The Insertion of Tech Giants into their Employee’s Lives

The Integration of Tech Giants into their Employees’ Lives

Facebook, Google, Amazon. These and other tech-giants are now becoming such an integral part of our lives. But what about the lives of their employees? It’s not uncommon for tech companies to offer the most fabulous perks in order to try to recruit and retain the top talent. Perks like free food, gym memberships, expense accounts, free childcare, free transportation, yoga, massages, and now, sponsored housing.

These companies are worth billions and billions of dollars, and exert enormous amounts of power. Facebook, for instance, paid for a police station to be built next to their headquarters. They’re now also in the process of building a self-contained city called Willow Village, complete with retail stores, community centers, 1500 housing units, playgrounds, hotel units, and more. Although this isn’t built yet, Facebook pays its employees to live near its headquarters, a whopping $10,000. The reach of the companies is enormous.

It seems like these companies are extending their reach far beyond what could be considered normal or safe into the lives of their employees. It is rather reminiscent of company towns of years past, in which employees worked and lived on company property. These types of arrangements were supposed to be beneficial to the employees, but were instead rather parasitic and benefitted the companies, instead.

The government needs to get ahead of these issues rather than waiting for them to arise. Tech companies are huge, powerful and profitable and very much operate with an attitude of “shoot first, ask questions later,” or “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. If we allow them to operate unchecked and become such a large part of the way our society and culture operates, they will get out of control, and the effects will not be pretty.