Here are the most interesting things companies spend money on!
9 - Acuity’s Private Amusement Park Acuity is a Wisconsin-based insurance company
widely reputed for its pro-employee culture.
Upon completion of its 240,000-square-foot, $130M headquarter expansion in 2016, Acuity
will also have bragging rights to the world’s only office with a life-size Ferris wheel!
But really though, why a ferris wheel?!
Well, the impetus for the 65-foot structure was a 2012 carnival-themed company fundraiser,
where Acuity commissioned a temporary version.
The wheel was such a hit, and the event raised $250,000 for a local medical center’s natal
intensive care unit, that Acuity decided to get a permanent version as a way to illustrate
community giving as a priority.
Well, I guess nothing says community involvement more than a ferris wheel!
The only drawback to a life-size carnival ride at work?
It’s actually not technically intended for the employees themselves, but rather as a
showpiece for future events, according to the Journal Sentinel.
For the sake of the Acuity employees who’re still kids at heart, hopefully the management
reconsiders this decision.
8 - Security costs for CEOs It's a CEO's job to run the company, but it
often falls to the company to keep them safe whenever a CEO becomes a mini celebrity because
of the size of the company.
Companies such as Amazon and Facebook shell out big bucks to keep their top executives
safe at home and at work.
Protecting one of the richest people in the world isn’t a cheap task.
Facebook in 2015 paid nearly $4.3 million for direct security services aimed at protecting
its co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company said in an amended annual report published
in April, 2016.
Amazon spent more than $1.6 million dollars on security for founder and CEO Jeff Bezos
last year.
The security costs were to protect Bezos pretty much at all times while he’s traveling for
business, or even on Amazon property according to a recent SEC filing.
Well, when the CEOs become the face of the company, it definitely makes sense to protect
them, but come ON, more a million bucks a year?!
How many people follow these guys?!
7 - Free food for every employee Both Google and Yahoo have massive food budgets
for their employees!
Former executive head chef Nate Keller left in 2008 back when there were 19,000 employees.
While he was running a team of 675 kitchen workers, he says Google was going through
40,000 meals per day and a MILLION dollars worth of chicken per month!
Back at 2012, Google was spending an estimated $20 per employee per day on food, or $80 million
per year on food costs alone.
Fast forward to 2017 and the costs are likely much higher, but feeding employees lots of
free food is almost expected in Silicon Valley.
Remember that Google probably spends a lot more than this because there are employees
outside those offices, and because visitors are there all the time eating.
Apparently, a number of Mozilla employees treat the Google cafeteria as their own.
Ex-Googler Marissa Mayer's first big move as Yahoo CEO was bringing a very Google-y
perk to Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters: free food for all.
But it seems like spending almost $150 million on food and parties at Yahoo is a bit too
much for the company in 2017, as they lost billions and had to cut staff.
6 - The Chesapeake Campus The Chesapeake Campus is a 120-acre Oklahoma
City campus that’s designed for the employees of the Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
So what sort of services are available on this ridiculous company campus?
Let’s start with the fitness center.
On-site fitness facilities are no longer out-of-the-ordinary at many top corporations, but Chesapeake's
offerings are at a whole other level.
In addition to standard gym equipment, there's also an indoor climbing wall, sand volleyball
court, quarter-mile running track, and an olympic-sized diving pool where employees
can get SCUBA-certified for diving.
It’s basically a 72,000 square foot area for all the fitness you can imagine!
The campus also has four on-site restaurants including a Starbucks cart, which is something
I’m sure plenty of people use.
And oh yeah, what if you get injured working out, or if you’re just feeling sick?
There’s a health clinic on-site with full medical and dental care.
I guess that way the company can always keep you close?
Chesapeake energy also made sure to also include an on-site daycare center for children from
6 weeks to 5 years of age.
Hey, the whole family might as well come to work!
5 - Quinn Emanuel Litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel is known
for many things, perhaps the most important of which is making money hand over fist.
But what the firm probably is best-known for is its quirkiness.
Quinn Emanuel is a firm that does things a little differently than any of the competition
– for instance, the company has thrown formal workplace fashion to the wayside and actively
encourages its associates to dress casually because it “improves their creativity.”
However, the best part is how they deal with winter depression and stress from overworking
– the firm will give associates two thousand dollars to go work anywhere in the world they
want to work for a week, though all expenses above that two thousand are their responsibility.
The firm will assign associates to groups of 6-10 other lawyers, and they can go anywhere
they want, anywhere in the world.
Of course, this is still a law firm, so there ARE rules to follow — lots and lots of rules:
there must be 24/7 connectivity wherever associates choose to go and they must be available at
all hours as they would be in their home office.
And even if they’re spending their day in a bathing suit sipping cocktails, they’d
still be expected to continue working and be available just as they would be if they
were home.
4 - Nap pods A growing number of businesses are recognizing
what research has long been saying: Daytime napping may come with big advantages, both
psychological and professional.
Nearly half of Americans say that insufficient sleep affects their daily activities, and
lack of sleep theoretically costs U.S. companies a staggering $63 billion dollars in lost productivity,
according to a September 2011 study from the Journal of Sleep.
MetroNaps manufactures napping chairs called EnergyPods that are designed specifically
for office use.
Since its founding in 2003, MetroNaps has sold nap pods to high-profile companies such
as Google, Zappos, Cisco, and Procter & Gamble.
Pods come with features such as a "privacy visor" and a built-in speaker system.
Each chair retails for a pretty penny, costing thirteen thousand dollars a piece!
Uber’s San Francisco headquarters includes nap rooms.
Zappos’ Las Vegas headquarters include EnergyPod chairs, massage chairs, regular wellness fairs,
and onsite health screenings.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is another surprising adopter of nap pods – its CEO said it’s
all about “smart and sustainable” working, not “hard working”.
Ehh, whatever to get productivity up I guess.
3 - The Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art The Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art is a museum
in Seoul, South Korea, run by the Samsung Foundation of Culture.
It comprises of two parts that house traditional Korean art and contemporary art.
The museum was a way for Samsung to showcase art that represented the beauty and energy
of Korea.
Well, I guess having sold millions of Samsung Galaxies, this company can do whatever they
want!
The interior of Museum 1 includes a lobby, rotunda, and exhibition spaces.
Museum 1, designed by Mario Botta, houses a collection of traditional Korean art, of
which 36 pieces are designated national treasures.
Included in the collection are landscapes and folk paintings, traditional ceramics and
porcelain, such as Celadon and Buncheong, a bluish-green traditional Korean stoneware.
On top of that, there are 14th century daggers, crowns, earrings and ornaments; and Buddhist
art, sculptures, paintings and manuscripts.
Museum 2, designed by Jean Nouvel, features modern and contemporary art from both Korean
and foreign artists.
Seemingly floating in place, Nouvel’s creation personifies modern art’s constant growth,
evolution, and challenge/inquisition of society.
The main exhibition hall in Museum 2 is a completely open space without any supporting
posts thanks to post-tension building techniques.
Nouvel used extra white glass and rusted stainless-steel, the first to do so, to create the exhibition
boxes.
2 - The Dole Plantation Dole Food Company is the largest producer
of fruit and vegetables in the world, operating with 74,300 full-time and seasonal employees
who are responsible for over 300 products in 90 countries.
Sounds pretty big right?
The other half of Dole's corporate heritage, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, was founded
in 1901 by James Dole, who opened his first pineapple plantation on the central plateau
of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The Hawaiian Pineapple Company he founded is now known the world over as Dole Food Company,
one of the most recognized brands in the world today.
Dole arrived in Hawaii eager to prove that Hawaii could take part in the boom time for
farming that was sweeping across America.
He established the first plantation of what would in later years become an agricultural
empire that reached around the world.
Dole joined forces with Hawaii’s other pineapple distributors and set out to show the world
how sweet a pineapple could be.
As demand for pineapple grew, so did the need for more land.
In 1922, Dole bought the Hawaiian Island of Lana`i and transformed it into the LARGEST
pineapple plantation in the world, with 20,000 farmed acres and a planned plantation village
to house more than a thousand workers and their families.
For nearly 70 years, Lana`i supplied more than 75% of the world’s pineapple, becoming
widely known as the “Pineapple Island.”
By the 1930s, Hawaii was famous as the pineapple capital of the world, which is why you’ll
see a giant Pineapple garden maze helping to represent the plantation!
1 - The Googleplex Located in Mountain View, California, the
corporate headquarters for Google, otherwise known as the "Googleplex," was built in 2004
and is one of the most expensive company campuses in the world.
The Googleplex is composed of multiple structures and originally had slightly more than 2 million
square feet of office space.
Google is in the process of completing additional buildings on an adjoining property.
The original complex is the company's second largest square footage assemblage of Google
buildings.
Once the 1.1 million square foot Bay View addition was opened in 2015, the Googleplex
became the largest collection of Google buildings with 3,100,000 square feet of space!
When all is said and done, Google will have a campus that sits on 70-plus acres.
The numbers are difficult to come by, but the estimated cost for the latest building
project is more than $100 million.
Apart from the buildings, Google has two organic gardens on site.
They grow veggies and herbs for the restaurants.
At the north edge of campus Google built a park with tennis courts, soccer fields, fitness
stations, and Frisbee golf.
Its lights are powered by a giant bank of solar panels.
A self-driving car can be seen circling the campus, sharing the road with the many Googlers
on bikes.
Employees living in San Francisco, the East Bay, or South Bay can take a free Wi-Fi-enabled
Google shuttle to and from work.
The shuttles are powered by a fuel blend of 95% petroleum diesel and 5% biodiesel, and
have the latest emissions reduction technology.
When it comes to perks, is there a company that can out-do Google?!
Here’s what’s next!