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Comment by strictnein | Hacker News Reader

It is rather odd.

Is it? The large corporation I work for doesn't have an onsite childcare center. Instead we offer discounts for child care elsewhere, near the office, but not in. For a company as private and secretive as Apple, why even expose themselves to the risk of having people walking around a campus that they don't need to be if they can meet the need elsewhere, offsite?

shrug

I've worked at a Fortune 100 HQ with childcare. It was segmented and the kids/workers never entered the main building.

Apple will have cleaners, maintenance, food service, etc all over the place. It's not like it'll be a hermetically sealed place.

I don't work for a big company. Every morning I take my daughter to daycare before going to work. Although not far from where we live (2 km), I still need to drive in the opposite direction. This means an extra ~20 minutes per morning. That's just the trip. Add to it the lack of parking spaces and rapidly decreasing chance of finding one after a certain time point. Not to mention that I need wake up a 3 year old at an unreasonably early hour for any child... Having an on-site childcare center would make a lot of things more simple and pleasant for my entire family.

Why should the company spend millions a year on a perk you can take advantage of that I can't? And let's not assume you can take advantage of it, given there will be a waiting list.

Why do people want a return to the "company town" model just to save a few minutes?

Right, companies should have no perks, because none of them are enjoyed by everyone. This includes healthcare and cafeteria.

> Why should the company spend millions a year on a perk you can take advantage of that I can't?

You can absolutely take advantage of it, by raising a child.

I have two, but I'm not taking them to my employers childcare. I took them to a good childcare that I picked out competitively. And now they are in school. Company perks shouldn't be enjoyable by only a tiny minority of the company at any one time.

Well that's how all company perks are. Company gyms aren't large enough for literally all their employees to use at once, or even frequently interspaced over a single day.

Apart from coffee machines, and maybe food service... no physical location perk is capable of handling the entire staff.

... but I don't drink coffee, so get rid of the coffee machine!

It does not have to be free. Just being able to bring my child and, later in the day, take then from where I work (or close by) would be as close to perfect as possible. I would happily pay, even 100%, if the company would facilitate an on-site daycare.

In regard to saving "a few minutes", I don't know how you (or other people) feel about it, but I'd happily spend more time with my child.

I think it would be great dog food for Apple. Growing up with Apple II's/II GS's/Macs, the amount of educational software I used was astounding. I think my path to becoming an artist/programmer started while playing with Logo in the 5th grade.

Show me how the kids of Apple benefit from this, "Insanely Great" technology.

> For a company as private and secretive as Apple, why even expose themselves to the risk of having people walking around a campus that they don't need to be if they can meet the need elsewhere, offsite?

Yes, those toddlers would probably stumble on Jony Ive's secret development studio! In reality the campus also has "a visitors center with an Apple Store and cafe open to the public". That means full sized adults walking around!

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/02/apple-park-opens-to-e...

Because most people leave Apple before they have kids

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