The Afterlife of a Googler

Working with big tech companies usually comes with its own share of benefits. We have heard about companies which offer everything from free food to free laundries inside the campus. But here is something different from Google, a company known for its extraordinary facilities to employees: “If a U.S. Googler pass away while under the employ of the 14-year old search giant, their surviving spouse or domestic partner will receive a check for 50% of their salary every year for the next decade.” Yes, what you just heard is true! The Googlers perks extends even afterlife.

"This might sound ridiculous, but we've announced death benefits at Google,” Google's chief people officer Laszlo Bock told in an interview last week.  What is even more interesting is that the employ need not be permanent to get these benefits. It’s been first time the policy is made public, even though it is existent from the last year.

Moreover, the surviving spouses will see all stocks vested immediately and any children will receive a payment of $1000 from Google until they reach age of 19, and 23 if the child is a full time student.

As stated in Forbes, unlike all the employ wellness and productivity oriented perks, providing death benefits is a no-win for the company. But considering a company with the motto “Don’t be Evil,” it is more a question of ethics at Google.  “One of the things we realized recently was that one of the harshest but most reliable facts of life is that at some point most of us will be confronted with the death of our partners,” Bock says. “And it’s a horrible, difficult time no matter what, and every time we went through this as a company we tried to find ways to help the surviving spouse of the Googler who’d passed away.”

According to Bock, Google is doing all these things not because it is important to business, but simply because it is the right thing to do. “When it comes down to it, it’s better to work for a company who cares about you than a company who doesn’t. And from a company standpoint, that makes it better to care than not to care,” continued Bock.