Bringing Fun to Work

by Monica Hsu

Bringing un to Work

Written, Photographed, and Designed by Monica Hsu1

Dedication

To:MOm  &  Dad

!is book is dedicated to both of my parents, for their sup-port in everything I do. With their genuinely caring hearts,

I’m able to pursue all the possible opportunities that they have laid out for me.

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Acknowledgementsa special thanks to...

Mr.  Florendofor teaching me and giving me the basics ability to share my work with the internet world.

Dadfor taking his time to step out of his way of work and help me achieve this project. His prestigious job at Facebook allowed me to investigate my topic at an extremely "rsthand level.

Mr.  Grecofor guiding me through the process in writing my "rst research documentary. With his advice and support, I have gained much experience and have improved as a writer.

Ms.  Parkinsonfor informing me on the basics of InDesign and teaching me how to design my book to be visually appealing. Without her, this book would not be pos-sible!

Karen  &  Sarahfor both taking their time to share their experiences at Facebook with me. Both of their insights proved to be extremely valuable in my project. Also, their friendly and amiable personalities made the interview process very enjoyable and easygoing.

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Table of ContentsForeword.....................................................................................8

Friendly Introduction..................................................11

Facebook Domain...........................................................15

Feelings of !he Employees...............................25

Formal Studies.................................................................33

Final Conclusion.............................................................39

Bibliography..........................................................................437

orewordmy father took me to visit his work. Typically, this wouldn’t be a big deal to most children brought to their father’s “Bring Your Child to Work” day. However, when your father is an employee at the massive social networking site of Face-

The incredible and borderline luxurious environment of the Facebook Headquarters caught me by complete surprise. The spray painted walls, micro kitchens, and people riding down corridors on RipStiks were things I had never before seen in a working environment. So it was only natural for me to wonder:

-cess of Facebook’s 845 million user company?

Through this book, I hoped to uncover an element of a working environ-

to invest in the ergonomics (the study of designing equipment to suit the human body) of their surroundings. However, how are employees supposed to produce

-ment. So with each chapter in my book, I build on one main idea: A casual and

ethic. With the highly insightful and informational interviews I got with two Face-book employees, and the educational studies of a environmental design faculty member in Canada, I put together a book that I hope will open the eyes of local companies and schools and encourage them to rethink the environment that they provide for their employees and students.8

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“Having a casual and laid-back work environment can be ben-

work ethic.”

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riendly IntroductionCHAPTER ONE:

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in a "rm where you can sleep on a couch placed next to your desk if you’re exhaust-ed, spray paint the walls if you feel a creative streak coming on, or go on a bike ride to the nearby gymnasium on campus to blow o# some steam? What if your CEO wasn’t even a college graduate? !is scenario is a reality to the 3,000 employees of the extremely successful social net-work of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, start-ed this company in the depths of his very own college dorm room with a few of his roommates. Soon, the networking service began to grow rapidly into a 845 million user website. So what made this company into such a successful phe-nomenon? !ere are several possible factors to answer this golden question. Being lucky enough to access the interior of the Facebook Headquar-ters, I’ve decided to investigate on a tangible factor that I’ve been able to observe myself: the working environment. A work environment can be simply identi"ed as the surroundings of where someone works. However, there are

di#erent variables that are rarely accounted for when thinking about a working environment. Many companies do not put much thought into providing an exciting work environment for their employees. Karen, an employee at Face-book, described her former work environment to be, “a traditional architectural o$ce where you have cubicles and you sit in your cubicle and do the work assigned to you”. Comparing this scenario to the "rst one is quite a di#erence. Being a student at both Los Altos High School and Freestyle Academy, I’ve also acquired the experience of what it’s like to be in a dull versus creative working environment. Los Altos High contains your typical high school envi-ronment. Monotonous toned lockers lined up endlessly along hallways, steel water fountains mounted against the walls, and stone benches placed around campus. Comparatively, with Freestyle Academy being an art-based school, the environment contains a Foosball and ping pong table located in the middle of campus, buildings covered with murals, and every class-room holds a multitude of computers and

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utilities to help brew creativity within students. With its casual and creative environment, Freestyle Academy is the

factory where students continuously produce incredible work. Personally, due to the surroundings I receive while

at Freestyle, I tend to produce a higher quality of work there than while I’m at Los Altos.

So from my experiences at Freestyle, and my ob-servations at the Facebook Headquarters, I have come to theorize that having a casual and laid-back work environ-

ethic.

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acebook DomainCHAPTER TWO:

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A%er explaining the di#erence between a dull and creative work environment, let me explain why Facebook holds itself under the title of a “creative” work environment. Unlike most "rms, Facebook holds a unique “open” environ-ment. Stepping out of the norm of traditional cubicles, employees work together on a &oor without separation barriers in between each desk. !is type of environment promotes the im-portant tool of communication. Even their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg resides in a desk exactly like the rest of his employees in an open environ-ment. Along with this unique overall work space set up, Facebook has provided a plentiful variety of amenities to place their employees in a valu-able work space to produce quality work. First o#, there is the subject matter of food. Most "rms typically provide complemen-tary items for their employees such as co#ee, tea, and usually a vending machine down the hall to satisfy cravings throughout the day. However, Facebook has provided full meals three times a day, a variety of drink options, a multitude of snacks for the employees to munch on, and even

a brand named co#ee shop on campus. !e cafeteria is open three times a day and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner freshly cooked by elite chefs. Some items they serve include Brazil-ian Orange Rice, Roasted Creole Chicken, Sweet Pepper Fajitas, and White Chocolate Bread Pudding. !e food served at Facebook is so delicious that employees don’t ever have to leave campus during meal times. In addition to the meals, there are refrigerators everywhere "lled with drinks like Red Bull, Odwalla, Gatorade, Vitamin Water, and more. Also, there are set-ups called “micro-kitchens” that you can "nd on each &oor. Within each micro-kitchen, you can "nd a pantry stocked up like a supermarket with a numerous amount of snacks including chips, fruit, gum, cookies, candy, and more. It is obvi-ous that Facebook wants to satisfy the important factor of energy by providing their employees with a massive selection of food. Secondly, there are several ways for an ex-hausted employee to take a break from a strenu-ous day of work. For example, gaming areas are located on campus that hold game consoles for

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workers who just want to take a break and es-cape into the gaming world. For the artistic side that some employees hold, Facebook is pretty open about expressing yourself. For most com-panies, spray painting and drawing on walls would be considered vandalism and might just be enough to get someone "red. However, at Facebook, walls are "lled with colorful and beautifully designed artworks. As a clever play on words, the “Facebook Wall” (typically known as a digital form on the social networking web-site) is an actual wall in the building that people are encouraged to draw on with chalk. As a result of this openness, Facebook is "lled with unique and talented drawings all over the site which makes the campus a truly interesting and beautiful place to be. In addition, Facebook provides separate “break out rooms” which can be identi"ed as conference rooms. Each room is labeled unique-ly, sometimes a%er a movie, YouTube clip, or famous quote. For example, the one of the rooms is called “Charlie Bit My Finger”. !ese rooms provide an enclosed space for individuals or groups to work, due to the “open environment” that is already provided. So in case individuals need to work in private conditions, they can still do so in the impressively decorated “break-out rooms”.

Next, transportation is another unique aspect of Facebook’s working environment. Shuttle buses are provided to pick up workers o#-campus and bring them to work as an alternative to driving at no cost. To travel around campus, there are a number of bikes provided at each building for employees to ride around on. Even traveling within the buildings is a breeze with RipStiks (similar to skateboards) laying around every-where. To top it o#, Facebook provides additional amenities such as a full gymnasium for workers to release their excess energy, free t-shirts, and provided phones and laptops for working and personal purposes. Simply put, Facebook has one of the most luxurious working environments out there. So do these amenities really play a role in how suc-cessful this company has become?

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“As a clever play on words, the ‘Facebook Wall’ is an actual

wall in the building that people are encouraged to draw on with

chalk.”

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“!e food served at Facebook is so delicious that employees

don’t ever have to leave campus during meal times.”

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“To travel around campus, there are a number of bikes provided at each

building for employees to ride around on.”

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eelings of !he Employees

CHAPTER THREE:

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To further investigate this question, I decided to gain the perspective of a few Facebook employ-ees that utilize these amenities and work in this environment as a lifestyle. Karen Cooper and Sarah Hanna are both employees at Facebook, yet they both hold very di#erent work experi-ences and perspectives. Previous to Facebook, Karen Cooper worked at various architecture "rms, such as Ellerbe Becket, until her current manager referred her to an architectural job available at Facebook. Sarah Hanna’s work experience goes back to when she was "nishing up her Master’s degree and work-ing at a company called Equinix as an electrical engineer. As you can see, both women di#er in age and work experience. So when I interviewed them both at the same time, I got a vast array of in-sights which allowed me to dig deeper into my theory that a casual and fun work environment can positively a#ect one’s work ethic and a com-pany’s success. To start o# my interview, I asked Karen and Sarah how their former work experi-

ences compared to the ones they were expe-riencing currently at Facebook. !rough this question, hoped to gain a better perspective of what other work environments are like. Karen responded that her previous "rm in San Francisco was, “very restricted and conservative” and, “you have cubicles where you sit in your cu-bicle and do the work assigned to you”. She even mentioned that, “you couldn’t wear jeans except for on Fridays” and the vibe she got from her co-workers was, “‘please don’t speak’ or ‘please just do your work and don’t give us your opinion because there’s other smarter people that will tell you what to do’”. She metaphorically compared her former work experience to be like a “caste system”. So when I asked her to compare this experience to her job at Facebook she said that, “here it doesn’t matter what level you’re at, you’re expected to stand up and do your work and do new and cool things”. Sarah agreed that her for-mer experience was very similar to Karen’s. She explained how she was the youngest worker on her team and was directed, “you do what you’re

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told and don’t even try to think outside of the box or try to come up of anything other than what we tell you”. Comparatively, Sarah said that at Facebook, “everyone young, old, whether you have a PhD, or you didn’t even "nish school like our CEO, are expected to go above and beyond”. Looking back at these responses, I came to the conclusion that both of the women found their job at Facebook much more superior than their past jobs due to the surrounding people and environment. !e next question I wanted to ask was how they felt overall about the environment provided for them at Facebook. Karen said she felt that the, “place was very young” and favored the fact that, “there’s no of-"ces and no walls and the fact that Mark sits at a desk like [hers]”. She explained that you have to work hard while at Facebook, but, “then you have amenities like the gym, ping pong, Foos-ball, or the game room”. Also, acknowledged the fact that , “ you can hack your space, hang things up, paint the walls, and know you’re not gonna

get in trouble”.Sarah admitted that it took her awhile to get used to the casual environment provided at Facebook. She found it weird, “not having a cu-bicle and walls in an open area where people can just walk by and see everything” and had to get used to the fact that she could sit on a couch and have a cup of tea and nobody would care. !en she explained that now she knew how it worked, it made everything, “so much easier”. From these responses, I gathered that the two employees enjoy their environmental work space at Facebook, and take advantage of the amenities provided for them. Next, I asked Karen and Sarah if they found the laid back environment of Facebook to be more distracting or bene"cial. I wanted to gain a bet-ter perspective on how the environment a#ected how they worked. “I think everyone here who hasn’t been in an atmosphere like this "nds it distracting. I mean there are times where you wish there weren’t people riding around your corridor on RipStiks, and times when you’re on

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a conference call and you can’t hear anything because people next door are having a party. But then you get used to it, and when you really have to concentrate, there’s break out areas where you can get away from your desk and put some head-phones on”. In a nutshell, this was Karen’s re-sponse based on her past experiences. ! en she explained that, “when you learn how to manage it and get used to it, it’s more bene" cial”. She made an interesting point that, “it demonstrates to everyone that works here that we trust you to do your job and we’re not gonna dictate to you when or how you do it”. Overall, she concluded, “it makes it a better place to work”. Sarah brought up an important point that a big part of the environment that Facebook provides has to do with, “the trust they have in place”. In response, she explained how her boss doesn’t even work in the same state as her, but there’s a level of trust that he knows she will do her work. “! e open environment increases the trust be-tween co-workers,” is something she noted. All in all, Sarah found the environment to be, “very

very bene" cial” and “breaks down the barriers of communication”. ! rough these answers, I got a sense that both women found the environment to be somewhat distracting at " rst, but then more bene" cial in the long run. Finally, I wanted to know how they two employ-ees thought the environment a# ected their work ethic. ! is question envelops my entire topic and big idea: A casual and laid back environment can positively a# ect one’s work ethic.“I think it a# ects me positively,” is what Karen " rst responded with. ! en she explained how she thinks it positively a# ects most of the work-ers at Facebook mostly because of the kind of person Facebook hires. She notes, “as a standard, most people who work here are very driven and are very much workaholics”. She also added, “I actually think it makes me work harder because I know that nobody is looking over my shoulder to see if I’m sur" ng the internet or if I’m actually working. I’m my own boss, I’m my own keeper”.

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Sarah agreed with everything Karen had said. She added that, “overall, everyone that works here ends up loving it so much that you become pas-sionate about it” and that the environment (the people and surroundings) ends up, “pushing you

more”. All in all, I gained a great amount of information-al insights from these two employees. Looking back at their responses as a whole, I can conclude that they proved my thesis well. However, it’s not only personal experiences that can fully prove my

thesis.

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ormal Studies

CHAPTER FOUR:

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In addition to my interview based research on how an environment a#ects an employee’s work ethic, I searched into some formal research proj-ects for some scienti"c and psychological based information. !rough this research project, I came across many websites that dealt with this topic. Many had opinions on this topic such as, “Physi-cal space matters. It’s easier to be productive, creative and happy at work in a colourful, or-ganic, playful environment than in a grey, linear boring one,” or, “Could you sit in grey cubicles and come up with stu# like !e Incredibles and Finding Nemo?”. However, I discovered a formal study conducted by Jacqueline C. Vischer, a member of the Faculty of Environmental Design in Mon-treal, Canada. !e study was titled !e E#ects of the Physical Environment on Job Performance: Towards a !eoretical Model of Workspace Stress. !rough this study I gained a lot of valu-able and tested information from many psychol-ogists and scientists that Vischer cited.

Ergonomics was a term that was used quite frequently throughout the study. A%er looking it up, I gathered the dictionary de"nition of ergo-nomics: the study of designing equipment and devices that "t the human body, its movements and its cognitive abilities to ful"ll the two goals of health and productivity. According to Vischer’s background study information, ergonomics was initially developed for military and manufacturing processes. Now, ergonomic researches apply their studies to of-"ce furniture and equipment to bene"t workers. Ergonomics studies, “tools and equipment as well as workspace features as extensions of the human body. Basically, a lot of what I’m trying to prove is based on the study of ergonomics. How di#er-ent aspects of a work environment a#ect how an employee works are all answered through ergo-nomic studies. Further into Vischer’s study, she says that, “perhaps the largest number of environmental psychology studies of workspace has focused on

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&oor con"guration and furniture layouts in the open plan o$ce”. !is can be compared with Facebook’s “open environment” work space, nu-merous couches placed everywhere, the quality of chairs that they provide for their employees, etc. !e study notes, “Research indicates that these environmental factors have the greatest in-&uence on worker satisfaction and performance. (cited from Brill, Margulis, & Konar, 1985; Hatch, 1987; Sullivan, 1990; Vischer, 1989)”. An interesting statistic I discovered from the study was that, “the additional investment in ergonomic tables and chairs for workers yielded a 5-month payback in terms of increased pro-ductivity (cited from Miles, 2000)”. !is statistic banished the worry that the extra money being invested into these new features would override the e#ects. !is study proved that the investment would eventually pay o# in the long run. Many studies have been performed to investigate the same question that intrigued me while at Facebook. Vicher’s study is only one of them.

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inal ConclusionCHAPTER FIVE:

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to wonder if the employees at Facebook ever get around to working. Restating what Karen mentioned in the interview, “There are times where you wish there weren’t people riding around your corridor on RipStiks, and times when you’re on a conference call and you can’t hear anything because people next door are having a party”. Of course, there could be times where the casual and fun work environment

of trust that comes with being provided with such amenities that pushes the em-ployee to live up to the trust that the provider has given them. “You don’t want to let anyone down and you want to work harder,” is what Karen mentioned about the feeling of being privileged at Facebook. “I think that the way the environment

environment would succeed if it didn’t go hand in hand with that open and honest trust from the main people at Facebook and our directors”.

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BibliographyWorks Cited

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