Google employees confess to living in the work car park

Some Google employees have confessed to living at work. Credit: Press association

With free food, showers, laundries and gyms, it's not surprising that some employees at Google have decided to make the most of the benefits on offer at work.

A user on the Quora website asked: "Which Googler holds the record for living at Google HQ?" and was inundated with responses from employees who had decided to make their workplace their home.

Google Programmer Ben Discoe said he lived in a camper van parked outside Google's San Francisco HQ for 13 months. With payments for alimony and a house in Hawaii, he couldn't afford the high rental prices in South Bay, so living in a $1800 camper van at work was a more affordable option for him.

A sandwich bar at Google's Mountain View headquarters. Credit: Google

Former employee, Brandon Oxendine, lived in his Volvo estate in an underground car park at Google for three months. He fitted it out with curtains and a mattress, and took advantage of the showers and food on his doorstep at work.

Another respondent told of a colleague who had lived in a Google car park for three years and saved up enough money to buy a house.

Google's offices have a reputation for funky design. Credit: Google

Further benefits car park inhabitants and other employees can take advantage of at Google include:

  • Games rooms

  • Slides between floors

  • Ben & Jerry's ice cream handed out during fire drills

An alternative way to get between floors at the Google office. Credit: Google