Maria Shriver Lectures Google

Having to sit through the yammering of a motivational speaker is a common occurrence in Silicon Valley. But even though that's the case, I'm not sure what to make of Siliconvalley.com's recount of Maria Shriver's work-life balance speech at the Googleplex yesterday.

First off, Maria Shriver?! Sure, she's the wife of the actor-turned-politician who is now Governor of California, and the Googleplex is located in California...but the connections seem to end there. Google's been doing well lately, so I'm not sure how they could benefit from a motivational speech from someone who's written a book about her own life and cameoed as herself on an episode of "That's So Raven".

But that just brings me to the bizarre focus of her speech. Although maintaining a work-life balance is a hot topic for employers today, I don't think anyone is going to go out of their way to say that the folks at the Googleplex have it bad. What follows is a description of their perks from the article:

At the Mountain View campus, open around the clock to receive those calls from its global offices, employees get all their meals free: breakfast, lunch and dinner from their choice of Italian, Mexican, Asian and Indian in the food court. Nothing like a late-afternoon strawberry mojito colada from the smoothie bar. Fitness is encouraged, from the colorful company bicycles to ride from one end of campus to the other, to the several gyms, each with trainers in blue T-shirts. A life-guard is on duty at the two eternal-current pools and the massage rooms are always good for a quick nap.

Pretty nice, right? It seems like Google has already addressed the work-life balance issue in both their corporate culture and their facilities, so what was she doing there?

Maria Shriver Tells Google Workers Work-Life Balance Is a Struggle