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Google staff admit they lived at the office to save money

How many of you, or your employees, have worked such long hours you've joked about "living" at the workplace?

Well, for these former Google employees, this was a reality.

Thanks to a thread posted on Quora which asked "Which Googler holds the record for living at Google HQ?" numerous ex-employees have come forward to explain how they used Google's excellent perks (such as free food) to allow them to live in the office.

HR employee Shana Sweeney wrote she discovered an employee who had a campervan in the parking lot which he used to sleep in, but did everything else in the office.

"Technically, you weren't supposed to live at the office, but people got around that by living in their cars in the parking lot of the office or the... parking lot."

But the current record holder is a man named Matthew Weaver, who claims he managed to live in Google's offices for 13 months when he was working there.

He claimed he 'lived' in an RV behind one of the buildings, but did everything else inside Google.

"I did it on a dare. It was excellent for my career," he wrote. "We would hold regular parties at the RV on Thursdays when the weather didn't suck. I had an astroturf lawn and white picket fence for a while.

"The winter was bad, very wet that year - I was cycling desiccants into the office every day to dry them out, keeping them in sealed containers in the RV with all my clothes. Condensation was a nightmare."

Another former employee, Brandon Oxendine, explained how he lived in a Volvo station wagon for about three months in a parking garage.

"I set up a twin mattress from IKEA and put up black curtains (on the 90% blacked out windows) and slept there mostly every night for three months until I moved in with my buddy (an ex-Googler) in the Mission in San Francisco," he wrote.

"I've always enjoyed having very little possessions and have always had dreams of living out of a car ever since my first car.

"I was in a unique situation working at Google where I had showers and food that were very convenient to me. I really enjoyed it and would do it again."

Here are a few more stories:

  • "I lived at the Google Mt. View campus from May 2011 through July 2012. I would consider keeping an RV or other vehicle in the parking lot cheating: I owned no car and slept in nap pods/massage rooms/conference rooms/etc. every night."
  • "One of my colleagues lived in the London office for more than a week back in '06 or '05. The reason was because he had transferred from Mountain View, and hadn't found anywhere to live in London, and it just worked out easier to sleep under his desk."
  • "I've been living on the Google campus since December 2011. Still live and work there today."
Image: Shutterstock

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