Google jacks up childcare prices
If you’re a parent, then you may want to think twice before working at Google. Childcare prices just soared from $1,425 to about $2,500 a month.
However, if having access to the best teachers, the best toys, and the best care programs, regardless of the price, is appealing to you, then by all means. For the rest of the normal people, Google parents are infuriated not just by its high prices, but also the means of how this decision came about and is being handled
When Google began to offer childcare services three and a half years ago, they started with a facility called Kinderplex, run by the Children’s Creative Learning Centers (CCLC). Given the numerous complaints the daycare received, it may not have been the best place for childcare, but, considering the parent’s current reaction, it was affordable.
A year later, Susan Wojcicki, vice president for product measurement, comes back from her maternity leave. Soon after, a new daycare opened up that was run by Google called The Woods.
This facility uses more expensive toys, smarter teachers with college degrees, and other extra features. It also puts the preschool philosophy of Reggio Emilia into practice, which says “even small children’s [mind has the] ability to chart their own learning paths.” Although it cannot be determined if Ms. Wojcicki had a hand in this decision, she is a supporter of the Reggio Emilia philosophy.
Since Google has this great facility, it decided to upgrade the Kinderplex too. Now parents could get the fancy childcare services of the Woods at a fraction of its cost. Google even used this as a recruitment perk. As a result, the facility filled to capacity and the waiting list grew longer and longer.
This brings us to the current problem. Google is absorbing enormous fees in childcare support and new employees aren’t receiving the benefit they were promised, due to the long waiting list.
According to the NY Times, Google was “subsidizing each child to the tune of $37,000 a year.” So, rather than taking time to consider the alternatives, it dropped CCLC from the Kinderplex and jacked up its prices for parents.
NY Times also reported that Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, despite the pleas and arguments by parent employees, he reacted with the following statement:
He had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was tired of “Googlers” who felt entitled to perks like “bottled water and M&Ms,”
In addition, after speaking with parents, the NY Times said Mr. Brin continued to approach the issue rather coldly.
During the six-week-long day care brouhaha, Mr. Brin made comments indicating that he viewed the whole thing as a giant economics experiment. “This is a supply-and-demand issue,” he told one group of parents — adding that Google needed to charge what the market would bear.
Plus, as if no one ever saw this coming, Google PR representatives are denying that Mr. Brin ever made these comments. After all, given the recent privacy policy problem, Google needs to avoid all the bad PR they can. Still, what happened to “Do No Evil” Google?
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