[edblarney]

"No, it's not. If it was, all companies would do it."

No, this is false.

Google employees productivity, as measured in earnings/capita, is significantly greater than most other companies.

Google does not 'lose money' on the policy, if it was a 'net loser', they would end it.

It's effectively part of the total incentive package.

If it costs them $20/day per person, that's an extra $4K/year per person, if it increases productivity by only 2% it's an obvious winner based on that easy calculation alone.

Google has billions of dollars they don't know what to do with, and their effective cost of capital is very low. Anything they can do to materially lift output - that doesn't cost zillions - is probably worth it.