Comments (28)

1. What I’d be curious about is at one point to these luxurious benefits become “taxable”?

   posted by Robert on 1-9-2007 at 10:32 am

2. The place I work requires somewhat frequent air travel, and occasionally that travel requires me to leave or return on a weekend day, depending on flight schedules. Shortly after I started working for the firm, I asked management if that weekend travel was on the clock. The response was no, but the frequent flier miles were a way to make up for that.

   So, let’s say I make $25 and hour and with travel to/from the airport, security time, and flight time, it’s a seven hour ordeal to fly home from a business trip - $175 in pay. The same flight would get me 2,000 FF miles, or about 1/12 of a free coach flight in the US. That “free” ticket would have to normally cost $2100 for me to come out even. And let me tell you, you can fly pretty much anywhere in the US — even last minute — for less than $1000 in coach.

   posted by RSN on 1-9-2007 at 11:38 am

3. When a hurricane was threatening the NorthEast, I am in financial industry, so we needed to be staffed the next day. My boss waited til the last minute, so no hotel rooms were availalbe. My boss sent the admin out to the mall to get us pillows and throws and gave us permission to SLEEP UNDER OUR DESKS.

   posted by Jowen on 1-9-2007 at 11:43 am

4. When I was in the Navy a few years back, I worked shifts on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. We called the shift “two, forty-eight, two, seventy-two,” meaning that we worked two twelve hour day shifts, had forty-eight hours off, then two twelve hour night shifts, then seventy-two hours off. So if you work 6 am to 6 pm Monday and Tuesday, you then work 6 pm to 6 am Thursday and Friday night, then start the whole process over again Tuesday morning. There were four groups on this sort of schedule working as teams for 24/7 coverage.

   Here’s the perk: Due to the vagaries of the schedule, during each full cycle we got a “sweet 16,” meaning there were 16 days during which our shift team never saw our bosses: we were either on a weekday night shift or a weekend day shift. Not much of a perk at all, but we appreciated it.

   posted by Jeremy on 1-9-2007 at 11:58 am

5. I worked for a very popular restaurant chain for 4 years while I put myself through college, and we never got free food! Per shift, we received a discount of 50%, with a maximum $4.00 off. With the average menu price at $12, that translates to a 33% discount. If we came in to eat when we weren’t working, we received a whopping 10% off. That’s on top of making only $2.23/hr + (sometimes very lousy) tips, and no holiday or overtime pay.

   Catching a cold did not warrant an excuse for calling in sick (to a restaurant, mind you). I once vomited at work and was expected to stay at work for the duration of my shift. I have not set foot in that restaurant since the day I quit!

   posted by Michelle on 1-9-2007 at 12:01 pm

6. Not actually a perk, but… Last year my boss finally came around to paying the staff time-and-a-half when they (almost always) worked over forty hours a week (in other words, complying with the labor laws). When he did so, however, he adjusted everyone’s hourly rate DOWN so their typical gross weekly check would be the same as before.

   posted by B on 1-9-2007 at 12:38 pm

7. The most unusual perk I ever received was a pair of coveralls. As new financial analyst for the state government I was require to back up the mailroom/receiving guy when he was out. So I was directed to a pair of overalls that I could wear over my dress clothes when large deliveries were needed to be received. Strangely the mail guy was often absent when large shipments of paper or other supplies were delivered. Oh, and the coveralls were shared by a few staff people some of which wore them without their shirts on underneath so that pretty much ended wearing of the coveralls for me.

   posted by Dan on 1-9-2007 at 12:42 pm

8. Eww… Michelle, I’d be really interested to know what restaurant that was. God pity the service industry.

   posted by Andie on 1-9-2007 at 12:51 pm

9. I am in the Army and just spent a year in Iraq. During that year, everyone gets two-weeks of “mid-tour” leave to go home, on vacation…whatever. The problem is, it isn’t possible, or reasonable, to send everyone home at once so it’s spread out throughout the year. This means that some people went home after being in country for a month, then came back for the remaining 10.5 months without getting a breather. On the flip side, some folks got to wait go home in month 11 only to return to Iraq for the last 2-3 weeks then get right back on the plane and go home. Great policy, just hard to implement effectively to meet the real intent behind getting a break.

   posted by J on 1-9-2007 at 1:01 pm

10. There is a yearly tech show at which all our products are displayed and sold. The three months prior to the show are always 12+ hour days with engineers and programmers trying to meet the ever-changing fantasies of the Marketing Department, which apparently doesn’t realize that the date of the next show is known over a year in advance.

    To help motivate the engineers to work 12 hours a day for three months straight, they instituted a “30 days of fun” program. Every work day in the last 30 days leading up to the show (net 20 - 22 days), we would find a small prize on our desk - a yo-yo, a notepad, a lanyard, a candy bar, etc.

    Engineers quickly realized that:
    1) All the prizes were leftovers from Marketing’s merchandising give-aways.
    2) $1.00 worth of merchandise isn’t worth 4 extra hours of work.

    Every day, you would see a large pile of rejected prizes in the break room. The program was cancelled.

    posted by Bryan on 1-9-2007 at 1:44 pm

11. I friend of mine used to work at an ice cream manufacturing plant. According to him, it was a horrible place to work: bad hours, constant (”required”) overtime, horrible overbearing bosses, etc. But one of the “perks” they touted was you could eat as much ice cream as you wanted on break. He said at first it was cool, but you get sick of ice cream pretty quick and you can’t take any home.

    I also remember one of my first jobs was retail… where a perk was 10% employee discount off purchases, which ended up not being much of a perk after all…

    posted by Jason! on 1-9-2007 at 1:56 pm

12. The best/worst perk I think was that my very, very pregnant daughter was given permission for ONE visit the rest room between her starting time and her lunch time and ONE between lunch time and quitting time. Other than those times, she was expected to be at her desk (as were all other people in her dept). And she had to argue her way for that “perk”.

    posted by Catherine Thomas on 1-9-2007 at 2:15 pm

13. Once when the price of postage went up $0.01, the HR department sent all employees a sheet of twenty-five $0.01 stamps. HR felt they were being very considerate as employees wouldn’t have to go out and buy those pesky stamps. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive our “bonus” until two weeks after the rate change, by which time most of us had already adjusted to the postage hike. At least HR didn’t add the value of the stamps to our compensation package!

    posted by Darci on 1-9-2007 at 2:50 pm

14. While I recruited physicians for a year in Texas, I worked for a man who wished he had been a preacher. Every Monday morning we would have a business meeting to discuss the previous week, and then we would pray. I’m not talking about bowing your head and giving thanks, either. We went around the table and said all of the things that we wanted to pray about. Someone was keeping a tab of all of those things for us. After everyone basically gave their life story, the person taking the list would pray to god and read each of the items listed. Then we would have about a 30 minute lecture over the bible. If it ever became a discussion, it was abruptly cut short. During the week I would think of outlandish things to put on my prayer list. (Once I asked that we pray for my cousin because he was recently aquitted of rape) If you did not “fess up” so to speak, the owner would say, “Ok…Anyone else have anything?” I was often the only one who did not have a prayer request and they would all look at me silently. I would just sit there and stare back. He still owes me $2500. I think I’m going to call him now.

    posted by Tommy on 1-9-2007 at 4:09 pm

15. One of the jobs I worked during my high school years was for a school uniform company, oddly enough. It was a decent job except for the added bonus of head lice from the not-so-clean clients. Did I mention I was in high school?

    posted by Grace on 1-9-2007 at 4:13 pm

16. The despicable boss I worked for finally “left to pursue other opportunities” and did so without conducting my performance review. Her boss, a man who turned out to be even more despicable, ended up having to do the review with me. His opening comment was “Did you and Maggie not get along?” It spiraled downward from there. In the end, I was to receive an increase of 1.2% (or about $1,200). He said he thought he could give me a 1.5% increase instead. I told him he could keep the change. That the company needed it more than me.

    posted by Patty on 1-9-2007 at 4:14 pm

17. When I was pregnant with my son, I was put on bedrest at 29 weeks. I spent at least an hour a day on the phone with employees from the company I was working for, unpaid. I started getting calls from my boss a week after I had my son, asking when I was returning to work. I got permission to bring my son with me to work after I returned until he was four months old - so they could put me to work 14 hours a day.

    posted by Alice H on 1-9-2007 at 4:16 pm

18. To add to the restaurant “perk,” I worked at a restaurant where we got free food- soup or salad made by the chefs, or some pasta dish if you made it yourself. Sounds great, but my boss took out a dollar a day on my paycheck to pay for it. Because I was the counter person (aka grunt) I had to close at night. Since I didn’t get a break and often didn’t want to stay later than I had to (getting out past midnight alone is bad enough), I basically had money taken out of my paycheck for food I never had (unless you count all the gelato samples…..)

    posted by Kate on 1-9-2007 at 5:26 pm

19. I once had a job that was so thoroughly perk-free that when I started a new job, the fact that the new company bought employees boxes of tissues for our desks almost brought a tear to my eye.

    posted by Jane on 1-9-2007 at 7:44 pm

20. I once had to go in for minor surgery at 10:00. Our work day started at 8:00. I was told I could take the day off sick but, “is there any reason why you can’t come in before the surgery”?

    posted by Barry on 1-10-2007 at 9:05 am

21. For a Christmas bonus one year at a private shool, the made a “fair” formula of taking the extra cash on hand, and the prorated everyone based on salary and years of service. As a minimum wage employee with one year experience I got a check for 71 cents. The next year they just didn’t bother.

    posted by Roman on 1-10-2007 at 9:31 am

22. Each of these perks is so great/depressing. I hope it’s as cathartic as it is entertaining. Thanks for sharing, and keep them coming!

    posted by Jason on 1-10-2007 at 10:11 am

23. I work for a company that said times were bad. For a few years they gave 2% to 2.5% average raises. Bosses had to divide 2% amongst good and bad employees. Phenomenal workers would get 2.67%, average workers 1.8% and fair workers 1.2% and bad workers 0%. I guess it didn’t pay to work very hard.

    Not only that, but each job title had an associated grade that had a salary range (minimum and maximum). After a few years we got the notification of 2% average raises. They also gave us the new minimum and maximums for each range. The minimums and maximums all went up by over 5%. When we asked why they said, because the minimums are too low to hire anyone, and for certain jobs the maximums are not high enough to hire anyone. We all figured out what they really meant was anyone who worked here for any amount of time was an idiot and only was worth 2% more than last year, but if you came from outside you were worth at least 5% more than the people hired the previous year. (I don’t think HR ever figured this out).

    Both policies as you can imagine were highly demotivating.

    -Stew

    posted by Stew on 1-10-2007 at 11:46 am

24. My job has a lot of awesome perks. Free coffee, we can listen to opur own mp3 players or CDs on the clock, and free movies and all sorts. My last job, though..

    I sold life insurance! Boring! We got a $20 voucher for every sale where the monthly premium was $46 or over (that’s a third of our plans), and a scaling bonus for any sales that add up to a yearly premium of $3000 or more. Seems alright to me! One guy reportedly made $8000 a month for three months, not including gift vouchers. Except one small thing: It was all ‘Subject To Approval.’ So, at the end of four months, I was told “.. Sorry. We decided to discontinue it. But GREAT effort!”

    In addition, we had $4 per week taken out of our wage for the Social Club. Which never did anything.

    posted by Blake on 1-10-2007 at 2:15 pm

25. I once worked at a radio station that was so cheap, instead of giving us Christmas bonuses, they gave us each a gift…leftover prizes that listeners didn’t pick up. The prizes were dusty old gift baskets, gift certificates to restaurants that expired within a few days and t-shirts with promotional things printed on them.

    posted by Diesel on 1-12-2007 at 3:09 pm

26. While working for a bank (currently owned by Wachovia) in highschool I was told I would receive the following benefits, in two years, after I became fully vested:
    * full college reimbursement, regardless of major
    * health and dental insurance
    * free bank account with “free” overdraft protection
    * And thirty minutes a day for break

    Two weeks before I became fully vested, however, policy changed to where:
    * college reimbursement was only available for accounting, business management or computer programming majors
    * a brand new, and innefectual, HMO
    * bank account perk did not change
    * and I had to take my breaks in increments of 10 minutes rather than in a lump

    basically I worked two years to have the company fail to honor their agreement.

    The worst perk I ever actually got was with a newspaper company where the insurance was a preferred physician program (there was only one doctor listed in my state as accepting it and he was 3 hours away). The program covered over the counter medications such as Advil, but only paid %20 on prescriptions.

    posted by Lee on 1-12-2007 at 6:49 pm

27. I work for an engineering corp in California, doing the grunt work at the test site for the most part. Good people and despite the age gap I can interact very well with my boss since I found out he surfed more regularly than me (he is notorious for leaving early Wed to get his weekly surf in).

    One of the best perks was when my boss had to meet with another company and asked me to sit in with him. The company was literally a block away from one of the best longboard surf spots in CA. My boss and I took our wetsuits and boards and headed out surfing after the meeting. The meeting ended at 3, but my boss let me put down 5 as my clock out time. So I got paid to surf for 2 hours. Best perk ever!

    posted by Mark Z. on 1-15-2007 at 6:59 pm

28. The most stressful job I ever had was a collector at a collection agency - one of the best perks was if you were lucky enough to be offered a headset, so that you didn’t get a neckcramp from holding the phone receiver while you typed all day. No one offered me one.
    Every morning we had a meeting where we had to state a target of how much we were going to collect that day. At the end of the month you had to meet your monthly target or you could be fired, but if you exceeded your monthly target you would get a percentage based bonus on top of your salary.
    Not enough people were hitting their targets so management tried to motivate us by having a sales contest/raffle. They would say the next person to get a debter to come make a payment to the office gets a raffle ticket, and the person with the highest collection total at the end of the day will get a raffle ticket, etc. Management bought a gas barbeque and a little boombox and other gadget prizes and had them set out in the office to inspire us to work harder. Even the tracers (whose job it is to find the debtors who have moved and keep them on the phone so we can talk to them) had their own contests. The plan was that at the end of the month, those of us who had tickets could put them in a draw for the prizes. For two months in a row, at the end of the month were told that there was not going to be a draw because the entire office collection totals did not warrent it. Then, apparently all the prizes were returned, or the manager took them home for himself because we never saw them again.

    Once I got larangitus for almost a week, so I was told that I could take a week unpaid sick leave since I was of no use as a collector. Being unable to afford the loss in pay, I begged to be given some other work. My boss said that since I was a nice girl, he would make an exception and let me work organizing the old files in the file room. No one had been in there for years and I had to spend a day cleaning and removing dirt and dead bugs before I could even get to the files.

    posted by Jill on 1-16-2007 at 4:57 am

Comment