SF Tech Tour Part IV: Free Food, Bar Carts, Fitness Centers and Genius Bars!

I recently visited Yelp, GitHub, Ripple, Wired, Pandora, Airbnb, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. While each space had a very different look, some distinct themes emerged.

Amenities are important in work spaces for many reasons. They create and reflect culture, allow employees to spend more time doing their jobs and less time running out of the office and act as a powerful recruiting tool. Tech companies are clearly staunch advocates of highly amenitized space. In fact, I was absolutely blown away by the level of amenities offered to employees.

The first company I toured was LinkedIn where I was told that the company provides full breakfast, lunch and dinner service to their employees every day free of charge. The rumored costs of this amenity? $7K per year per employee. And, Whole Foods has nothing on the LinkedIn kitchen. The ingredients are locally-sourced and organic and the choices limitless. If you happen to miss the actual meal times, you will have no one to blame but yourself for going hungry because each floor contains an abundantly stocked pantry.

I learned later when visiting Github, Pandora, Wired, Pinterest and Airbnb that this meal plan is standard. One of the Pinterest employees remarked to me on my tour that she hadn’t bought groceries in ten months. Even the relatively small Ripple brings in lunch for its employees twice a week.

If employees feel like imbibing, they don’t have to go far. Airbnb brews their own kombucha and keeps craft beers and local wines ON TAP in their café. Pinterest has a rolling bar cart that can be relocated around their space as the demand arises. GitHub has two bars in their space.

All of the companies use their cafeteria and bar spaces for large company events, but most also have large auditoriums for the regular town hall meetings that are part of their cultures.

Lest the LinkedIn employees take excessive advantage of their cafeteria, their headquarters boasts a large wellness facility which includes cardio equipment, machines, free weights and a group fitness area offering an array of classes. There are trainers available to coach and employees are encouraged to use the facility at any time – even during their work day.

A very San Francisco-specific amenity in every office and office building was bike storage. Many employees commute by bike so all spaces feature bike storage and most include shower facilities. Yelp took it to a new level with a “bike spa”
where employees can repair or work on their bikes.

One of my favorite amenities found at both Pinterest and Airbnb was the Help Desk. Instead of burying the IT support staff in a back office, they are out at retail-like counter spaces where employees can find the help they need quickly and easily.

Linkedin also has tech vending machines on every floor where employees can swipe their badges to obtain things like a new mouse, a keyboard, a cable, etc.