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By Sheila Norman-Culp, Associated Press

ZURICH, Switzerland — It’s the first question Google employees here must resolve when they want to go to the cafeteria or game room: Stairs, slide or fireman’s pole?

The next dilemma for so-called Zooglers: homemade pastry or exotic fruit juice? It’s all part of three free meals a day, with regular snacks, that Google serves at its new European tech center.

Then there’s the phone call dilemma. Should you use a former ski gondola that has been converted into a private phone booth? Shut yourself inside a blue igloo or giant purple egg? Put the call on a video monitor? Or just take it outside and walk along a rushing Alpine river?

If you want to tap into the maximum creativity of everyone you hire, Google figures it might just take a whimsical mishmash of colors, shapes, textures, nooks and crannies to do so.

"To be effective in a short innovation cycle, you cannot just be sitting at your desk," explained Matthias Graf, the company spokesman in Zurich.

That explains the pinball, foosball and pool tables, the Wii sports center, the air guitar video game, the massage tables and the aquarium water lounge. Or the cafe next to the technical center where you can eat, chat, read and play video games while you wait for your computer to be fixed.

Yet this is not dot-com deja vu, when Internet companies wasted gobs of money on outlandish toys before burning through all their cash and firing everyone. The Internet giant worked with a psychologist and design team to interview all 350 employees and incorporated their ideas into a new workspace — yet insisted the new design should not cost more than an ordinary office building.

"Everyone says 'Google is wealthy, you can buy a fancy office.’ But we wanted to show what anyone could do with some imagination," Graf said.

PRNewswire

As working moms schedule family time for Mother's Day weekend, many will be hoping to receive the one present you can’t buy at a store: More quality time with their families. CareerBuilder.com recently surveyed 880 working moms. The results: 43 percent of working moms said they would take a pay cut if it meant they could spend more time with their kids, and 34 percent stated they would be willing to give up 10 percent or more of their salaries.

Other results:

• For working moms with more than one source of income, just over half (51 percent) of working moms indicated they would leave their job if their spouse or significant other made enough money to support the entire family.

• 17 percent reported they had missed three or more significant events in their child’s life in the last year; 27 percent had missed two or more.

Even when working moms are at home, work can still get in the way of family time. Sixteen percent of working moms reported bringing work home at least three days a week, while one in five said work comes home with them every workday. Close to a quarter (24 percent) said work had negatively impacted the relationships they have with their children.

"More than 25 percent of working moms are dissatisfied with their work/life balance," said Mary Delaney, chief sales officer at CareerBuilder.com and mother of three. "As companies continue to experience a tighter labor market, the importance of retaining star employees is requiring them to implement benefits that actually encourage workers to improve the balance between their professional and family lives. From flexible work schedules to job sharing to telecommuting, company-wide work/life initiatives are becoming much more universal."

Delaney recommends the following tips for managing the working mom balancing act:

1. Sell your boss on a more flexible work schedule. Start by contacting your human resources department or consulting the employee manual to determine whether your company has a telecommuting program already in place. If one exists, you can build your proposal on actual policies.

2. Keep one calendar. Unfortunately it’s often easier to cancel on your child than on a potential client. Scheduling business and family obligations on the same calendar will lessen your chances of forgetting a personal commitment when you’re planning work activities. It will also help you avoid over-scheduling and alert you if your commitments are unbalanced.

3. Make time for family. Schedule activities for only your family on the weekends and when possible during the week. Also, try to schedule a few minutes each day to call your children to talk about their school day as well as plans for the evening.

4. Slow down. Stop and enjoy the activities and people around you, both inside and outside the office. Whenever possible, schedule time between meetings and leave your evenings free so you can refuel throughout and at the end of each day. Resist the urge to bring too many projects home over the weekends.

5. Share responsibilities. No matter how efficient you are, there is only so much you can accomplish in one day. If you’re a manager, make sure that you are delegating appropriately instead of trying to do everything yourself. Doing so will reduce your workload and help your staff build their skills.

Would you take a pay cut if it meant you'd have more time with your children? Who works more hours away from home: You or your significant other?

It’s Flexible Work Arrangement Week (May 4-10).

Flexible work arrangements are alternate arrangements or schedules from the traditional work day and work week. Maybe you work 40 hours in four days instead of five. Maybe you start two hours earlier so you can leave by 3 p.m. Maybe you work from home to save gas money, or job-share with another part-timer.

These alternate schedules are designed to help employees meet personal or family needs. But companies see the benefits, too: Companies that offer their employees flexible work arrangements may be better able to attract and keep good employees, as well as reduce absenteeism, improve employee morale, and have happier, more satisfied workers.

Do you have a flexible work arrangement? What was your motivation and how did you sell your boss on your new schedule? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks?