Great places to work?

Joel Spolsky wrote about his software company's amazing new office. I am drooling with envy right now: private offices, free lunches, showers (!).

I wonder if we have other great places to work here in the Philippines. I know of at least two: Orange and Bronze* and G2VC with their TechBar in Ortigas.

Reminds me of the places I've worked in. The closest I ever got to having a private office was when I was a network administrator. That is, if you can call a room with data cabinets and noisy servers "private" -- well, I did work there mostly alone.

(Just an observation: more than anything else, a private office here in the Philippines is a symbol of stature more than a question of productivity -- less distraction = more productive hours, as opposed to lower risks of people catching you napping or worse, browsing pr0n {though, that's been known to happen even in cubicle settings}.)

Having worked in government offices, I think it's safe to say that they are not really conducive work spaces. I even worked in a place where two persons have to share the same desk, and one computer is shared by twenty users. I'm not singling out government offices, though, as I know of private companies where they have plastic chairs, with five people crammed to one work table.

It wasn't that bad for me, though. As I moved on to other jobs, I've seen significant improvements in the spaces I worked in. Take, for example, my corner below when I was an admin at PhilRice. It was much cleaner than my "private" office previously, and I got to play with more toys, and try out newer tech.

I got cramped in a 4x4 feet cubicle when I moved on to an anti-virus company. But the team was great, and I had really good experiences there. The workplace in the Bank was a more, er, somber and formal affair. It exuded a sense of seriousness. What I liked about it the most, though, was the ginormous cafeteria with lots of food choices. Food wasn't free, though, but affordable.

Now, I'm still stuck in a cube, but a bit larger this time. As far as tech goes, I can't ask for more. And the team is great. They've cut down on the free beverages in the pantry, but that's to be expected (cost rationalization, and all that), but we do have some free food occasionally.

*(I remember a conversation I had with Calen Legaspi, Butch Landingin and other O&B folks, when I remarked on their cool open office setup. I forgot who, but he said, "This is way better than working in cubes like in Accenture." How ironic that a few weeks after that, I got to work in the very place they were an antithesis of. :))