The new Economist's cover is the Google page, with the search options replaced by the company's problems, like Antitrust and China. In
their long analysis of Google's corporate structure and long-term outlook, The Economist peels back the hippie-dippy facade of the Googleplex.
Yet for some on the inside, it can look different. One former executive, now suing Google over her treatment, says that the firm's personnel department is "collapsing" and that "absolute chaos" reigns. When she was hired, nobody knew when or where she was supposed to work, and the balloons that all Nooglers get delivered to their desks ended up God knows where. She started receiving detailed e-mails "enforcing" Google's outward informality by reminding her that high heels and jewelry were inappropriate. Before the corporate ski trip, it was explained that "if you wear fur, they will kill you."
Sounds like the Governor Moonbeam dystopia envisioned by the Dead Kennedys. Speaking of hippie fascism, don't forget to take the
Oakland Secondhand Smoking Survey!