At Nuffnang, we all have this little board called the “Google Wannabe Board“.
This was inspired by an issue of Fortune (or Forbes) that both Ming and I read which told the story of how life at Google’s HQ in Mountain View was like.
The employees there had free car washes, free meals, free massages, swimming pools and everything else you could ask for.
Ming and I always wanted our leetle dotcom to be like that and Ming insisted that we didn’t need to have money to incorporate a culture like that. We could start it now in our small ways.
So what we agreed on was to have this little board that stated something new we would do for our team mates every couple of months.
It started in January and February with medical benefits for our colleagues (something that burns through the pocket of a tiny dotcom but we felt it would be worth it anyway).
And for March and April, we decided to stock up our pantry with so much junk food it would make our office look like a slumber party.
For that… Ming and I went to Tescos!
Just like all other Tescos, the one in Penang was HUGE!!!
There was everything on sale!!! EVERYTHING…. you could probably even buy a spaceship if you wanted to.
But we were only interested in one thing….
THE JUNK FOOD SECTION
So Ming and I got a trolley and dumped as much junk food as we could in it.
The trolley started off pretty empty at first.
But we were quick to fill it up with everything from Double Decker, to Mamee, to Jelly, to Sweets, to biscuits and most importantly… CHEEZELS!!!
But as I was rolling our trolley around, something caught my attention.
BEER!!!
Now I thought about it… that a beer-filled office would be a happy office. You know, people who laughed about everything or people who talk loud enough to sound extremely motivated about anything… even work.
So I stood there for a second and pondered…
And I pondered….
Imagine someone calling up our office:
“Hello Nuffnang Sdn Bhd? Could you please put me to the Sales Department?”
And a very drunk person on the other end saying
“AHAHAHAHAHA HELLO NOOFNANG HERE…. DID YOU SAY SALES DEPARTMENT??? HAHAHAHA YOU MEAN… YOU MEAN A DEPARTMENT THAT SELLS?!?!? AHAHAHAHAAAHAH Wait wait…. what do we sell again?”
Not exactly the best example to show to a potential client.
So I reluctantly said goodbye to the crates of beer.
And went off to pay the bill!
Yes… the bill.. it was long….
Soo soooo longgg…
Anyone wanna suggest a new perk we can add on the board for May/June?
Please… something we can afford… don’t say “Company trip to Space” or “Beyonce Concert”…
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space