Why Google is all for having a messy desk

Today, it’s a Silicon Valley stereotype that innovative tech companies have offices filled with weird junk overflowing from employees’ desks.

But on the first day at the office in 2001, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt just saw a mess. He asked head of facilities George Salah to “clean up the place”, he writes in his new book How Google Works, co-written with former SVP of products Jonathan Rosenberg.

The next day, Salah got an email from co-founder and current CEO Larry Page: “Where did all my junk go? I want you to bring it back NOW.”

Page’s reaction made Schmidt realise that he had mistakenly toyed with the fabric of Google’s culture. He is now a convert and says that you should let your employees make a mess of their desks if it’s a natural expression of their creativity and doesn’t hamper their productivity.

When she worked at Google, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave each member of her sales and support team $50 to spend on desk decorations, Schmidt and Rosenberg write in the book.

Google places importance on office perks because its main objective is making employees comfortable at work, which can lead to great collaboration. The authors write: “We invest in our offices because we expect people to work there, not from home. The odds of people coming up with a billion-dollar business at home are pretty small”.