-house daycare three years ago according to The
New York Times. That time frame coincides with the return from maternity
leave of Susan Wojcicki. Wojcicki is the sister-in-law of co-founder Sergey
Brin and owned the garage that Google was started from.
The cause of the price increase is attributed by many at Google to Wojcicki
and her support of a preschool philosophy called Reggio Emilia, which stresses
allowing tots to chart their own learning path. To provide this type of day care
center, Google opened a second in-house facility called The Woods with degreed
teachers and nothing but the best in toys and equipment. The original in-house
center was ran by a firm called Children’s Creative Learning Centers.
Reports from some of the parents at the meetings have Brin saying some
pretty harsh things -- which spokespeople for Brin deny. Some parents claim
that Brin told them, “This is a supply-and-demand issue.” Brin also reportedly
added that Google should charge what the market would bear. The waiting list at
the time the increase was made for in-house daycare was 700 employees long and
it was reported to take years for spots to open.
Google’s solution to the waiting list was an astronomical fee increase for
the daycare and they even began charging employees to stay on the waiting list
to the tune of several hundred dollars. This caused the waiting list to dwindle
to 300 employees. How did Google respond to the 300 person waiting list willing
to pay $57,000 per year for childcare? It announced it would be opening a new
facility with -- can you guess it -- 300 spots.
Many see this childcare issue as yet another example that Google is losing
its luster and becoming just like the other Silicon Valley firms that it
originally set out to be different from. The writing is on the wall now and
Google has begun to feel the crunch in terms of stock prices dropping and key
employees leaving what were once the greenest pastures to go to other firms
like Facebook where the grass is still green.