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Old 07-17-2018, 09:54 PM   #41
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My first job was in the fashion industry, and a few times a year the bosses would throw open the closets and give away shoes and accessories that had been used for photo shoots. Picture a near-riot of women diving into large cartons of shoes trying to find a matching pair. Mostly the shoes were in larger sizes that would fit models, and since I have big feet I always did well in finding ones I could wear. The pay was paltry, but never since have I owned so many stylish shoes!

But maybe the best perk was the nap room. I discovered that the office of the staff's on-site doctor included a dimly lit room with 4 single beds, presumably available for anyone who wasn't feeling well to lie down for a bit. Well, sometimes on my lunch hour I went there and just snoozed. And sometimes, when my boss was away, those naps could last for hours.

W*rking there was boring, but the perks were seductive.
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Old 07-17-2018, 11:00 PM   #42
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Flying private and avoiding airport hassles. Nothing like having a plane and pilot ready when you are.
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Old 07-18-2018, 02:09 AM   #43
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This is a fun thread. My favorite/best perks were:
- Getting MBA paid for
- Lots of corporate entertainment - very nice dinners with free-flowing excellent wines, conferences, “team building” events, retreats, etc. Sometimes the program was to be dreaded, but the evenings were fun.
- Extensive international travel, allowing me to add on personal travel inexpensively.
- DH accompanied me to Europe on business trips many times at low cost
- Most of the last 10 years of my career, a very flexible work schedule including working from home at least 2 days/week.
- Great benefits, which I didn’t fully appreciate at the time, but taken together have allowed us to ER. I do miss the health insurance though!
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Old 07-18-2018, 03:31 AM   #44
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As a working hand in the oilpatch that after 40 years in the business - now a manager but no where to executive level. Having a job with megacorp benefits and getting paid is something we are very thankful for.

As to perks.....

Your Job Is Your Bonus ! And in the Oilpatch - Everday's a Holiday !

Lifes A Dance And You Learn As You Go
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Old 07-18-2018, 03:39 AM   #45
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Free college. 4% match in 401k. Free coffee for awhile.
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Old 07-18-2018, 03:49 AM   #46
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I travelled full-time with numerous perks. Company vehicle, cell phones, computer etc. My expenses far exceeded my income. However I certainly don't miss it at all.

Now I'm reaping the benefits of a 401k with a healthy match and annual company fixed contributions, RMSA and HSA also with company match and so far - retiree medical.

I much prefer the latter to the former.
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Old 07-18-2018, 04:14 AM   #47
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Road Warriors. Did you pick up the soap? Mrs Scrapr brought a couple zip lock bags of soap to our marriage
No, but a guy who worked for me would clean out the entire room. Soap, toilet paper, sheets, towels, pillow cases...everything but the TV. He would actually bring an additional suitcase along.

I called him on it once and he really believed that it was all his for the taking; had some weird view of the world.
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Old 07-18-2018, 04:17 AM   #48
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All the airline and hotel points, personal car miles paid at a rate much higher than my cost, concert tickets when I took a customer, cell phone - even when on vacation out of the US.
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Old 07-18-2018, 05:23 AM   #49
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ESOP..........."Free Money"

4% matching 401k

Flex working hours

Free coffee

Tuition reimbursement

Casual dress code

Travel (If I want it)
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Old 07-18-2018, 06:08 AM   #50
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Not a monetary perk but a time perk...compressed work hours.

I was allowed to work 9 hour days but was only required to work 37.5 hours a week. So, I'd work 36 hours from Monday to Thursday and take 3 consecutive Fridays off. On the 4th Friday I'd work 6 hours which was the remaining 1.5 hours for each of the 4 weeks.

Over a year, that added up to about 36 extra days off, which is basically 7 weeks of vacation in addition to my normal vacation allotment. When a Monday statutory holiday came along I'd have a 4 day weekend followed by a 3 day week, followed by a 3 day weekend, in effect only working 3 of 10 days.
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Old 07-18-2018, 06:39 AM   #51
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Two non-COLA pensions of $900/month each, one from a job I left in 1995, one I left in 2006. Generous 401(k) matches. The insurance business still takes decent care of its employees, although I suspect the first company no longer has a DB plan and I know the second company ended its plan when it was acquired.

Travel. Ah. Sometimes undistinguished domestic destinations, but my first meeting as a member of my professional society was in San Juan, PR. (I studied darn hard to pass the exam that would get me inducted as a member at that meeting.) First time I'd ever seen palm trees. Typically the Society meets in a major city or some glamorous resort (e.g. the Boca Raton Resort, the Del Coronado in San Diego) so I got to a lot of nice destinations for meetings and usually got in a little sightseeing. Joined an international company early on and after that got a decent amount of trips to various places in Europe and to India. Post-2006, transatlantics were in Business Class. Lots of FF miles and hotel points I could use for personal travel with DH.

I wanted to talk about the Good Old Days, though. Dad was in management at a steel mill when I was in HS/college. It was back when companies could send gifts to managers of customer companies and Christmas was always fun. Lots of booze (I was too young to partake), some delicious prosciutto and other yummy foods, Bing and Grondhal Christmas plates, etc. The only genuine miss was a set of stainless steel tableware- made in Korea. Dad sent it back.

I should add that Dad was an honorable man and I doubt very much that his purchasing decisions for the company were influenced by these gifts. Most companies have strict rules against such gifts anymore, but it made for a fun December.
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Old 07-18-2018, 06:53 AM   #52
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Interesting thread. Looking back, I got a lot of the perks already mention by many, but the things that matter the most to me were the crazy levels of compensation while working and the crazy lump sum retirement settlement. I'm still smiling.
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Old 07-18-2018, 07:09 AM   #53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrapr View Post
Road Warriors. Did you pick up the soap? Mrs Scrapr brought a couple zip lock bags of soap to our marriage
I traveled heavily from 1982 through 2009. During that time I never once bought soap and am still using what I stockpiled from those years.
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Old 07-18-2018, 07:17 AM   #54
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Not as fancy or $$ as most on here but the big perk we had at my last employer

4% over cost on almost everything in the store. It was a Do It Best hardware.

For example-- a gallon of Benjamin Moore Regal ended up around $28 .

Since we were doing a reno on a large mid-century New England style colonial ranch-- this was a huge perk. It would be even huger with our present reno of a 120 year old late era Victorian.
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Old 07-18-2018, 07:46 AM   #55
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1) Floor seats, plus box seats, to all Lakers games, this during the Three-peat, Shaq/Kobe glory days.

2) Box seats to all other events, including big name concerts, at same, plus at a second Metro L.A. venue.

3) Superbowl tickets.

4) Company cars, including gas cards.

5) Expense accounts for dining out while traveling, and when out with clients.

6) Comprehensive executive level physical exams annually, which included a session with a stress management expert. Oh, the irony.

7) Annual conferences at lovely locations, plus the ability to tack on vacation time, meaning all flights for ensuing vacations were paid for by company, not by us.

On the surface it all sounds rosy, and to be fair, some of it was (See #'s 1 and 3 above ), but for the most part it was all paid for by virtue of the pounds of flesh each of our respective companies received in return. I miss none of it.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:04 AM   #56
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1st job out of school I got 24 days vacation and 10 holidays - all paid, of course. I was young and had just moved out west for the job (the mountains) and I used it all.

A later job - could borrow the company dump truck, which we used when doing a major kitchen rehab ourselves. It was quite a trip taking the debris from the walls etc. to the dump. We were small compared to all the other trucks in line!

I think both of those perks are better to me than major sports event tix. Years ago I had great travels for work in the US and England and got to keep the frequent flyer miles. DH did better getting his million miles in.

Maybe the best was getting a severance package of 1 years pay plus keep the company medical plan at company rate forever (have had it 19 years so far) plus some other tidbits that added a few thousand more. And a year after I left they sent me thousands more as the bonus for the year I didn't work. Weird policy that - we figured it was written by people who planned to take the severance package and management didn't catch it.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:06 AM   #57
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I had a perk that got lost in the shuffle. I was non-management but had a company car/gas because I would travel about 100 miles once per week to one of my accounts. No idea how that qualified but I didn't complain. Made sure I ran up the miles to show that I "needed the car." Plus I worked out of my home so didn't even drive it to work.

Over the years that account shrunk and I was "stuck" with a company car with "no place to go." So on weekends we would take off to run up the miles to justify the car.

New manager came onboard. (he was promoted from within, not an outsider so he "should have known.")

So I get my letter--"it's time to pick out the color and options of your new car" (every two years). I had kept telling my husband (who worked for the same company, different office) that my manager did not know I had a company car.

He said that's crazy--they HAVE to know. Well I filled out the form and dropped it off on the weekend so I didn't have to run into my manager.

8 AM Monday morning he calls me --I DIDN"T KNOW YOU HAD A COMPANY CAR!!

It was good while it lasted! No wonder this company (financial company) almost went bust during the recession if that's how they run things.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:07 AM   #58
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Many perks, the ones that come to mind first:

- Per diem reimbursement for meals when traveling. If you spent less than the per diem, you got to keep the difference. That was very easy to do. In fact, an informal network built up in Megacorp where we shared "how to eat well in <name of city> for less than half of the daily per diem".

- All travel rewards miles you could keep and use for personal travel. I have the equivalent of a couple of round trips flights, a month of car rentals, and 2 weeks of hotel nights that I can use for myself now that I am retired.

- In several years I received free trips to Hawaii for DW and I as a reward.

- For the years I managed a cross-platform software lab environment, "Free" software of any type for any of the platforms (i.e. we just had to request it and we got a license paid for by Megacorp, no questions asked).

But, as was said, these came at a cost... having to travel at a moments notice, working/traveling on weekends, working at conferences held at Disney World while your family enjoyed the amusement parks, having to miss some birthdays, anniversaries, kids school events, family/community events... eventually time for myself became more important than the perks.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:10 AM   #59
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current perks:

part of my cc dues are paid
all of my parking (150/mo) is paid
we get free coffee
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:45 AM   #60
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1. Food. An abundance of food is always at meetings and appearing in the break room. Today someone brought in garden produce--garlic scapes, zucchini. If I wanted to, I could eat the majority of my meals at work for free (although much of it is not great for you).
2. Books, pens, paper, notepads, staplers, etc. This is an academic institution so this stuff abounds. And yes, some gets taken home and no one cares. I haven't bought a pen, or pencil, or scotch tape, or note pad, etc. in years.
3. Casual dress, pretty much wear what you want in reason. No pantyhose or high heels, ever. Thank God for academia for this. Huge perk for me. I'm in modest shorts (to the knee), sandals, and sweater today at work.

4. Flexible hours. As long as I get the work done, I come and go at will (more or less). If I can only make a hair cut appointment during the day or need to be home for the handyman, I take off.
5. One page performance reviews once a year, culminating in a 15 minute casual conversation with my "boss." (Actually there are no real "bosses" here, just colleagues one notch above you in heirarchy). No competition for more pay. Of course the downside is that there is no merit pay boosts--I hit the glass ceiling of such things awhile back with my last major promotion.
6. Nice travel budget. I've attended conferences in many U.S. states and abroad, and have gotten to make them into mini-vacations by extending my stay for a couple days.

7. Walk to work, 15-20 minutes. No commute.
8. Beautiful campus! And in summer it is like having a gorgeous park to yourself. Sit outside at lunch and breaks and commune with nature.
9. Free classes, including graduate classes, free speakers/events, discounted tickets to city events such as concerts, etc.
10. Fabulous library connected to larger library system. Every possible book is available at will.
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