Company perks (if any)

[fireheart]

Ok, so not counting health insurance related benefits (since not every country has that system), what perks do you guys or your known family/friends get?

For instance, my partner used to get (ISP):

-regular neck massages...they would actually have people come in once a month to do this.
-monthly team functions.
-free lollies every now and then (they had a company who would do a lolly table and you could make your own pack to take during working hours)
-very cheap internet and bundling services.
-discounts for family and friends (he got ten chances to do this. He never used all ten. Him, his parents, his sister, his best mate in nearby town, my aunt and her partner, my sisters boyfriend...that's it)
-the occasional free company-branded whatever. (He still has the water bottle)

My partner now gets:

-free training. (They're going to train him up as a systems admin with the goal of him working either as a systems admin for the company he works for now, or elsewhere)
-regular team outings (fun ones too...for their Christmas bash, he hired out a very pricey boat for a few hours. The first thing that was done on the boat? "I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat, take a good hard look at my mother fudging boat!")
-free beer on Friday afternoons.
-free lunch and dinner on Fridays.
-the occasional free company branded whatever (although he's commented that this stuff is cheaper than the stuff he got from his previous job)
-when they're getting rid of old equipment, he's gotten hold of it for his server.

As for me, my main perks in my two childcare jobs were free training and in one of them, I got my police checks all reimbursed. In the second job, I was reimbursed for anything I bought for the company.

[purple]

Currently at the hotel:

Cheap rooms and discounted dinning (weather staying or not) anywhere in our chain for me or for friends and family.

Traning and certificates (first aid, duty mangers, hotel management).

Free meals while working, and access to left over food after functions.

Catered morning teas and staff meetings.

Random functions (mini golf, theater shows). These always have free drinks.

Acsses to a bunch of discounts. Off the top of my head: optometrist, private health insurance, ferries, trains, rental cars.

Free counseling ( work or private lofe realted).

Free entry to local tourist attractions.

[AccountingDrone]

Back in the day I worked for US Foodservice [before it was bought out by Dutch Royal Ahold] Everybody *loved* the bestest perk ever. We got to buy anything not specifically branded for a client [like the product for Dairy Queen FREX] at company cost. Wednesdays were fun, we would have people clubbing together to buy the 40 pound bulk pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts, or the 10 pound flat of lobster tails. People kept 1 gallon ziplok bags in their desks for splitting stuff. I had *2* 25 cubic foot freezers in the barn and just went for the entire bulk pack of stuff myself and repackaged it for family sized cooking when I got it home. As I said, for a foodie, the bestest perk ever!

When I worked for a chemical company and did hazmat stuff, I was issued a company truck [or car, depending on what I was doing.] The car was not really a fancy anything, it was a mid 70s Chevy Impala in shit brown, but holy crap it was fun to drive, if you were not careful, it would smoothly accelerate up to you suddenly noticing the cop behind you and your spedometer registering 75 mph =) That company also had some form of rolling account with a small private hospital for executives and upper level employees, and the top plans from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. While I worked for them, everything was covered, I could call up and make appointments for everything, yes, teeth, routine medical. I think about the only thing I couldn't get would be purely cosmetic surgery.

And my last job, Oakleaf Waste Management was an excellent company to work for. Smallish - around 450 employees and was still privately owned at the time. They held private parties several times per year, They had a summer BBQ/picnic with live band, dancing, a buffet line like you would not believe and beer/wine coolers. They threw a Christmas/New Years party every year at a local night spot with open bar, door prizes and amazing food. The first month I worked for them they surpassed $300 million in sales and threw a celebration party where they bussed everybody [well, some of us drove ourselves] to a private party place and again with the amazing food and open bar. An unexpected bonus after I shifted to contract negotiation and compliance was when I called a local hauler to get service at the farm, she recognized me and gave me a courtesy discount. Not going to turn away a 25% discount!

I have been lucky to really enjoy most of the companies I worked for. Any issues have tended to be with individual employees rather than the companies. Though I have worked for a couple duds in my day, I think I was very lucky.

Rob currently is employed instead of doing the long term temp thing, and he really enjoys his job. He had previously worked for Met Life in customer service. Overall he enjoyed the company but he really is not into customer service paper pushing. He likes being more active, and now he does quality assurance and is much happier. Right out of the Navy he got a job with Verizon Wireless doing customer service, and we got a good discount on our cell phones and service so that was good. He did really enjoy being in the Navy, and our best perks from that we still have - access to the commissary, the MWR ticket office [discounts on travel or site entrance fees to like Disney and such] and medical - I get serious prescriptions free on base. If I mail order or go through someplace like CVS we have the usual copay. I can also use my military retirement benefits at any US base in the world. Yup, I could theoretically wander to Gitmo an do the tourist thing and get in to use the base facilities. [my favorite overseas base so far is Ramstein.]

[SimonF12009]

10% Staff Discount
Free shares in the company every year
Freebies from tech reps/manufacturers when they come into store
Freebies from manufacturers when I go to a Tech conference to learn about new products (eg, last one I went to 6 people won a pair of Monster headphones each)
Discounted/Free hardware & software from Microsoft/Google/Sony

[bhskittykatt]

Discounted rooms at The Resort and it's affiliates.
Free food
401k, holiday pay, insurance, etc
Discounts on restaurants, the spa, the golf courses, and merchandise in the shops
Commission on upsells and small cash bonuses if our name is attached to a positive review

Also working in tourism, sometimes you can swing discounts and freebies elsewhere. I got to go on a free whale-watching cruise to "try it out" so I could then promote it to guests (and we got commission kick-back on those referrals, too).

[XCashier]

20% discount. A few days a year, we get 30% off, one time even 40%!

And that's pretty much it, unless you're management.

[notalwaysright]

20% discount. A few days a year, we get 30% off, one time even 40%!

And that's pretty much it, unless you're management.

I get a small discount on my car insurance, and have it deducted straight from my wages. But no, not many perks.

[BeeMused]

We have

• free coffee, tea and water
• contribution towards monthly public transportation ticket
• big party twice a year with loads of food and beer, family can attend, there's entertainment for the kiddies too
• car owners can get our staff mechanic to repair their car, with a heavy discount at parts used, labour if free
• half an monthly pay in December, half a monthly pay in June
• 30 days paid vacation (min in 20 days in Germany)

[Thana]

Not too many perks at Where's The Beef but there are some interesting things.

Being able to try out new sandwiches/drinks/items before they officially debut. Granted it's mostly so we can recommend them to customers but still...we get to try it for free.

Being able to be creative with the ingredients we have. One of the best things ever is to make a cup of coffee, add a packet of hot chocolate and then add a bit of either chocolate or vanilla soft serve..even better if it can be gotten before it's poured into the machine..awesome, awesome drink. Or heck even getting a soft serve and putting strawberry sauce (for the berry lemonade/tea) in it.

Being able to buy certain things that we have too much left over of after the promo has run.

[klhanson]

The call center I work at now has a nice discount with my cell phone company and health insurance after 1 year.. We can also get special discounts for home loans and some merchandise stuff. oh and i get a free subscription to SiriusXM online radio..

At the office store that was the max we got a nice discount on pretty much everything.

The old call center i used to work at had an onsite doctor, decent health insurance and a discount for my cell phone carrier

[Totiono]

- Free entry to the park
- Free parking (usually it is $20)
- Two free zoo tickets per year
- 10 free tickets a year
- 15 discounted tickets a year
- I think about 30% off merchandise and food
- There is a gift shop only for employees that actually has a lot of great things and has amazing deals.

[Android Kaeli]

For the Warehouse:

--Free basic membership
--Vacation/personal time for anyone (I LOVE this)
--401k and stocks
--once a year bonus checks
--free food once in a while, usually around a holiday or every few months
--and a few other things that I can't remember at the moment

At Random Craft Store....the only thing I had there was the employee discount.

[MoonCat]

We used to get some pretty good deals with local companies in trade for free advertising. A CW of mine still has VERY basic cable, something like $10 a month; she's had that for years. I told her don't ever cancel it, because you will NEVER get that rate back again. We don't get anything like that anymore.

We do get "friends and family" coupons from a chain dept. store, but I don't think it's much different from their weekly sales.

Sometimes we get free tickets to concerts, famous speakers at the universities, stuff like that. At county fair time, we often get free tickets to special shows, which covers the regular gate admission. Last couple years I got tickets to the monster truck rally (which I loathe because it's so noisy you can hear it over the entire fairgrounds) just to get the free gate admission (normal price $10 each for adults). You don't have to actually attend the show once you're inside the fair.

Beyond that, I have 5 weeks paid vacation, 15 paid sick days per year, and five paid personal days. That's due to my union and the fact that I've been there for 36 years.

[aqutalion]

My previous company maintained a Sam's Club account for their employees to use. They also had Five Guys cater lunch every so often.
The site they had me working at had an onsite hair salon.

9/80 schedule. Basically, you work 9 hours a day monday-thursday instead of 8, and get every other friday off. LOVE this.

Most places with large enough facilities have at least some attempt at a fitness center and a cafeteria. My current company doesn't have its own cafeteria, but they have arrangements with a few local restaurants and food trucks to bring in food (not for free, though).

It's apparently becoming fashionable for companies here to offer legal services. I forget the exact term, but it's like insurance, for lawyers instead of healthcare.

The first company I worked for after moving here had an insane HR department that took every excuse they could to have a party and get stuff catered. Highlights include setting up a cartoon "mexican" backdrop and taking everyone's picture wearing a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo, and attempting to have an honest-to-goodness renaissance faire in the building lobby and parking lot, complete with sword fights and actors in period costumes.
(They also decided to have a borderline-fastfood place cater fried chicken for Black History Month, and apparently had no idea why so many of us were stifling our laughter.)

Companies here like to give out stuff with their logo on it, too, and some of it's pretty nice. Among other things, I've accumulated two gym bags, a nice laptop backpack, an aluminum water bottle, a few fleece jackets, and a pair of jumper cables. The insane HR company gave everyone a huge (seriously, at least two feet high) stack of personalized notepads. I took them with me when I left, and I still haven't used them all up, even though it's been ten years.

[jnd4rusty]

I think everyday I work is a perk. I work with 5 individuals in their home and so I get to eat for free when I am working as I am teaching them to prepare meals and conduct proper meal time etiquette.
I get paid to:
Support the individuals on shopping trips.
Support the individuals to community activities such as bowling, hockey games, movies, concerts, agency parties (Christmas dance, Halloween dance, Valentines Day dance).
Support individuals to concerts at the fair each year.
Support individuals to the summer concert series downtown every summer.
Support individuals to outdoor activities such as fishing, Post 22 games, picnics, tourist attractions.
I will sometimes sit back while I am at work and just marvel at how easy my job is, especially after working almost 28 years in the food business. I am now a Direct Support Person but sometimes I call myself a "house mom"!!

We also get as DSP's:
Free flu shots
Yearly Christmas party
Surprise bonuses
Paid vacation
Paid sick leave (up to 960 hours)
401k
Shift differential pay

My other half gets:
401k
Christmas party with open bar
Christmas bonuses
free food
Two free passes to the yearly fair
sick pay
vacation pay