The price of 'pretty awesome'

'Awesome' is a word that's heard a whole lot at Google, a firm that has figured out that it takes more than peeled carrot sticks and massages to keep its 19,835 full-time employees worldwide happy - the last count as at the end of 2009.

Its total compensation package, rated coyly by Ms Robb as 'above industry average', includes stock options and medical benefits that, like large consulting firms, cover dental expenses and pay for a new set of contact lenses or spectacles.

On top of that, Googlers in Singapore get a lunch stipend built into their paycheck. Asked if that amount is enough to cover dinner expenses for employees working late, Ms Robb immediately replies: 'We don't want people working late. We're really trying to get people to go home.'

Photos: Peek at Google Singapore's office Click on thumbnail to view

A mother of an infant herself, Ms Robb is a huge fan of Google's emphasis on work-life balance and family-friendly policies.

'I'm a new mom. I leave every day at about 5:15 pm and pick up my daughter, snuggle and have dinner. Sometimes, I might jump back online from home and make sure my inbox is cleaned out, but that's entirely my choice,' she says.

New fathers at Google get four weeks of paternity leave, while new mothers get 16 weeks.

And then there is what Ms Robb calls 'mommy takeout food'. 'For whatever you order when you're on maternity leave, just provide receipts when you get back and we'll reimburse you.'

Under the sheer deluge of Google employment perks, some slip through the cracks and only emerge incidentally over lunch with other Google employees.

There is the Google Nexus One phone they received last Christmas, for example. 'The year before that, it was an HTC, I think,' said Irene Sung, head of sales at Google Southeast Asia.

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