Perks of your job?

[MelodiousBubbles]

Geez... There are a lot to mine.

Well first there's the fact that since we're privately owned and a local store, I can get away with saying pretty much anything sans cussing when I'm on the floor as long as I word it right.

Our regulars rock. They really do. I have many banter buddies where we give each other the hardest time and just have fun with it.

Since we're privately owned with a large corporation as our wholesaler (whose name is stamped on everything since we carry their products), I have a never-ending supply of people who demand our "corporate number" and instead of arguing, I just give them our wholesaler's corporate number

Customer/Associate appreciation day where we get burgers, hotdogs, and steak tips. As well as soda, watermelon and other various BBQ foods. All for free.

Our associate's Christmas Party (yes. we specifically call it a Christmas party because all of us are very anti-PC) is amazing. We hold it at a local hotel that has AMAZING food with raffle prizes. Again, completely free for us.

The owner of the store is the best guy ever. He knows everyone who works for him and is wicked chill.

I get to know everything about everyone. Our store is the meeting place for everyone in the town, thus if something happens involving someone we know, we know what's happening almost on an up-to-the-minute updating system of customers. Same works for if something's going on involving police, ambulances, etc.

Other than the Harpy, I have it pretty good at my job

[Victoria J]

Cool topic.

I have very few real (monetary) perks - but lots of hidden highlights to the job.

I get to know everyone's business . I'm really really nosey so I love having a job that lets me legitimately stick my nose in people's business.

I generally get to feel pretty good about what I do. I also generally find my job interesting.

I learn a lot - and I get to use that knowledge to help out friends and family. When my mother lost her job her union told her not to negotiate for a better pay off - I disagreed and she got a couple of thousand extra ! (I can't take gifts from customers but no rule about family She gave me £500 and a beautiful necklace). More recently she has been ill and unable to work, when she suddenly got a gas bill for almost £1000 (because they hadn't been reading the meter properly for the last 3 years when she would have had money to pay!) - I helped her apply for a grant from the energy company and it all got paid for her !

Sometimes advising friends and family is a pain (my mother in particular acts like she's being helpful and drumming up business for me ) but mostly it's really nice to have people respect what I do. My mother met up with a couple of old friends the other day and they were complaining about their children (young and grown up), my mother might want to complain about me but they won't here a word against me. I've helped both of them out before

I get unrestricted computer use. (Ridiculously unrestricted - our computer guy is mad and whenever you log onto the computer you get admin privileges ). I can use the phone within reason.

I work relatively flexible times. I have to be here by 9.30 3 days a week, otherwise I should be here at 10. If I'm a little late (on a 10am day), or I take an hour and a half for lunch one day, or need to go a little early - no one minds. They would mind if I didn't do enough hours in the week, but I normally do more. They've also been really really good about personal time - such as being able to take the day off (paid!) when I had to look after my mother following an operation.

No one seems to mind what I keep around my desk. I have pictures up, and stationary from home, and all kinds of stuff (robot pencil sharpener !).

No one minds how we dress within reason. I try and be reasonably smart (I'll wear jeans with a nice top, or a T shirt with smart trousers, but not generally a T shirt with jeans) but even if I feel ill, half asleep and can't find anything clean and ironed - I'm still always smarter looking than the manager.

I have 2 really great coworkers who are becoming friends.

This has almost made me forget being underpaid and working in a building that's falling down, and working far too hard and being under stress the whole time...

Victoria J

[Shpepper]

A boss who doesn't look over my shoulder all the time and is VERY fair and protective of the staff. He will not allow anyone else to yell at us or be rude to us.

I can use the internet all I want once my work is done.

I can read, crochet, make jewlery, make chainmaile or anything else I want to do as long as the phones get answered and the guests taken care of.

Massively discounted rooms for family, and if we want to stay here all we have to do is either clean the room or it's $25.00 for housekeeping to do it.

[lupo pazzesco]

Biggest perk of working in Textbook Hell?

FREE TEXTBOOKS!!!

Employees get to used their textbooks for free every semester, like a long term loan for the semester, but no library late fees. If I have to buy new books, I get an employee discount.

Had over $350 for books for 3 classes this semester. With the employee discount and free used books, I spent $17.27.

ALMOST makes up for the asshattery I deal with on a daily basis...

Oh, and on occassion, they'll bring food in, but pretty much always, they get food I can't eat and they know I can't eat. (I don't make it secret of my dietary restrictions/needs.)

[taxguykarl]

We get to do our own returns on the clock for free (how's that for an employee discount?). In my case we're talking a $300-$500 job if I actually had to pay for it.

Furthermore: All the coffee you care to drink. Frequent snack foods and sandwiches. A decent luncheon about a month after the end of the tax season.

[Rapscallion]

Let's see...

I get a vote in how the business is run.

Free canteen (vegetarian only) for a hot (usually) meal every day.

End of year share out for all permanent workers based on profits for the year.

I get paid!

Rapscallion

[MaggieTheCat]

Back at the call center I used to work in, they did two big meals for all employees every year: A company picnic in the summer, where the owners would BBQ ribs, chicken, burgers, corn, potatoes, and other stuff, and a Christmas dinner in December where they'd cater a full-scale Christmas dinner made by a local restaurant. They let employees who were working that day take an hour paid lunch to eat, and employees who weren't working that day come and PUNCH IN for an hour to get paid for the meal. They also did a couple of smaller meals throughout the year, like soup or sandwiches for lunch, but those were pretty few and far between. Usually only half a dozen or so throughout the year. They did allow employees to do pot lucks pretty much whenever, though, if the employees wanted to organize it.

Since we also had our main warehouse right in site, they'd also give away stuff that was technically about to expire, like chemicals for fish tanks or big honkin' smoked bones for dogs that had a bit of mold on them (just scrape the mold off, it's fine.) I assume the stuff they were giving away is stuff that was still okay even after it's "best if used by" date, since they did throw stuff like food out if it expired.

Dress code was really lax. Basically nothing offensive (swear words on shirts) or too revealing. Mostly common sense stuff.

Oh, and they did employee vaccination clinics four times a year. We had licensed vets right on staff, so they'd vaccinate employees' pets for just the cost of the vaccine itself (usually around $3-9 per vaccine, no additional costs for office visits or anything.)

I make jewelry from home now, and the best perk about that is being able to set my own hours, take a break when I need to, and being home to take care of the apartment while my husband's at work.

[Racket_Man]

the biggest non-benefit perk of my delivery job is

walking up to the door of a house, seeing the curtains open a bit and hearing the squeals of the smaller childern crying "THE PIZZA MAN IS HERE THE PIZZA MAN IS HERE". then having the childern crowd around the door crying "HI PIZZA GUY"

even if the parents are known stiffers it sometimes just warms my heart. Yeah I would still be mad at no tip but I at least made the kids happy

[smileyeagle1021]

-there's no end of cute guys (I have a boyfriend yes, but we've been dating for a couple of months, I've been at my current job for 2 years)

don't feel bad, at the hotel we have the same perk... my boyfriend has before come into work with me for no other purpose than to 'enjoy the view'

other perks (there aren't many)
-we supposedly get discounts nationwide... I say supposedly because our hotel group is quite possibly the most disorganized hotel group on the planet and the other hotels aren't actually required to honor discounts of other hotel's employees.

-free food in the morning (not that my boss knows about that perk )

- we don't actually have to do work most of the shift

the call center though was amazing for perks

- barbecues every quarter
-hotels were always providing lunch
- a hotel discount plan that worked
- the break room was the awesome... ping pong tables, air hockey, big screen tv, leather sofas... oh it was heavenly.
- we had a dress code, but you didn't have to follow it fri/sat/sun, any day you made a donation to the charity of the month, or any day you did at least 2 hours of overtime
- and of course, cute coworkers

[fireheart]

Perks from the supermarket...

-I get to watch the thieves getting chased by my CW's.

-Occasionally we'll get some new product to try out to recommend to our customers. (i.e. we think that this is good...)

-We can have as much of the free samples as we like. (and the sample ladies are lovely)

-there's no end of cute guys (I have a boyfriend yes, but we've been dating for a couple of months, I've been at my current job for 2 years)

-Occasionally, if there's too many of the sample bags from magazines, or free gifts with said magazines, work lets us have them.

[Seshat]

As a published author, I can get copies of any book my publisher prints if I want it.

As a writer, I can work from home in my jammies.

And 'published author' gets some respect from people, so I have that. Not enough respect to pull "Do you know who I am?", of course! But it's great at parties.

[KellyHabersham]

library job: all city employees are eligible for a free bus card, which is a great perk for those of us who can't/don't drive. We also have little parties for various things......like birthdays, or just because my supervisor felt like having a "junk-food potluck".

church office job: I've had people bring me cookie samples, or various little things they felt I might be able to use in the office.

[bainsidhe]

I used to work at a hotel and sometimes tickets to events would become available. I flew on a fuel plane and watched the Thunderbirds refuel in mid-air while I sat in the boom just a few feet away (WAY awesome!). One of the pilots waved. I also saw the Royal Ballet (just a couple rows back from the front) and Riverdance (also front section and center seats). FREE!!

At Media Play I was in charge of the monthly Anime event and we gave away freebies. The manager thought it was so great for me to deal with the hassle that I got to keep an item from the "prize" selection. I got a few new DVDs and T-shirts from that one.

[Food Lady]

They feed us several times a month, according to some theme or other (chili day, for example). It doesn't matter if you're working that day or not; come on in and nosh. We have an LCD TV in the breakroom with cable. Just about every Wed, during the morning meeting, there are samples from the cafe. The HR guy always has a huge bowl of candy, free for the taking. I guess most of our perks have to do with food.

I forgot--a couple of times a year we get a card that entitles us to an extra discount on all our store brands, on top of our regular discount. It's good for the whole month, to be used as many times a day that we want to.

[ta2ooed1]

My company recently moved and about a month after we did they sent out a company email that there was used hardware in an empty cubicle and we were all free to take it home. There were old laptops and small flat screen monitors, some sound and video cards and a really sweat dell server sans hard drive and ram. I got the server, it made the perfect gift for my bf and now our music/video library has an awesome new home

Oh and I got a really nice pair of alienware gaming headphones that were brand new in the box still in the same haul.