Thrillist Just Launched A Google-Like Program To Keep Its Employees Happy

Keeping employees happy is something big tech companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Apple seem to do quite well.

All three of them offer some sort of program to their employees to work on projects outside of their normal responsibilities.

Now men's lifestyle brand Thrillist Media Group is following suit by launching a program called "Hack Friday." Every other Friday, Thrillist employees can take the opportunity to work on whatever dream hacks they'd like.

"Our developers and designers are constantly imagining new ways they can improve our product, discovering new technologies they want to try out and lobbying to build new features," Thrillist CTO Mark O'Neill tells Business Insider. "We're confident that if we give them an outlet for that energy, we'll get back great product."

That makes sense given the success of Google's 20% time program, which has spawned products like Gmail, Google Now, AdSense, and Google's Transparency Report.

Thrillist employees are not required to participate, but mostly everyone has been taking advantage of Hack Friday to spend time working on projects of their own.

So far, O'Neill has been most impressed with Essen, an app that helps Thrillist co-workers plan lunch or coffee. There's also a team of employees that hacked the Thrillist kegerator to play a random 80s beer commercial when you pour a beer.

Check out the lunch app below.