Staying With Google Until You Die

Turns out, though, that the company also wants its employees to enjoy a better death. More specifically: a wealthier death. In an interview with Forbes’s Meghan Casserly, Laszlo Bock — Google’s, Chief People Officer (in non-Google terms: head of HR) — shares a Google benefit that is all too literally out of this world. “This might sound ridiculous,” Bock tells Casserly. “But we’ve announced death benefits at Google.”

Yes. It’s like this: Should someone pass away while employed by Google, that person’s surviving spouse or domestic partner will receive a check for 50 percent of the deceased’s salary. And that spouse or domestic partner will receive that check every year. For the next decade.

Over at The Atlantic, Megan Garber is taking a look at Google’s death benefits — which includes fully vested stocks for surviving partners, and $1,000 a month for surviving children until the age of 19 — and appreciates how awesome that is. She also makes a good point that although the tech giant says it’s just the right thing to do for employees, it’s also a smart incentive to keep employees loyal, because if they run away to Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever the next big thing is, they’ll also give up this awesome, new death benefit. You’re an evil genius, Google. Good to your employees, but still an evil genius. Also, I like your game today on your homepage.

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