Software engineer Ihab Awad works on his welding skills at a workshop space created for Google employees in Mountain View, Calif. AP Photo
Matthew Valente, a mechanical engineer on the streetview division, works on a prototype at a workshop space created for Google employees in Mountain View, Calif. AP Photo
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Amid all the free food and other goodies that come with a job at Google Inc., there’s one benefit a lot of employees don’t even know about: a cluster of high-tech workshops that have become a tinkerer’s paradise.
Workers escape from their computer screens and office chairs to weld, drill and saw on expensive machinery they won’t find at Home Depot.
Besides building contraptions with a clear business purpose, Google employees use the shops for fun: They create elaborate holiday decorations, build cabinets for their homes and sometimes dream big like the engineers working on a pedal-powered airplane with a 100-foot wingspan.
The “Google Workshops” are the handiwork of Larry Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in a rented garage. P
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