Speaking of Google...

It's getting closer to the BuildASign.com trip to the Googleplex. In mid-April, we will be heading to San Francisco to meet with Google and to explore the mysteries of Googleplex. From free 24-hour cafeterias to cycling swimming pools to 3-D Globes showing searches, Google has spent a lot of money and a lot of time designing a place that is both attractive to potential employees and encouraging to existing employees.

It's probably true that most companies don't have the vast billions of dollars of profit each year to afford such things, but there is a lesson to be learned, or at least a question to be posed. How far do things like free food and activities go within in a company to promote morale, efficiency, intensity and of course, long work hours? Most people work 8 hours a day and then go home, but why go home when the food at work is free and the work out facilities are better than your local gym?

Extravagant ameneties are often regarded as a failed experiment of the dot-com bust, but one has to wonder what our offices would look like today if the investors hadn't pulled their money from the thousands of companies that went belly-up in the '90s. Perhaps they'd all have swimming pools, bean bag chairs and cafeterias.

It's hard to look at Google's success and especially their bottom line and say with certainty that they're not onto something with their employee generosity.