How has Google made sure you had work/life balance or prevented burnout?

This is a really interesting question, and I'm going to be speaking on this in regards to my own personal experience. This is not a comprehensive “This is what Google does for everyone and all the things.” This is my personal experience. I also just want to note that I am a full-time employee and I am based in the Bay Area which is the headquarters so there tend to be more resources when there's more people around. There might be differences with people's experiences based on the office that they're located in, or the country that they're located and also their employment type. I just wanted to get that disclaimer that this is not does not represent all of Google but just my experience within Google. 

I'm going to divide this up into a couple of portions:

• Company wide initiatives, things Google does

• Manager portion

• As a person portion

The bulk of it will be on the company because that's where all the goodies are. I actually Googled within our internal search engine, I looked up “burnout prevention” and there were almost 7,000 different resources that are just within Google that you could find. I think that's a really strong indicator that it is something that is top of mind and there are a lot of things and a lot of resources that one could tap into. 

Company wide

When it comes to burn out and wellness, the connodical thing that a lot people are aware of are the massages you could get in the office, which is lovely. There are tons of different Wellness classes as well – these are just free classes that you could take and mindfulness and wellness. They go into why biologically there might be stressors and how those stressors affect your body, plus techniques on how to deal with stress. There's a lots of presentations as well. There's tons of talks and they bring people from all over the world to come and do talks about mindfulness, balance, wellness. There is also, and a lot of companies have this too, are EAP programs: Employee Assistant Programs, I believe that's what they're called. These are resources like free mental health sessions with a mental health clinician and potentially other free resources that you can get a few sessions on. Google has that it covers things like Legal, Financial issues, emotional issues, child care just to be able to get some assistance or emotional support, elder care as well. There's a lot of programs that Google has within that space. Something else that's really interesting is there is, and I don't think people think about this as a wellness tool but, there is a 20% project that you can do so if you're a full-time employee after a year; you can sign up to  have 20% of your time to go to a different project. Which for me, I believe it can help relieve burn out because you're doing something different, using different parts of your brain. That is the highlevel what Google does– there are tons more resources, but those are the ones that I’ve used. 

Managers

Then there is the manager level, that has to do with, something I’ve noticed with several of my managers is that, they just had done a training fairly recently of all the resources Google does have. That tells me that Google is telling their managers about these resources. Note: not all managers are great, even within Google, so it would depend on the manager. But there is an effort from Google to inform managers of the different resources, which is really nice. Something else that managers have within their wheelhouse is something that I have to remind myself to do, is if I'm feeling overwhelmed or feeling as though there's too much is to connect with my manager and ask for support to prioritize my work cuz sometimes it might feel like everything is important. And honestly everything might be, but you might have to give other people those tasks. That is one thing that is within managers' wheelhouse, prioritizing the work and taking things off of your plate and giving it to other folks or honestly that task that is really important, needs to be pushed to another time and it is ok. 

Individual 

Finally, there's the level from the individual. You do have the freedom to have the flexibility within your work, especially now that it's a post-covid world where you don't have to go into the office and you might have it you might want to do a hybrid. There's a lot of flexibility. Figuring out what makes sense for you and communicating that to your manager too. I would say the other thing when it comes to the individual level and this is something I really enjoy about Google is that if you are wanting to do something or want to connect with other folks on the topic or get more support, there's tons of individually run groups within Google. These are not Google initiatives, it might be supported potentially financially by Google, but they're not necessarily driven by Google’s leadership team – it's driven through the community. There are groups when it comes to the difference identities of oneself, so for me something I'm thinking about is the Latinas at Google group and they are fantastic group and their lead primarily by just dividual who are doing a 20% project supporting other Latinas and creating content that is Latina specific within Google. I think that is something that's really cool about Google is that there are those options and there's a lot of resources sharing and information gathering and distribution which is really cool. Something that I really really enjoy as well as being able to find groups that have mentorship aspects, with someone who's been around for many years. When I first joined Google there was a program, it's still there, it's called sage. It was fantastic because it paired me up with somebody who had been with Google for many years but she was in a completely different org, she was in YouTube, she had a different job title but we were able to talk about those bigger kind of career goals versus it being specific to my job title and where I was at. But thinking things more that wholistic scale. Also introducing me to different resources that my manager might not have been aware of. Those are some really cool individual led organizations that are within Google. 

Final thoughts

I just want to close this with, ultimately no matter where you're at or what company are in, there might be all of these resources but if you're not taking advantage of it or if you're not in the mental space to take advantage of it then it's like it's not there. That's really hard. I liked to really recommends to people to take care of yourself, ultimately the company will continue, right but you are the most important person for you. Take care of yourself and reach out for help. If you're feeling stuck and your company doesn't have, massages or “this or that,” it's okay. Mental health is really important, find a therapist, connect with other people, do what you need to do to take care of yourself. What's that saying? If you're not putting the air mask on yourself before you put on someone else, you know that's if you might pass out – the other person might have air and you don't. Take care of yourself and this is I think even more brought to light because of covid. Things are still changing and anticipate things will continue to change. Make sure you give yourself that grace and that time to readjust and it's okay that it's taking potential you will no longer than you would want to. I know that that's happened to me too when we started going back into the office so we had to stop going to the office and it's been a struggle. I think that just means we're all human. I wish you the best of luck.