There is a bizarre reason Google hired 200 goats to work at their headquarters.
And for anyone who has watched Severance, the reason isn’t quite as dark as the TV show.
The director of real estate and workplace services, Dan Hoffman, who works at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, revealed that the tech giant had employed the goats.
They came from a company called California Grazing and there is actually a very practical reason behind the bizarre hire.
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It turns out that the herd of 200 goats are there as a novel way to solve the issue of grass maintenance on the property.
The goats, along with a well-trained border collie named Jen, are employed by Google in order to remove weeds and tame the scrublands around the offices.
According to Hoffman, keeping the area clear and well maintained reduces the risk of a fire.
In a Google blog, Hoffman wrote: “At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we've rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we're not ‘kidding’).
“A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie.
“It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.”
Many people were surprised by the unusual Google employees after it circulated on social media.
On Instagram, one user shared in a post: “In 2009, Google hired 200 goats to maintain the grass at its Mountain View headquarters. Instead of using lawnmowers, the company has occasionally rented herds of goats to graze on the grass and weeds.”
This sparked reactions from other users in the Instagram comment section where one person wrote: “Did they get paid?”
Another made the comparison to Severance, saying: “MARK S IS STILL IN THERE.”
A third joked: “Lumon is that u?”
And a fourth person added: “A goat can get a job at Google but i can’t… okay……..”
Google isn’t the only company to use this method of keeping their grass trimmed with the help of goats, Yahoo! has been employing goats since 2007.