Google is known for all of the freebies it gives its employees, including free food in its offices, on-site child care and more. Now it turns out that being an employee at Google can be a huge comfort for that person's family after they die.
In a new article at Forbes.com, the company's Chief People Officer Laszlo Bock revealed that Google offers the spouse or partner of an employee 50 percent of that person's salary after they die for the next 10 years. According to Bock, Google started to realize that the death of a family member can cause massive hardship 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."
While the death benefits have been in place for a number of years at Google, they were offered to just some employees until 2011, when the company made its available to all of its team members, regardless of how long they have been with Google.
In addition to the 50 percent salary offer, any children in the Google' employees' family will also receive a whopping $1,000 monthly payment until they are 19 years old, or 23 if they become a full time student. Finally, any stock options that a Google employee may have owned are automatically vested after they die.
So why make this offer? Bock states, "Obviously there’s no benefit to Google. But it’s important to the company to help our families through this horrific if inevitable life event."
Source: Forbes.com
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