Monica_Hsu

Bringing Fun to Work

by Monica Hsu

Bringing un to Work

Written, Photographed, and Designed by Monica Hsu

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Dedication To: MOm & Dad This book is dedicated to both of my parents, for their support 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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Acknowledgements a special thanks to...

Mr. Florendo

Mr. Greco

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

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

Ms. Parkinson

Dad

for 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 possible!

for 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 firsthand level.

Karen & Sarah for 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 Contents Foreword.....................................................................................8 Friendly Introduction..................................................11 Facebook Domain...........................................................15 Feelings of the Employees...............................25 Formal Studies.................................................................33 Final Conclusion.............................................................39 Bibliography..........................................................................43 7

oreword

0 JSLHYS` YLTLTILY [OL [YHUJL VM HTHaLTLU[ HUK H^L 0 ^HZ PU [OL ÄYZ[ KH` my 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 FaceIVVR [OPUNZ ZSPNO[S` KPăLY MYVT NYH` J\IPJSLZ I\[[VU \WZ HUK [PLZ 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: +VLZ [OPZ [`WL VM ^VYRPUN LU]PYVUTLU[ WSH` H KLÄUPUN YVSL PU [OL IVVTPUN Z\Jcess of Facebook’s 845 million user company?

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Through this book, I hoped to uncover an element of a working environTLU[ [OH[ PZ VM[LU V]LYSVVRLK PU [`WPJHS ÄYTZ ;`WPJHSS` JVTWHUPLZ KVU»[ ZLLT 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 X\HSP[` ^VYR ^OLU [OL` HYL LUJSVZLK HUK JVUÄULK PU TVUV[VUV\Z [VULK J\IPJSLZ& ;OL -HJLIVVR /LHKX\HY[LYZ KLÄLK ZVJPL[`»Z [`WPJHS [HRL VU H ^VYRPUN LU]PYVUment.

So with each chapter in my book, I build on one main idea: A casual and SHPK IHJR ^VYRPUN LU]PYVUTLU[ JHU IL ILULÄJPHS HUK WVZP[P]LS` HăLJ[ VUL»Z ^VYR ethic. With the highly insightful and informational interviews I got with two Facebook 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.

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“Having a casual and laid-back work environment can be benLÄJPHS HUK WVZP[P]LS` HăLJ[ VUL»Z work ethic.”

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CHAPTER ONE:

riendly Introduction

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in a firm where you can sleep on a couch placed next to your desk if you’re exhausted, 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 off some steam? What if your CEO wasn’t even a college graduate? This scenario is a reality to the 3,000 employees of the extremely successful social network of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, started 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 phenomenon? There are several possible factors to answer this golden question. Being lucky enough to access the interior of the Facebook Headquarters, 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 identified as the surroundings of where someone works. However, there are

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different 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 Facebook, described her former work environment to be, “a traditional architectural office where you have cubicles and you sit in your cubicle and do the work assigned to you”. Comparing this scenario to the first one is quite a difference.

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 environment. 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 classroom holds a multitude of computers and

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 observations at the Facebook Headquarters, I have come to theorize that having a casual and laid-back work environTLU[ JHU IL ILULÄJPHS HUK WVZP[P]LS` HăLJ[ VUL»Z ^VYR ethic.

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CHAPTER TWO:

acebook Domain

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After explaining the difference between a dull and creative work environment, let me explain why Facebook holds itself under the title of a “creative” work environment. Unlike most firms, Facebook holds a unique “open” environment. Stepping out of the norm of traditional cubicles, employees work together on a floor without separation barriers in between each desk. This type of environment promotes the important tool of communication. Even their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg resides in a desk exactly like the rest of his employees in an open environment. Along with this unique overall work space set up, Facebook has provided a plentiful variety of amenities to place their employees in a valuable work space to produce quality work.

First off, there is the subject matter of food. Most firms typically provide complementary items for their employees such as coffee, 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

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a brand named coffee shop on campus. The cafeteria is open three times a day and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner freshly cooked by elite chefs. Some items they serve include Brazilian Orange Rice, Roasted Creole Chicken, Sweet Pepper Fajitas, and White Chocolate Bread Pudding. The 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 filled with drinks like Red Bull, Odwalla, Gatorade, Vitamin Water, and more. Also, there are setups called “micro-kitchens” that you can find on each floor. Within each micro-kitchen, you can find a pantry stocked up like a supermarket with a numerous amount of snacks including chips, fruit, gum, cookies, candy, and more. It is obvious 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 exhausted employee to take a break from a strenuous 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 escape into the gaming world. For the artistic side that some employees hold, Facebook is pretty open about expressing yourself. For most companies, spray painting and drawing on walls would be considered vandalism and might just be enough to get someone fired. However, at Facebook, walls are filled 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 website) is an actual wall in the building that people are encouraged to draw on with chalk. As a result of this openness, Facebook is filled 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 identified as conference rooms. Each room is labeled uniquely, sometimes after a movie, YouTube clip, or famous quote. For example, the one of the rooms is called “Charlie Bit My Finger”. These 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 off-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 everywhere.

To top it off, 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 successful 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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“The 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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CHAPTER THREE:

eelings of the Employees

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To further investigate this question, I decided to gain the perspective of a few Facebook employees 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 different work experiences and perspectives.

Previous to Facebook, Karen Cooper worked at various architecture firms, 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 finishing up her Master’s degree and working at a company called Equinix as an electrical engineer.

As you can see, both women differ in age and work experience. So when I interviewed them both at the same time, I got a vast array of insights which allowed me to dig deeper into my theory that a casual and fun work environment can positively affect one’s work ethic and a company’s success. To start off my interview, I asked Karen and Sarah how their former work experi-

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ences compared to the ones they were experiencing currently at Facebook. Through this question, hoped to gain a better perspective of what other work environments are like.

Karen responded that her previous firm in San Francisco was, “very restricted and conservative” and, “you have cubicles where you sit in your cubicle 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 former 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 finish 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.

The 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 offices 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, Foosball, 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

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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 cubicle 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. Then 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 beneficial. I wanted to gain a better perspective on how the environment affected how they worked. “I think everyone here who hasn’t been in an atmosphere like this finds 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 headphones on”. In a nutshell, this was Karen’s response based on her past experiences. Then she explained that, “when you learn how to manage it and get used to it, it’s more beneficial”. 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.

“The open environment increases the trust between co-workers,” is something she noted. All in all, Sarah found the environment to be, “very

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very beneficial” and “breaks down the barriers of communication”.

Through these answers, I got a sense that both women found the environment to be somewhat distracting at first, but then more beneficial in the long run.

Finally, I wanted to know how they two employees thought the environment affected their work ethic. This question envelops my entire topic and big idea: A casual and laid back environment can positively affect one’s work ethic.

“I think it affects me positively,” is what Karen first responded with. Then she explained how she thinks it positively affects most of the workers 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 surfing the internet or if I’m actually working. I’m my own boss, I’m my own keeper”.

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

All in all, I gained a great amount of informational 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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CHAPTER FOUR:

ormal Studies

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In addition to my interview based research on how an environment affects an employee’s work ethic, I searched into some formal research projects for some scientific and psychological based information.

Through this research project, I came across many websites that dealt with this topic.

Many had opinions on this topic such as, “Physical space matters. It’s easier to be productive, creative and happy at work in a colourful, organic, playful environment than in a grey, linear boring one,” or, “Could you sit in grey cubicles and come up with stuff like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo?”.

However, I discovered a formal study conducted by Jacqueline C. Vischer, a member of the Faculty of Environmental Design in Montreal, Canada. The study was titled The Effects of the Physical Environment on Job Performance: Towards a Theoretical Model of Workspace Stress. Through this study I gained a lot of valuable and tested information from many psychologists and scientists that Vischer cited.

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Ergonomics was a term that was used quite frequently throughout the study. After looking it up, I gathered the dictionary definition of ergonomics: the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements and its cognitive abilities to fulfill 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 office furniture and equipment to benefit 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 different aspects of a work environment affect how an employee works are all answered through ergonomic 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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floor configuration and furniture layouts in the open plan office”. This can be compared with Facebook’s “open environment” work space, numerous couches placed everywhere, the quality of chairs that they provide for their employees, etc. The study notes, “Research indicates that these environmental factors have the greatest influence 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 productivity (cited from Miles, 2000)”. This statistic banished the worry that the extra money being invested into these new features would override the effects. This study proved that the investment would eventually pay off 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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CHAPTER FIVE:

inal Conclusion

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(M[LY OLHYPUN HIV\[ HSS [OLZL THNUPÄJLU[ HTLUP[PLZ H[ -HJLIVVR P[ PZ H NP]LU 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 JV\SK IL TVYL KPZ[YHJ[PUN HZ VWWVZLK [V ILULÄJPHS MVY [OL JVTWHU` (S[OV\NO [OPZ PZ H MHJ[VY PU KL[LYTPUPUN ^OL[OLY VY UV[ H JHZ\HS LU]PYVUTLU[ PZ ILULÄJPHS P[ PZ VI]PV\Z MYVT LK\JH[PVUHS Z[\KPLZ HUK ÄYZ[ OHUK VWPUPVUZ MYVT LTWSV`LLZ [OH[ [OL ILULÄ[Z VM [OPZ RPUK VM LU]PYVUTLU[ V]LYWV^LYZ [OL KPZ[YHJ[PVU ;OLYL PZ H SL]LS of trust that comes with being provided with such amenities that pushes the employee 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 PZ VYNHUPaLK PZ H YLÅLJ[PVU VM [OH[ [Y\Z[ HUK [OH[ J\S[\YL 0 KVU»[ [OPUR [OPZ RPUK VM 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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