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What makes a work space terrible? Is it the gray-beige color scheme, the industrial-grade carpet, or the chipped Formica desks and fluorescent lights? Or is it the opposite, when a company is so desperate to keep up with the Googles that they try a little too hard–filling the offices with ping-pong tables, plastic toys and a few too many “chill-out rooms” for most grown-ups’ comfort?
Valleywag, a tech gossip blog, on the heels of choosing The Best Workplaces in Tech, set out to find the ten worst, topping the list with Yahoo’s New York offices, replete with employees sleeping uncomfortably in some cubes and the curious use of white-picket fences around others.
Google did not escape their clutches, which a surprise given that most media outlets cannot say enough good things about Google’s offices. Valleywag called them out for having gray cubicles despite the “kindergarten campus color scheme,” lamps, scooters and ball pool.
LinkedIn’s offices were criticized for being “just like LinkedIn: utilitarian and utterly boring.” The graffiti at Jahjah, an Internet-phone company, is mocked for trying way too hard, and Facebook’s offices are taunted for looking just like the college dorm rooms where their product gets the most attention. It’s easy for Valleywag to point fingers when they get to work in an office that looks like this though.