Assignment 3
Dream Team
State Farm Park & Google
The goal of State Farm Park is to provide the visitors, employees, and
employee’s guests a place to relax and enjoy themselves. To do this, the
organization provides numerous amenities in the park such as softball
fields, tennis courts, fitness trails, volleyball courts, miniature golf, open
areas and a recent addition of water park and pool facilities accompanied
by a pool house. The park hopes that by providing these amenities, it will
benefit the employees of the corporate location in many ways.
First, we will look at information about Google.
When compared to other companies, Google is certainly on the top of the list when it comes to leisure delivery to its employees. At the office, or the Googleplex, workers are able to access a number of leisure activities which include a roller hockey rink, outdoor volleyball courts, and a wide variety of electronics that help Googlers refocus so they can get as much productivity possible. Google also offers free lunch and dinner to all employees prepared by top chefs to ensure workers are eating and staying healthy. On top of the meals and other leisure activities, Googlers can also visit any number of massage tables Google provides in order to enhance the laid back work style that Google hangs its hat on.
There are two main job titles for people who work at Google, software engineers and software developers. On average, the software engineers make $112,573 annually, and software developers make $89,000 annually. A college education is required to work at Google, along with having a strong sense of creativity and a laid back personality that Google will use for maintaining its relaxed atmosphere. Everyone at Google works together in small groups in order to get as many ideas and solutions possible in order to keep the company growing.
Google provides many benefits for their workers, which include tailored 401K plans, bus shuttles to and from the office, health plans specific to the employee, even going as far as vision insurance and dental plans for all employees. Google also provides maternity leave for expecting mothers, giving expecting employees 12 weeks maternity leave at 100% pay, with the possibility of a six week extension to the employees who have worked at Google for more than one year. Google even extends the maternity plan to fathers, giving them seven weeks off at full pay. Google even has its own party planning committee to help employees plan for Halloween, birthdays, and other occasions where the employee would be throwing a party.
There are a number of strengths to being an employee at Google when it comes to leisure, and the vast variety of choice for employees is what makes Google the fastest growing company in the world today. With such a wide variety of leisure opportunities for employees to take advantage of while employed at Google, it is really hard to find a dull moment at work. Having all of these resources at an employee’s exposal is a major strength for the company. It gives Google a lot more to talk about when trying to find the next Googler to work for them. An employee at Google never has to worry about not receiving enough benefits, which is what makes a job at Google so competitive.
Google’s mission since their start has always been to, “organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” As far as achieving this goal Google has done more than fulfill it they have surpassed it. Google has become the premier source for information on the internet and is rapidly expanding so that you can access this information almost anywhere, even sitting on your couch while using the new “Google TV” system or using a Google app on your smart phone. These along with many other innovations have allowed Google to become a staple aspect of our society that the phrase “Google it” has become common place when you need to find out information on a topic. Much of this success is due to the Googlers who work at Google and Google’s ability to provide them with a working space that caters to the creative and innovative needs of it’s employees
Next, we will look at another company, State Farm Park, with similar, yet different purposes.
The park was originally funded by a generous donation from a private donor. Since the park has been open, though, it has become completely self-funded by the State Farm organization.
State Farm Park is not a public facility. It serves only the visitors, employees, and guests of employees of the State Farm corporate location in Bloomington, Illinois. The facilities were made completely private in order to provide the guests with the best overall experience possible. By having the facilities available to that specific group, State Farm Park is able to accommodate the specific wants and needs of that group.
This agency sets itself apart from Google, specifically, because it is entirely an outdoor facility offering only recreational and leisure opportunities for its visitors. As a whole, State Farm Park is unique to leisure delivery system because it is an entirely privatized facility, not allowing any public use.
There are many different jobs in State Farm Park. There are numerous seasonal positions such as groundskeepers, lifeguards, maintenance, and others. These jobs are filled mostly by high school and college students who are looking to make money during the summer months. There are also the managerial and director positions in the organization that are occupied mostly college graduates or individuals with years of experience in their field. All of these jobs work together to coordinate, plan, and carry-out the daily operations of State Farm Park. Each individual position is crucial to the overall success of the organization because if one area is faltering, it would require another area to stretch its resources and man-power to maintain that struggling area.
The jobs at State Farm Park have different salaries depending on the position. A large amount of the positions there are offered only during the spring, summer, and fall months because that is when the park is the busiest. For those seasonal positions, the salary starts out at minimum wage and increases from there. Employees are eligible for raises after meeting qualifying standards. The park does offer medical benefits for the full-time employees who work there. However, the part-time seasonal employees are not given any time of insurance or benefits from the organization.
A prominent strength of the agency as a leisure provider, according to an employee of the organization, Lisa, is that it aims to please all of its patrons. The park listens to all of the comments from those who visit its facilities and are always striving to make those people happy. Lisa said that they try to accommodate most interests and requests that visitors make such as new activities or amenities requested be brought into the park. We think that this is a great strength of State Farm Park because they are really aiming to make their patrons happy in every way and really do take those people's opinions into consideration. Another key strength is that the park is only open to guests, employees, and employees' families. This gives the park the abilities to focus on one group of people and really give them the amenities that they desire. We also feel that this is a strength to the organization because it gives the park a much smaller feel to it. It allows visitors to feel like they are at a safe, secure area that they can enjoy their leisure time with their friends and family.
According to Lisa, State Farm Park definitely fulfills their purposes. The goal of the park from the very beginning was to create an environment where employees could go for recreation, relaxation, and leisure and have everything that they desired in order to accomplish that. As mentioned previously, to achieve that the park organization and employees try to offer anything and everything that people want.
We feel that working at State Farm Park would be a great job for someone in high school or college because most of the positions are seasonal, when most students want to work. It is also outdoors mostly and would be an environment in which the employees could have the chance to have some fun while being on the job. However, we think that as an adult, State Farm Park would be a good stepping stone to a more prominent position. The park is simply too small and local to be a place where someone can really fulfill their career unless they wanted to stay in that local area to work.
For the Dream Team, when asked what leisure is, we all came up with the definition that it is something that you do in free time to get your mind off things, relax, and just enjoy yourself. Both Google and State Farm Park are great employee recreation services that are offered for the employees of these companies and great ways to show employees how much they are appreciated. The working world tends to be stressful and chaotic, and to have a place to spend time relaxing and being care-free is exactly what our definition of leisure is and exactly what both of these companies offer.
The Dream Team
Kara Rees
Lynley Tucker
Kaeman Mitchell
Toni Colmone
Steve Hull
Rob Christenson
Jack Cornell
Jake Kumerow
Joelil Thrash
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