Monday, March 19, 2007

The Google Wannabe Board

At Nuffnang, we all have this little board called the "Google Wannabe Board".

This was inspired by an issue of Fortune (or Forbes) that both Ming and I read which told the story of how life at Google's HQ in Mountain View was like.

The employees there had free car washes, free meals, free massages, swimming pools and everything else you could ask for.

Ming and I always wanted our leetle dotcom to be like that and Ming insisted that we didn't need to have money to incorporate a culture like that. We could start it now in our small ways.

So what we agreed on was to have this little board that stated something new we would do for our team mates every couple of months.
It started in January and February with medical benefits for our colleagues (something that burns through the pocket of a tiny dotcom but we felt it would be worth it anyway).

And for March and April, we decided to stock up our pantry with so much junk food it would make our office look like a slumber party.

For that... Ming and I went to Tescos!

Just like all other Tescos, the one in Penang was HUGE!!!

There was everything on sale!!! EVERYTHING.... you could probably even buy a spaceship if you wanted to.
But we were only interested in one thing....

THE JUNK FOOD SECTION

So Ming and I got a trolley and dumped as much junk food as we could in it.
The trolley started off pretty empty at first.

But we were quick to fill it up with everything from Double Decker, to Mamee, to Jelly, to Sweets, to biscuits and most importantly... CHEEZELS!!!

But as I was rolling our trolley around, something caught my attention.

BEER!!!

Now I thought about it... that a beer-filled office would be a happy office. You know, people who laughed about everything or people who talk loud enough to sound extremely motivated about anything... even work.

So I stood there for a second and pondered...

And I pondered....

Imagine someone calling up our office:

"Hello Nuffnang Sdn Bhd? Could you please put me to the Sales Department?"

And a very drunk person on the other end saying

"AHAHAHAHAHA HELLO NOOFNANG HERE.... DID YOU SAY SALES DEPARTMENT??? HAHAHAHA YOU MEAN... YOU MEAN A DEPARTMENT THAT SELLS?!?!? AHAHAHAHAAAHAH Wait wait.... what do we sell again?"

Not exactly the best example to show to a potential client.

So I reluctantly said goodbye to the crates of beer.


And went off to pay the bill!


Yes... the bill.. it was long....Soo soooo longgg...

Anyone wanna suggest a new perk we can add on the board for May/June?

Please... something we can afford... don't say "Company trip to Space" or "Beyonce Concert"...



32 comments:

James said...

Wow... that's a heck lot of junkfood... glad to see that you're moving past a cheezels only environment...

Jason Lioh said...

That is one long list of junk food! No beers at least buy some cokes mah! Haiseh.

By the way, your post is up? Can tell me why Monday?

Unknown said...

company outing. bbq/steamboat/weekend morning hikes/ie. stg to do with colleagues to bond ;)

Unknown said...

or maybe all casual week/month - can wear slippers, shorts and singlet if they want to. (except for those that need to meet up with clients of coz)

Unknown said...

how about friendly match? of badminton/bowling/tennis/table tennis (this one boss sure win la)... can include family members also ma.

Unknown said...

woooops... din notice i was spamming...
*do u think i'd be blind enuff not to notice that?*

p/s: oops, i did it again~!

Cely said...

one karaoke session!!

Lance de'Cypher said...

Have a donate-a-tub-of-Haagen-Dazs-to-Lance campaign. =)

sadsarcasm said...

lol, buy more cheezels!!

Jackson said...

Man, I miss those megamarkets... Holland isn't even big enough to fit one, I think.

And Lance is right, how come I don't see any bucket 'o Haagen Dazs in your cart?

Boss Stewie said...

james: hahahaha... yes yes.. but we're still pretty much cheezels based

jason: ah yes yes.. will tell u later.. hehe.... we did buy some drinks as well

william: well wednesdays and fridays are already casual days at nuffnang

cely: GOOD IDEA!

lance: hahahaha lol

vegemaster: yes.. we can never have enough cheezels

jackson: cuz... uhmm... cuz it's RM500 bucks a tub!

Horny Ang Moh said...

So much junk food! Hopefull u guys all don't turn into junkie!! He! He!

Unknown said...

Have you started contributing to the HRDF fund yet? As the training provided will greatly enhance the skills of the company's personnel.

Anonymous said...

i suggest.. stay-at-home-cook-for-employees-then-intro-hot-sis-to-boss day!! i'll bring jessica alba over as soon as i'm done with her. promise. :D

Jason Lioh said...

You know, if Beyonce's concert is one of the benefits, I don't mind working as a coffee guy. :D

andrew said...

i wanna work for u:( :( :(

slacker said...

u know what employees would really really want? (at least I would ..haha)

work only 4 days a week. better still, make it 3.5

Unknown said...

erm.. so many junk foods u bought, i think u get some exercise equipment in ur office then... beat the obesity..

electronicfly said...

one way airasia ticket free for company trip.

(hehe, choose the zero cozt tickets la..)

mae said...

Tescooooo. *blink blink*

5xmom.com said...

Free char koay teow, laksa and curry mee to promote Penang food mah.

Talking about the answering phone part, once my colleague and I did it to our lawyer boss. We answered the phone with "Kiki bubble gum baru..." in a cartoon voice 'cos he did not pay us overtime! LOL, I was only 20 years and not guilty.

Kiss my ass said...

hrm...

POOL TABLE!!!!!!

Infectioner said...

may/june - donate money to poor people like Infectioner XD

CincauHangus.com said...

hmm.. if you have a men majority in your company, girls gotta wear short skirts for a day/week.

if ladies is the majority, guys should go topless. :P

It's still a perk! :P

MaN|acZ said...

yes.. Kart-racing for the whole company.

hahaha....

oh maybe .. Haagen Daaz ICE CREAM FIGHT!!!

:P

Eve said...

Yes, pool table!! My friends office has one! and allow ur staff to bring their pets to work so they are willing to stay in the office longer hour! I think google allow that, or some giant company :)

Boss Stewie said...

hor ny: hahaah no lar... we wun

giovini: what's that?? we're a tiny dotcom!!!


suicidal: then the boss benefits! not the employees

jason: haha!! i'm sure a lot of people won't mind too

andrew: don't say work FOR me...say work WITH me

slacker: wah macam ni.. how can nuffnang climb its great heights

jolene: on the contrary, we were thinking of getting a hammock for the office.

feiness: writing that idea down now...

mae: lol.. yes yes i should've looked u up

5xmom: lol... if i only had the chance to meet lilian at age 20

shireen: that has to come later wor... wahh so expensive

infectioner: hehee that's something we're planning to do.. charity


cincau: what a fantastic idea! i will suggest it to the team

maniacz: LOL!!! that's expensive ice cream to fight with

eve: yeah i think it's google that allows that :P

Kenny Lee said...

I am joining ur company if you need a mech engineer....hahaha

aL said...

eh boss ah... 2 men shopping together - pushing a trolley looks very... ermmm... very... ermmm... u noe...
errmmm... LOL!

mr jp said...

Nice to see that a local company is treating their employees well. The google work environment is really awesome, have you seen the video ?

Good luck on your dot.com !

JPP Papa said...

Man, you guys really enjoying there. I wish you all really buy the green cans. I would have join u all. ;)

Just a drop note here. thanks for commenting in my blog. short and simple. :D

Mischique said...

lol are you seriously telling me that you've never been to teso? since you seemed to be surprised by the size of it...