Silicon Valley Offers Haircut Fringe Bonuses

Every day three refitted Winnebago mobile homes owned by Onsite Haircuts roll into the famous Silicon Valley high-tech companies such as Google, Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

The ‘bringing personal service to you’ work culture is instilling a new sense of community to employees and experts say, such an environment boosts productivity.

Silicon Valley has earned its reputation for mixing the informality of California beach culture with innovative and rebellious industry trends that has sometimes disrupted the

Old school corporate ways of doing things.

Google in Mountain View south of San Francisco offers free organic food, laundry machines, a gym, massages, volleyball court, bike repairs and on-site doctors. Workers with new babies can bill the company for up to $500 for take-out food.

The company that plays together works happily together.

Andrew Hargadon, worked at Apple Inc. from 1990 to 1993 and recalls perks such as free bagels, beer on Friday and Nerf tag games -- Hargadon said such items make workers feel better about irregular hours and encourage more productivity.

Because many of the companies are in industrial parks with few commercial establishments nearby and with traffic always draining the lunch hour minutes, small services like hair cuts and mobile delivery espresso cafes and lunch buses make a big difference. In addition, not punching in a time card allows employees to take lunches and breaks, as they need them and not interrupting a specifically productive moment of work development.