1) What do you think about a company that would build a multimillion-dollar workplace campus that also serves as a center for community events?

2) What does the investment communicate about the company's core values and stakeholder focus?

3) Should company facilities be only for employees?

(Acuity's Workplace Campus

Employees at Acuity, an insurance provider in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, enjoy amenities beyond the

imagining of the average U.S. worker. The company offers flexible workdays, on-site leadership training,

tuition reimbursement for continuing education, and company scholarships. Its $130 million campus also

provides an on-site fitness center complete with a climbing wall, a garden, and a cafeteria serving

nutritious meals. Employees are offered the services of an on-site massage therapist, and there are onsite

banking and dry-cleaning services.

The campus was designed to be a showpiece at the entrance to the town of Sheboygan. In fact, it

features a working Ferris wheel and a theater-in-the-round that seats two thousand, which the company

makes available for community events and town hall meetings.

Chapter 10 Changing Work Environments and Future Trends 303

The Pursuit of Work-Life Balance

Twenty-five percent of U.S. employees in multiple industries were recently surveyed and reported feeling

"super stressed" as they juggled work and home responsibilities.42 Daily stress from trying to maintain worklife

balance can produce health effects like reduced immunity and inadequate sleep. Stressed workers are also

less productive in the workplace.

Efforts to offer employees an ever-widening array of amenities appear to be an effort by employers to create

work-life balance and make their companies more desirable as places of employment. The idea is that life is

simpler if food is readily available and free at work, if a doctor's office or hair salon is just down the hall, and if

home is right on campus.

Some research shows that millennials believe integrating work and leisure in some combination fosters worklife

balance.43 They may see less need to have clear boundaries between their work world and their home life

as technology pushes them to be connected in so many ways that once did not exist but now seem

inescapable (e.g., an employee of a global firm that conducts business around the clock may never be truly

separated from the office due to connectivity provided by mobile devices).

Have employers then crossed a line with these perks? Have they created an expectation that the employee

who works on a corporate campus where all needed services are provided will, in turn, be accessible for long

hours of work on a regular basis? Are the amenities really velvet handcuffs that tie employees to work? Living

right next to work clearly will reduce commuting time, and via this path, it may promote work-life balance. But

the expectation that long hours should be routine just because they are possible will hamper, rather than

facilitate, the quest for work-life balance. Furthermore, to the extent that mega-corporate campuses do tie

workers to their jobs, reduced worker mobility means that labor markets will be less able to adjust to changing

conditions.

The Ethical Challenges of Workplace Campuses

It is hard to imagine that anyone could find fault with a job that came with all the amenities of a campus-like

environment. However, the all-encompassing aspect of these workplaces means a manager's job description

greatly expands to include small-city management functions. As the April 2018 shooting of employees at

YouTube's headquarters suggests, corporate campuses may have a greater need for security, with duties that

dovetail those of the city police. Growth of the compound will challenge managers to comply with city planning

and zoning regulations. How should these villages within a city contribute to the municipal services they need

for the population they draw? Should the city be able to require a greater tax contribution from megacorporate

campus developers that equals the load they add to the city's fiscal responsibilities?)