The last couple of years have really changed how we appreciate being in the office. While the majority of workers (72%) now prefer the hybrid workplace model, with another 13% saying they would completely ditch their office altogether, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed — the free perks that offices grant their workers.

Say what you will but getting delicious meals, caffè macchiatos and unlimited access to a gym for free as part of the package really softens the blow when thinking about that 2-hour commute to and from work. But what if someone told you that these ‘free’ perks aren’t so free after all?

When ex-Google employee Ken Waks shared his two cents on the free perks of one of the finest offices in the world, the Googleplex, which comes with its own basketball court, sleeping pods, 3-course meal deal and other free stuff that can easily woo any mortal’s brainy head — it reached the hearts and minds of 6.4 million TikTok users. Sure, it’s a lot to take in. Nevertheless, his reasoning that all these free office perks are just fancy smoke and mirrors placed there to keep us working longer hours — does make some sense, after all.

Scroll down to see why your free caffè macchiato may not be as free as you think, and let us know what you think in the comments. And if, Dear Pandas, you’re in the mood for more office culture reading — check out this and this, too!

In a viral TikTok with over 6.4 million views, a former Google employee revealed the “dark reasons” behind free and amazing perks that offices around the world grant their workers

Image credits: The Pancake of Heaven!

Image credits: Ken Waks

Ask any bright-eyed IT graduate where they envision themselves working one day, chances are that you’ll hear one of the most commonly used words in the English language that greets 4.3 billion internet users worldwide — Google. One of the most influential companies in existence, the building blocks of the internet as we know it, with almost 135,000 passionate (full-time) workers. And some of them, including Ken, get to be at the heart of it all — the shiny mecca of innovation, Silicon Valley, where lies the second-largest Google office in the world called ‘Googleplex.’

When Ken, Yelp’s local business directory executive at the time, got offered a position at Google, his initial reaction wasn’t different from anyone else who got to step inside (and stay, full-time) this colorful 26-acre “playground for adults.” “Oh my god, this is the Google campus. For someone like me who grew up in a rural town in New Jersey, working for the internet — that was the dream,” Waks told Bored Panda via Zoom call.

Ken was 24-years-old and bright-eyed when he was invited to join the internet’s leading company as a primary operations analyst in 2017. In the next few years, he would quit Google twice and a few more years down the line — he’d make a viral TikTok video about it.

Image credits: Ken Waks

Image credits: Ken Waks

Image credits: Ken Waks

Image credits: Mario Gogh

Image credits: Ken Waks

In 2015, there was a popular story circulating around the internet praising the 23-year-old Google employee who lived in his truck in the company’s parking lot to pay off his student debts and save money. Most people thought that was borderline genius. Ken, on the other hand, had a different take on it.

“This guy was kind of popular around the campus. You know, use the tools that are available to you, right? I didn’t really think too much about it at the time,” Waks explained. But soon, Ken would start thinking about this as more similar-type employees entered the picture. “I had a friend that I went to college with who told me that her cousin was a senior software engineer at Google. This person can write amazing codes. But this guy didn’t go on dates. Didn’t go out. Didn’t have any friends. He’d simply stay at the office until 10:00 PM at night and just go home and crash and come back the next morning.”

This wouldn’t be entirely possible in a regular workplace. But at the Googleplex, where hardworking employees are granted free lunch,  sleeping pods, free gym and other sweet perks, hardly imaginable in a regular office — workers can basically have a semi-fulfilling and rent-free life inside the workplace. Ken, however, saw right through it.

“It’s very interesting. It’s kind of like you live, breathe and die it,” he said. “Some people may want that. Me? I kind of like the idea of being able to close my laptop at the end of the day and being like, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.'” Ken was on to something: in the UK, pre-pandemic, it was estimated that workers rack up to £35 billion (or $46 billion) in unpaid overtime each year. Was it possible that free office perks had anything to do with this phenomenon?

Here’s the TikTok creator explaining all of this in the flesh

@ken Why tech companies give such “amazing perks” #workperks #google #googler #freefood ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show

However, a lot of people were slightly annoyed that someone with such luxurious perks and salary would complain about it in the first place

Ken, who now works as the technical manager at a Fortune One startup based in San Francisco, thinks what we’re seeing now is the beginning of corporates’ larger plan whose origins can be traced back to the 1900s. “There are very clear plans to build company towns, which is a concept that was popularized by mining companies back in the 19th century. You would essentially live at the mine, you sleep at the mine, buy your food from the store there. Which isn’t that far from where we are right now, considering all facts,” Waks reasoned.

Office culture as we know it has also changed since the pandemic. No more do we have to sacrifice precious sleep time commuting back and forth. No more do we have to think just how much money we spend on lunch deals. “The company I work for was able to be very successful during the pandemic because we had started to build out an online presence that ended up being used a lot more than it ever had been,” Waks told. “Last July, they wanted everyone back at the office. I said, ‘I just can’t do it. San Francisco’s too expensive.'”

He was able to convince his current employers that being fully remote won’t alter his effectiveness at the company. “What did I want from a workplace? To be able to leave work, close my laptop and not have it follow me around [all day].” Ken got all that. Plus the ability to continue his journey as a content creator.

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