Even within a small company cliques are a fact of life. But, something about the way this is worded seems...awful?

"which is open to any employee that meets some pretty strict requirements. A written test is given before an employee can access the facilities, and even then they must be deemed worthy of working on particular pieces of equipment"

I'd like to assume this is a safety issue, but this is Google which is known to be pretty elitist. Some employees will always get more perks than others (more money, more vacation time, more options...). Part of the very nature of picking "haves" is that you inherently devalue the "have-nots".

One step forward for having a more streamlined interview process, one step back for having interviews/tests for access to perks even after you're employed.