Business Casual

I attended a dinner at the Google campus in Mountain View last night where the program was a discussion by its founders -- the two Larrys and Sergey as they are casually introduced sans the usual formal CVs of east coast corporate founders. Their commitment to philanthropy and having a global view is encouraging the wake of the Enron and Worldcom scandals of days of yore, but I'm not sure I could ever embrace the google business casual, way casual work style.

As I've heard many times from other visitors, there are onsite washing machines, which no doubt is a part of the 24-hour work ethic encouraged in that culture. I work from home, but my laundry involves quarters and a 50 foot walk north. When I arrived shortly after 6 p.m., there were google staff playing volleyball in shorts in a sand lot amidst the glossy glass and steel corporate offices. I think the last thing I would want to do at the end of the day is get in the sand pit with my coworkers.

Sergy and Larry were dressed in the usual t-shirts and jeans that supposedly went out with the dotcom busts of nearly a decade ago. The east coast philanthropist seated next to me leaned in and chimed, "So that's how billionaires dress today." Well, yes, sadly. IBM clearly had a rigid corporate orthodoxy, and google and little googles have their own that is no less strict in its orthodoxy albeit with a sub-casual sartorial veneer. Personally I sometimes pine for the days when it was almost required that a man wear a fedora to work.