Your best W*rk related PERKS!

[Ronstar]

Oh, where to begin. Silicon Valley perks flow freely to all employees, to the point where the employees start acting entitled and one wonders when they actually work and why they’re not all fat...

-Free food for all employees WW. At HQ we had breakfast lunch & dinner, snacks, coffee bars, juice bars. The food was good and if you wanted healthy food, it was available. If you wanted bad food, it was available. Daily meal options included Indian, Chinese, Korean, sushi, Italian, Mexican and of course, American. The CFO liked ice cream, so a Haagen Daz soft serve ice cream area was installed with ALL the toppings. I believe it cost the company $12M a month for food at just US locations
-Free smartphones for all, no limits for talk, text or data.
-Transportation benefits such as corporate bus to/from work. Since the buses had WiFi you could work on the bus and count that towards your work day. 2 hours on the bus, 6 in the office. Free transit passes for the bus/train/light rail lines. Free electric car charge stations. For one year I did all of my charging at work, none at home.
- corporate gym, including fitness classes, basketball, bocce, volleyball courts. Trainers available for a small fee. Game rooms with pool, ping pong, & foos ball tables.
- fitness trackers for all employees one year & encouraged to walk during the work day in nearby open space.
- in addition to regular free food, there was beer, wine & appetizers every Friday at the company meeting (and many other events each month). Every Thursday, mid-afternoon a special “snack cart” would come through each building and floor with special treats such as fresh churros, ice cream bars, nachos, fruit & cheese, cupcakes, etc. delivered to your desk.
-one year they gave everyone a $75 credit at the company store for branded merchandise. But in general, we were given at least 5-6 t-shirts a year.
-if you added a baby to your family (fur or human) a gift box of co branded baby or pet items was delivered to your home.
- on-site medical clinic was being built when I retired. This was separate from the health plans, so no fee and no impact to health plan benes. Open to employees visiting from any international or domestic location.
-also after I left (& the chief risk manager retired) they opened a full bar in one building. Open to all, no ID required. We did have one 16 yo EE and many college interns under 21.
- TVs every where with full cable access...no need to try to sneak watching the World Cup or March Madness, it was on constantly, with additional big screens set up in the cafeterias.
-Private concerts with top name entertainment for employees & guest.
-guest speakers including stars, top chefs, sports figures, highly regarded scientists and government officials.
- many on-site services available for a fee - florist & gift shop, weekly farmers market, dry cleaning, haircut, dentistry, oil change, gas fill up, bike tune up, massage (for some reason the mani/pedi business was kicked out, but massage was ok)
-and of course, stock options and RSUs for all

They employees continually asked for valet parking (really?) and permission to bring pets, but were always refused. I’m sure there was more, but that is all of the foolishness that I can remember.

I'm going back to work - here^

 

[ocean view]

I'm going back to work - here^

Keep in mind, most of these perks were provided in order to keep you at work as many hours as possible.

Many, many of the engineers were single males, under 35. They didn’t want to have to buy groceries and cook at home alone. So much more fun to eat dinner with your buddies at work, play a little foosball and then go back to your desk. One night a week was game night for the D&D folks. It was a lot like a college campus.

This company was acquired a few years ago by Verizon and I’m sure much of this went away. But these perks are pretty standard at the big employers in SV.

 

[aaronc879]

Um.....

- I get 2 ten minute sit down breaks during a 10 hour shift of manual labor.
- I can call in 3 times in a year before getting fired.
- If there is a huge snow storm I can use a vacation day on short notice so I don't have to use one of my three call ins.

I think that's it. I hope i'm not drawing anyone out of retirement for my job.

 

[Moemg]

My perks included clean green scrubs and occasional free food .

 

[racy]

Most beneficial to me were a generous defined benefit pension and a 401k plan.

 

[Dawg52]

None.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Most beneficial to me were a generous defined benefit pension and a 401k plan.

those are benefits, not perks

 

[Koogie]

Owned my own small business for 15 years.

I guess the best perk I have given myself is the money to retire early...

Second best would be deciding to semi-retire in 2015. I now work 3 days a week and take about 10 weeks vacation a year.

Think I'll do that for about 3 more years and call it a day at 48.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Let's see ...

I got to travel a lot, usually on my own time. If not on my time, then the workload didn't change so I got to put in free overtime later in the week. It was especially nice being able to get up at 4 am to drive several hours on the interstate, honing my driving skills trying to avoid getting hit by a truck.

I got to work in a cube farm, until they nicely removed the partitions so we all got to know each other better. That allowed me to listen in on a half-dozen peoples' personal phone conversations.

I once got a bonus. The next year they cut those out so the CEO could take a 10 million dollar bonus, up from 8 million the year before.

DW worked for the state as an attorney. Once a year they had Employee Appreciation Day. One year that was a single donut, and she had to sign for it. Made her feel very appreciated.

I could think up some more perks, but the best one was being able to see their faces when I told them I intended to retire early!

 

[Winemaker]

Break? You got your break when I hired you, now get to work!

 

[Swordplay Charlie]

1. Being the engineer of a freight train.
2. Not being part of social security.

 

[Scrapr]

Let's see ...

DW worked for the state as an attorney. Once a year they had Employee Appreciation Day. One year that was a single donut, and she had to sign for it. Made her feel very appreciated.

LOL...did they 1099 the .59 cents at end of the year?

Did accounting go nuts when someone would bring in home grown tomato in the summer?

I would just start bringing in little tchotkes every week. Fidget spinners, a box of donuts, Starbucks coffee traveler boxes.

 

[flintnational]

Occasionally the LBYM thing got in the way.

Country Club membership and dues - declined (LBYM)
International business class - declined (LBYM)
Company car allowance /phone
Went to a World Series game, Masters Round, and Superbowl
Endless dining and wine
Exec outings / conferences to great cities

 

[bizlady]

10% matching 401k most of my career
car and gas
travel to meetings at some places I never would have been to within the USA
Bonus potential of 20-30% of salary, which I hit every year but one
Stock option grants twice

 

[retired1]

None.

+1

 

[MichaelB]

Break? You got your break when I hired you, now get to work!

That's the spirit! This is the type of perk I also had. We got to go home, usually once a day, and every so often could stay there for more than a few hours.

 

[mickeyd]

I once worked for a firm that gave you your annual raise in January in a lump sum in addition to your normal "new" pay. Each payday they would take away 1/12th of the lump sum. For example, if I got a $12,000 annual raise, they would deduct $1000 monthly from my already increased pay. I usually invested the windfall.

 

[f35phixer]

Work on / test baddest jet in world.����

 

[Swordplay Charlie]

Work on / test baddest jet in world.����

Area 51?

 

[eastnortheast]

When retired, the pension and 401K (i know, I know, these are probably benefits and not perks! LOL(

While working, I appreciated being able to keep airline miles and hotel points. I was "commuting" to Asia for a number of years, and was able to use the airline miles for some very nice family trips.

Road Warriors. Did you pick up the soap? Mrs Scrapr brought a couple zip lock bags of soap to our marriage

Below is a supposedly true copy of correspondence between a hotel guest and maid/management regarding soap. I have my doubt whether it is true, but for those of us that traveled a lot and spent a lot of time in hotels, it is pretty darn funny!!!

Dear Maid,
Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in
my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please
remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the
medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are
in my way. Thank you.
S. Berman

Dear Room 635,
I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow,
Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the
shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I
took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in
case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I
left today which are my standing instructions from the management.
I hope this is satisfactory.
Kathy, Relief Maid

Dear Maid -- I hope you are my regular maid,
Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her
concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room
this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf
under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for
two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won't need
those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way
when shaving, brushing teeth, etc. Please remove them.
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
My day off was last Wednesday so the relief maid left 3 hotel
soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6
soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap
dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet
for your convenience.
I did not remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always
placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which
you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let
me know if I can be of further assistance.
Your regular maid, Dotty

Dear Mr. Berman,
The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder informed me this A.M.
that you called ham last evening and said you were unhappy with
your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I
hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If
you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it
my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8 A.M. and 5
P.M. Thank you .
Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

Dear Miss Carmen,
It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the
hotel for business at 7:45 A.M. and don' t get back before 5:30
P.M. That's the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night - you
were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do
anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you
assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since
she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along
with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bathroom shelf. In
just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why
are you doing this to me?
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap
to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further
assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00
P.M.. Thank you.
Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

Dear Mr. Kensedder,
My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken
from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in last last
night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere
Bouquets.
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap
problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room
since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time
they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately.
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
Martin L. Kensedder, Asst. Manager

Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came
in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don't want 54
little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial.
Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my
bath-size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial.
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them
removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap
was missing so I personally returned them - the 24 Camays which
had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily.
I don't know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously
your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she
also broguth 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don't know
where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was
able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.
Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap
inventory. As of today I possess:

On shelf under medicine cabinet -
18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
On Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3.
On bedroom dresser -
7 Cashmere Bouquet in 1 stack of 3 & 1 stack of 4, 1 hotel-
size bath-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
Inside medicine cabinet -
14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
In shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist.
On northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
On northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.

Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the
stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that
stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that
my bedroom window sill, which is not in use, will make an
excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have
purchased another bar of bath-size Dial which I am keeping in the
hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
S. Berman

 

[redduck]

I had two different jobs in college: first job entailed working in a locker room at a gym. But, that the job morphed into my setting up volley ball nets, badminton nets and then playing volleyball or badminton. Later on I discovered squash and ended up playing that a lot on the job. Turned into my favorite sport.

The second college job had me working(?) 20 hours a week for the School of Business. I worked for the Dean, mainly grading papers of MBA students and studying for my own classes. Also got paid when school wasn't in session (vacations/holidays/riots shutting down almost all classes).

Third great job (three consecutive college summers and Winter Vacations)was perk in itself. It wasn't so much the job, it was where I worked. I was the envy (in a good way) of almost everyone near my age back then. And, it was fun working there.

Fourth job (part-time job): nothing but perks: what I did, where I did it, how I was allowed to do it. I'm sure many people on this board would be envious (once again, in a good way) of this job. Even got me my 15 minutes of semi-fame.

None of the above jobs paid well. Luckily, I had a full-time career, and although it didn't have many perks, it paid the bills.

 

[scrabbler1]

I guess you could call this a perk. For a few years when I was in college in the 1980s, I was an usher at the Edison Theater where the nudie show "Oh! Calcutta!" was playing. We ushers had to stay through the end of intermission before the second act began.


One of the skits near the end of the first act was worth watching. It gave new meaning to the term, "perk"-y.

 

[USGrant1962]

I flew on the corporate jet a couple of times, which was cool, but mostly the same as discussed above:

-Megacorp paid for my MS.
-Lots of hotel soap and shampoo.
-Lots of business dinners, some with really good wine.
-Airline and hotel points.
-Per diem travel, which I stayed under when young but learned to blow that dough as I got more experienced.
-Never owned my own cell phone until I retired - Megacorp had a lenient personal use policy.
-Visited some interesting places, but nothing too exotic.

Then there were the really fun perks like:

- Summer days in the South, outdoors in full personal protective equipment including a respirator
- Losing my ass on real estate in a corporate move from LCOL to HCOL at the peak of the real estate bubble (I still have a six figure loss on my current house). And getting chewed out because I left the job for a few days to move!
- Spending Christmas on the phone with a Japanese-owned partner because Christmas is not a holiday in Japan.
- Spending my Caribbean vacation on teleconferences while DW was scuba diving with other men as
dive buddy.
- Lots more that I would rather not remember...

 

[Koolau]

I typically traveled once or twice a year - often to interesting cities. It was always very much w*rk related and often meant long hours, but sometimes just a conference. I enjoyed the travel and it was good to get away from time to time. Depending on who was the "manger du jour" my expense reports could be easy peasy or a total pain.

Our Corp. center was an hour and a half away in a major city, so once a week or so, I was in the "big city" with freedom to do "whatever" after w*rk and travel mileage paid. Big problem was that the "big city" folks liked to start meetings at 7:30 AM (although they always seemed to wander in about 8:00 AM after I had left home at 6:00 AM!)

I started out in a lab upstairs over a busy warehouse. Steam and solvent pipes banged and clattered over the sound of exhaust hoods. The floors were concrete. I had a used desk and chair on one end of the lab. Using the phone was often problematic because of the noise. Using a balance was problematic every time a fork lift operator below slammed pallets of drums into the support beams in the warehouse. Occasionally, the attached production building next door would catch fire or have a minor explosion. By the time I left 30+ years later, I had worked my way up to a cubicle next to a window, overlooking a field and woods in which herds of deer roamed. I called that a Perk.

Most of the major perks (extravagant appreciation dinners for long-service empl*yees - with big-star entertainers) were done away with just as I arrived at the required service level. Timing is everything!!

In fact, as I look back, my experience was one of watching perks (and benefits) slowly being taken away. All my university buddies envied me when I told them my starting salary and where I was going to w*rk. By the time I ER'd, most of the perks (and many benefits) were gone. But I'm not bitter!

 

[RobbieB]

The company brought in donuts to go with our coffee when we were summoned down to the annual meeting.