Posts Tagged ‘new york times’

Google Employees Will Soon Be Paying $120 per Day for Daycare?!?

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Check it - if you’re an employee at Google who wants a little employer-provided daycare in the Silicon Valley, you’ll soon be paying $2390 per infant per month according to the leak on Valleywag. So, if you make it to work about 20 days per month, then you’re burning $120 each time you drop off your precious bundle in the morning.

What’s that? You don’t trust the ’Wag? Well, how about the Grey Lady? Joe Nocera is calling this daycare issue a “rare fumble” for Google on the New York Times today.  

“Sergey Brin said he had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was tired of ‘Googlers’ who felt entitled to perks like ‘bottled water and M&Ms.’”

Did he really say that? The World Wonders. Were the Googlers really crying at work?

But hey, some perqs will remain free of charge at Google. Like the contents of this on-site convenience store, with all the Red Bulls, Rockstars (the drink created by the son of Savage Nation shock-jock Michael Savage!) and, yes, water you can drink. Sadly, Dennis Nedry’s preferred Jolt Cola is not on the menu, but rest assured, the aforementioned free M&Ms are camera left:

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That Reggio Emilia (named after the place where Ferraris roam free in Northern Italy) approach must cost a fortune. If you want, check out this Ning - see all that stuff? 

Oh well, some feel it’s still a good place to work.

Let’s give three cheers for Valleywag for posting the leaks it gets. Or, put another way:

“Wow! This actually seems like journalism. On Valleywag! And the comments are interesting, too.”

Please Google, next time, less $$$ and “more whimsey.”

Loneliest Job in the World - Selling Subscriptions to the New York Times

Monday, April 21st, 2008

This salesman shilling subscriptions to the actual dead tree paper version of the New York Times didn’t seem to get much traction during an otherwise bustling street fair in San Francisco over the weekend.

Something like 75% off and free New York Mets swag wasn’t enough to tempt the typical passerby. Perhaps if he could promise that a fetching scooter rider, such as this one, would deliver the paper each day, things would be different…

Cue tumbleweeds.

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Who is to blame for the decline of newspapers? Is it San Francisco’s very own Craig Newmark and his feisty CEO buddy Jim Buckmaster? Well, you old-school newsies should be tickled pink to hear that the people behind craigslist are now worried about being taken over by eBay.

Not much consolation, but there it is.