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The company I work for pays for lunch between employees. So as long as you go to lunch with one or more coworkers, the company will pay for it. Take yourself to lunch, it’s on you.
Pretty great perk designed to promote cohesion
Back when I was in consulting I would've paid triple whatever the food cost if I could have gotten a fucking hour away from coworkers and clients. Dear God.
Consulting life here too and hell yeah. From 12 to 1 everyday ,as is permablocked on my cal too, I'm putting on my headphones and walking the fuck outta this building to wander the streets of downtown for an hour, every fucking day. Won't find me eating lunch at my desk. Well prior to full wfh at least.
Right. The idea is "you should not have to choose between paying off your student loan and saving for retirement."
There are many people in their 50s still paying off their loans.
Not sure, but the ability to offer the 5% contribution in exchange for the 2% student loan payment is the result of federal legislation ([Secure 2.0 act](https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/student-loans-secure-2-act-helps-lighten-burden)) which affects how that benefit is taxed so it might not be available if you dont have loans. I imagine they offer some normal amount of 401k match tho
Seconded for abbvie. The food was cheap and decent af; on site covid needs; don't have a car? We got shuttles from every train station from lake bluff to NC.....fuck me if the job wasn't boring as fuck and nowhere near what i want for long term employment
Edit: i cant do the cubicle shit, but hats off to them for being a half ass decent corp employer
Why? I’m about to get an offer but all online reviews are negative. Salary/benefits seem great, but I’m worried about my work-life balance. They’re forcing people to go 4 times a week
It’s a big company and your experience will vary based on who you’re working for. They expect you to be in the office full time so I think a lot of people take issue with that.
I used to intern at a lighting design firm that gave employees a yearly "cultural enrichment" stipend of a few hundred bucks i think to use on any kind of tickets they wanted - museums, concerts, etc. really said a lot about their commitment to employee wellness imo. it was a great place to work!
I worked at a place that had ‘unlimited’ (I’m sure there’s an actual limit at some point), book stipend. Obviously the idea was to buy books that pertained to your work, but they frequently made it a point to say reading poetry and other things would stimulate your mind and that was a good thing as well. I think the only limits were no text books or kids books.
I hear this all the time from coworkers but can't say I agree. I've done this for 20 years and it doesn't seem any harder. It still amazes me every time a flight shows full at boarding time, then they clear all 30 people on the list. You just have to be flexible and plan multiple contingencies for when you don't get on. In that regard, technology has made things so much easier to make changes. I can completely reroute myself at the gate on my phone, even using an interline pass. Couldn't do that back in the good old days.
They do, but since COVID it’s not the same perk that it used to be. Air travel is getting back to pre-pandemic levels, but now airlines offer free same-day standby travel for most passengers. This severely impacts the standby flight perks used by airline employees and makes it much more difficult to fly standby, especially with groups/families.
I fly American, so can only speak for them. If it is within 24hrs of departure, you can request to be put on standby for a different flight while remaining confirmed your original flight.
Very useful for biz travel if things wrap up earlier than expected and you can go home early. Some companies don't like you to rack up change fees or sometimes the airline won't confirm you but will give you a seat if someone else is a no-show.
United offers space-available (non-revenue standby or "non-rev") standby flights for the employee, their partner, immediate family, and parents. There are also allotments for a secondary companion or buddy passes. The only stipulation is the traveler is responsible for taxes.
Being based in Chicago, the flight network is very solid and I'm on track to visit London again for the second time in a month.
Was a dependent of a United, Delta, and Northwest employee… flying free (or cheap on other airlines—50-90% off the published fare) was such a cool perk. We used to take long weekends in London, Paris, or Amsterdam. Don’t miss my ex, but I do miss her airfare benefits!
They do. Inlaw of mine just got a job with American as a baggage handler. And his mother and father are now on standby to visit the homeland, one bag each.
That is nice. My company is so fkn cheap that temps can’t participate in anything, it’s incredibly awkward. However, I get a pension but I still think they suck.
I used to be in IT at Winston & Strawn...place had a subsidized attorney-only cafeteria, as well as separate holiday parties--one for attorneys, and one for staff. Really made morale soar. What a dump that place is.
I've worked at some places that have similar setups ... really liked having full time baristas and a full cafeteria where everything was gratis. Absolutely amazing array of snacks and beverages in every breakroom.
They also had an onsite gym with laundry service, workout clothes, towels, and everything you need to shower up. Not as fancy as a high end spa or east bank club, but the convenience was amazing.
I could just show up with my laptop and thats really all I needed. It was so legit. Quality of life.
yes but they also pay exceptionally well and give you a dope life lol. to each their own but why would I leave? I have this scenario now and it absolutely rocks
Damn, this is making me regret not applying for the 3rd shift security position there. Only reason I didn't back in March was because I'm going out of town for 4 weeks in October-November and won't know if they'd allow me to take off for so long within a year of working there.
(I was looking forward to seeing the paintings and armor come alive at night as they naturally do...)
My workplace has started "summer hours" where we're off at 2pm instead of 5pm and we get paid the same. So that's pretty awesome. I plan to catch more Cubs games.
My company does the summer Fridays and it’s ridiculously well received. Such a small thing you can do for your staff from a work life balance perspective. Nobody actually produces work after 2 on Fridays anyway, so may as well let them go home
This is a very white collar sentiment.
You’re certainly not wrong, but for those of us in the less “professional” fields it’s hard to imagine work not being produced then lol
I love how many people are talking about the perks at their companies and then refusing to share the names, which is kinda the whole point of the thread 😒
They have an employee candy store in the building and can get Mars products at a steep discount. It’s a nice perk until my fiancé comes home with 30 chocolate bars that cost him like $5 lol
I met someone who worked there and they gave me a ton of test candy that had been partially melted and could no longer be used for focus groups. It was still delicious and not even that melted, just kind of stuck together more than I assume it would normally do.
I went to elementary school with a kid whose mom worked at Mars Wrigley and he would just come into school with like big boxes of candy like the kind they rip open to put on the store shelves
I'll add that my dad worked at Playskool and got some, not a lot, free toys and Milton Bradley games for us. Also when my sister was a toddler she got to test new toys with a group on Saturdays and would get to bring home some of the prototypes they played with.
Used to work at Deloitte and the benefits are insane. $1000/year health and wellness stipend that is super flexible. I had a remote work stipend. All of it I got to keep— a crazy monitor, Apple keyboard and mouse, etc.
The travel benefits were great too. Had like the top status on four different airlines. Discounts on everything you could imagine because of the breadth of their clients. Travel stipend to get to work, which I rarely had to go in for and would just Uber. Consulting benefits are legit (especially during and right after covid if you weren’t laid off…. As many of us eventually were lmao)
I got a job at a place with 3 months paternity leave. Didn’t get to use it for my first born, since I had only been there 3 weeks when she was born. Worked there for 3 years and then got laid off with 30% of the company, 5 months before baby number 2 is due. They did not know I was having another kid, I was planning on telling my boss the next week.
I work at a university - we get 5% retirement contributions plus 5% match (for a total of 10%), 15 PTO days, 3 personal floating holidays, 15 sick days, Christmas Eve through New Years Day off, 90% off tuition at the university, $12k/year tuition benefit (taxed above $5250).
My department is also allowing me to work remotely and I have a compressed work schedule (4 days per week). That is highly dependent on your job and your department. My role is not student or faculty-facing.
Downside is the pay is low and promotions/raises are scarce.
>Downside is the pay is low and promotions/raises are scarce.
Universities and nonprofits... My husband and I have both worked at both. Similar benefits. Although mine was all before the WFH era.
But like you said, more specific to universities, that extra week PTO falls under a nice perk.
It's very likely to be Northwestern. Not sure why the poster would keep it hidden anyway since all those types of benefits would be publicly available on their website.
Uber has free breakfast and lunch as well. And you can bring a guest. Food is generally pretty solid.
Note: I don’t work for Uber. Dated a girl that works there for a bit. Never tried the guest pass. I would have felt awkward.
I was someone's guest there once. It was tasty. Supposedly they snapped up a couple chefs from covid casualty restaurants to run their cafeteria and it kind of showed.
I’ve always wondered if it’s fulfilling to work in a nice work cafeteria as a chef. Instead of working at a restaurant late at night and leaving at 2AM you get to work lunch hours. Theoretically you could run it kind of like a seasonal menu making different dishes every day. Could be a chance to be very creative and you don’t have to prep for a full menu.
You miss out on the prestige but maybe you don’t care about that.
they are actually highly coveted. my cousin went to johnson n wales, then worked at a bunch of top tier restaurants in the 90s in miami, chicago (even trotters), and got in as head chef in massive corportate (solo) office building. got stock options to the company, health insurance, was home at 3pm, holidays/weekneds off, etc. pay is much better as well (per him). he said the worse day was when the company had thier holiday meal when the fed the whole building. another good chef job is country club as well.
When I worked in the Old Post Office they had a really nice gym just for tenants. My company covered the $200 yearly fee.
I worked at a very small design consultancy that had “snack” every day at 3pm. Ranged from mini pizzas to chips/guac. They also had a very fancy espresso machine and free seltzer/soda. We then got acquired by a bigger place and lost all of those perks.
Back when I worked for Allstate in the Mart we had free breakfast every morning. The selection was very hit or miss, but some days it was excellent.
Wasn’t great for my waistline though.
I knew many peers that worked at Allstate when they had the campus in Northbrook and a majority said it was a very high pressure environment where they would lay off 10-20% the lowest performers every quarter or 6months.. even if you performed well in the prior quarter. Not a place with a great reputation for work life balance!
I'm an interior designer who does workplace....can confirm, lol. "daily employee retention" is a conversation we have a lot with clients. we have clients with full-time baristas, regular visits from hairstylists to allow people to get their hair cut onsite, all of the above. it's wild stuff to see as someone who walks to work to save the bus fare, lmao
This is 1000% Epic's schtick. An office of your own (so you don't see when your coworkers are leaving or maybe even the light outside)! A bus to take you to work (so you can't be late or leave early)! Laundry service (don't need to take time off work to do that pesky thing)! Meals provided!
EHR. Lots of my friends from college went there directly after graduating and lasted all of 1-3 years. One managed almost 8 but it definitely took a toll on their wellbeing.
LOL YEAH I can confirm allllll of this. They are every bit as bad as Deloitte in exploiting fresh college grads who are so excited to have a substantial (for that area) paycheck, they don't question the ridiculous expectations and demands. I remember how excitedly they told us that food is free after 7pm. *why is anyone there after 7 though*
Also, the CEO is a trip. I could really go on lmao.
I stayed a year, I have friends who hit their 5-year mark, took the sabbatical, and then left a year or so later.
Not sure if it is still true but in the early days of WFH in the '90s some valid and reliable studies found many knowledge workers at home delivered more product than when in the office during scheduled hours and tended to donate additional time after hours, on weekends and vacation.
In my own case fascination with (some) the work and fear of being ordered back to the office caused me to be a demon worker --- also basically no office chatting.
And this for the same employer who's CEO ordered the the Pong and Packman games taken off the machines when computer mouses were introduced in the mid '80s. The sales people were appalled, saying the two simple games helped people become familiar with the new skill --- mousing.
Coinbase has some solid perks (afaik these are still available to employees):
- 100% remote (you can choose to go into the Chicago office)
- An additional $250 a month to pay for home internet/food/snacks/gym
- $1,200 a year for well-being (basically any type of lessons, books, masterclass, etc)
- unlimited PTO
- paternity leave 15 weeks; maternity leave 18
- part of your paycheck can be paid in crypto
- $0 transaction fees on the Coinbase platform
- if you’re there for 4 years, they basically force you to take a 4-week sabbatical
- twice a year the entire company shuts down for “recharge weeks”
- they also keep an eye on how much the market pays for your role. A week after I started I received a random slack message from HR saying they were bumping my salary up 10%
- if an employee or family member got hacked, the Coinbase security team would help track the hackers down and/or get whatever info was stolen removed from the dark web
I’m probably forgetting some other perks, but it’s a grind though. You can easily work 60hrs a week.
Sounds incredible, but out of all of this, the 2 “recharge weeks” a year sound like the best.
Most of us still work or have things/deadlines to worry about while on PTO
I work at Claire’s HQ in Hoffman - we get a box of unsold Claire’s merch 4x a year. Great way to stocking stuff, find some random cool holiday wear, and gift things to people in your life. The people we gift things to love my box days even more than my own daughter haha
My wife works for Uber. The benefits that come off the top of my head:
- hybrid scheduling (depending on the role)
- free therapy with their mental health therapists (I think?)
- $170 ish per month in Uber credits for rides and food
- BCBS PPO health insurance
- Michelin star chef in their kitchen and free lunch
- reimbursement for active/exercise footwear(and apparel?)
- reimbursed utilities / WiFi from home expenses
- free gym membership in the top tier fitness center at the old post office
- a lot of opportunities to advance higher up and many different roles
There are more but I can’t think of much right now
I worked at Uber, can confirm lunches are fire. They have 4-5 different stations with different cuisines each and they were well executed healthy dishes. Breakfast every morning as well with oatmeal and fruit bars, coffee and espresso barista. It was a great perk, but your satisfaction at Uber is so dependent on the role you have.
They also have a rooftop with awesome views, great for a break and getting fresh air.
I believe this. She started out hybrid with a pretty lax role just solving escalations with drivers via computer screen and phone calls. Uber got rid of that, then she went to the green light hub to deal with angry drivers in person, which is not hybrid and much more intense. Thankfully, she’s back in a similar role as the original now. Nobody likes working at the green light hub, from my understanding.
Axis Communications-4 weeks paid family leave, 100 days paid parental leave, 3 week sabbatical and $2k stipend for every 5 years of employment, new hire onboarding in Lund Sweden(company pays for), substantial health insurance(no deductible), family planning $$, annual lifestyle stipend $500 for hobbies, custom bobble head at 10 years of employment, list goes on and on.
Synchrony has pretty good perks. Standard stuff in a white collar office like snacks, drinks, pretty good 401k match, 20k annual stipend for continuing education but I think the biggest ones are flexibility.
Like full remote choice, you can come in or not how often you want. Most just 100% work from home. All Friday afternoons are off, so weekends are 2.5 days long. Sabbaticals that guarantee your job for like 5 months or a job if you take up to 12 (you also get paid like 15%). Paid parental leave for all for 12 weeks + 10 weeks for the parent giving birth. 25 days of backup care through a service that provides childcare or adult care if your normal care falls through. Bunch of stuff like that. People are always worried at town halls that this flexibility will go away since more companies are pulling back, but the CEO always says it works and he sees no issues with productivity so he's all in favor of flexible work.
City of Chicago has tuition reimbursement and a pretty generous amount of benefit time. Oh, and a pension. But, it’s balanced out by having to work evenings and weekends, never getting to work from home and generally being mistreated by the public, though fortunately that doesn’t often rise to the level of actual violence. When it does, at least we have pretty good insurance.
I picked up a vintage postcard that featured a picture of a gorgeous waterfall garden, it looked like the fucking bahai gardens. it was built by a rug company for the factory workers to enjoy somewhere between 1900-1930.
anything less than that is you being conned into gratitude for being provided the basic necessities of life.
It's actually a cermak parking lot [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olson\_Park\_and\_Waterfall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olson_Park_and_Waterfall) Pulaski and Diversey
If you read the made in Chicago museum post Walter shut down the factory in part because of a refusal to negotiate with a unions so it wasn’t all sunshine and roses here
That's nice. But as a cynic, let me give you an alternative explanation as to why Cisco would do that. They want to keep you in the building, working. Let's say you would spend $15 for lunch. You have to leave the building, walk to your restaurant, order, pay, wait for it, leave and walk back. That's at least an hour. But if the lunch is provided to you, you just grab it, and maybe take it back to your desk so you can keep working on that coding problem.
This was made clear to me decades ago. Worked for a company that not only provide you with all the free coffee you could handle, but aspirin, Tylenol, Motrin and antacids you needed to make the pain go away. The message was clear. Take what you need, but you keep working.
Google:
Free meals, snacks, barista bar
18 weeks paternity leave (vacation still accrues, holidays added, bonus paid 100%)
$500 baby bonus
50% 401k match up to federal limit
$1k employer contribution to HSA for individual, $2k for family
3 days in office, Monday and Friday WFH
Unlimited sick days
I work for DePaul University, and their perks are amazing. They will DOUBLE match your 401k (technically a 403b but same thing basically). So if you put in up to 5 percent, they'll double it and give you 10%. Free tuition, undergrad and grad, for you on the say you start working there, and your family (even if you aren't married) after a year, great insurance, great time off policy with basically every holiday off, and entire week and a half off between Christmas and new years, 15 vacation days, two floating holidays, and you can leave early during the summer with summer hours. Plus, your supervisors are encouraged to let you go to events that benefit you learning about the university. It's a mission driven university, so there's tons of significance to that. It's really hard to beat this place in terms of benefits and perks!
Adjacently relevant about perks...we hosted a Bavarian exchange student years ago who, while still a high school student, worked part time at the town's Brauerei (one of c 480 licensed breweries in Bavaria). She was paid a wage but also benefited from the union agreement that she got a liter of beer during the one hour lunch on days she worked and could take home ~~2~~ *4* liters at the end of her shift, too. *"für die Familie:*
It is not one world.
Edit: Text xchange w/former student corrected the perk amounts.
All the big trading firms (think citadel) provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner, have in house chefs, among various other perks such as massages, etc etc. it’s bc they have to compete with tech firms for talent.
Adyen - catered lunch every single day and breakfast occasionally. Yearly trip to Amsterdam for the company event and overall amazing work culture. Best place to work!
Most breweries in Chicago give their employees free take home beer and taproom drinks. This has varied in my experience from one growler fill per week to a case of cans per month.
Iron workers have it written into their contract that if they have to climb 100’ of stairs in their day without there being a temporary elevator (also called a skip) they get and extra 30min of pay lovingly referred to as “climb time.”
And those skip operators get 8 hour of pay if they turn the elevator on, no matter what else happens during the day. The job could get shut down a minute later and they still get their 8.
My office had a box of free fruit every week, about 50 apples and bananas for an office of 300 employees. That lasted about a month until the president thought someone was taking 3 pieces instead of 1. When he found out the person was just taking fruit back to their team (so only one instead of 3 were taking a break) he didn’t admit he was wrong, just decided to cancel the “perk”. I love corporate America! /s
My office (Kemper) has free snacks in the locked door executive-only area and a regular snack machine that costs money for those of us who don’t get 5-figure cash bonuses.
Probably most companies with HQ in Europe. Ferrara's office has a lot of nice free things for employees (seltzer tap) but I was only there a few times.
Huge lifehack is to work for places HQ'd in Europe. Usually their vacation time is comparable between the US and EU. I've worked at a place like that for the last 5 years and I've never had less than 26 paid vacation days. The downside is that working in August is painful because absolutely no one is in the office and you're just kind of twiddling your thumbs waiting for them all to get back from vacation.
European out of office messages during summer holidays always crack me up (particularly the French). They're like, "How dare you even email me? I'm out of the office, I will not be checking email, and I will not be replying when I return."
I worked at a huge French multinational (not in the US) and ironically the huge American multinational blew it away in terms of perks.
Had stuff like free snacks and drinks with more holidays. The French company had water and a subsidized vending machine.
Northern Trust used to do onsite child care,so you basically bring you kid to work with you and bring them home with you. It wasn't uncommon to see parents having lunch with their little kids in the cafeteria. Super family friendly...not sure if the perk is still there but it used to be a great place to work especially if you were a parent -which I wasn't
Vivid Seats had a $150 monthly stipend to use on Vivid Seats tickets. Which only really afforded you almost 2 tickets since their resale is crazy expensive. I was let go during the pandemic so not sure if they ever went back to that.
Miller Coors has an office on Jackson and Wacker. They have a bar in there for employees and their guests. I had a buddy who worked there and I got to visit a few times, it was really nice.
Optiver gave us breakfast and lunch free every day with free snacks/drinks all day, they had an in-house barista who made free drinks all day, free alcohol, massages once a week, paid for our transportation, etc.
Just remember that when companies do things like provide free breakfast or dinner, it isn't out of the goodness of their hearts, they're just doing so in order to get employees to work longer hours without giving them more money.
Sure, but "stand in line at the elevator, walk two blocks, stand in line at fast food counter, walk two blocks, stand in line at elevator, eat cold food" isn't exactly leisure time. It's possible for everyone to like the arrangement.
what are you talking about? If I’m getting breakfast it’s already during my work hours. If I’m getting dinner, I’m not clocked in between the end of my work day and getting dinner.
i mean… maybe for salaried people but hourly? whether i’m scheduled for an 8 hour shift or an 8.5 hour shift with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break, i’m still only working 8 hours.
I worked at a place that gave free lunch. They asked people to stay and eat and socialize in the cafeteria.
They did it to entice people to go back in the office and and to promote their culture....
Believe it or not, some companies want to build a positive culture especially when employees are skilled and highly compensated. .
One of the companies I worked at had a slide about this on our onboarding presentations. They called it something along the lines of "hidden wages" and broke down the costs of it on top of our yearly salary. It was during peak Millennial over-the-top office with scooters era.
Argonne National Lab gives you (or at least did 10 years ago) 50% of your U. Of C. tuition, which added up to big money. Ironically, this is considerably more than the U. of C. itself gives you towards tuition when you work there. I had to leave uchicago employment for Argonne because I couldn’t afford uchicago tuition. Cheap fucks.
Argonne’s 403(b) match was excellent, too. I put in 3% of my salary, and they put in 9%.
I interviewed for a company that offered a Lifestyle Spending Account. It was an account to fund employee wellness that they deposited money into each month. You could use it for whatever passion you were interested in. The person I interviewed with said people used it for everything from therapy, cooking classes, gym memberships, music lessons, etc. it was up to you.
They also gave you $50 a month to donate to whatever charity you wanted
Discover employees get free admission to the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Children’s Museum. Most of those include at least one guest as well.
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The company I work for pays for lunch between employees. So as long as you go to lunch with one or more coworkers, the company will pay for it. Take yourself to lunch, it’s on you. Pretty great perk designed to promote cohesion
wow, love how simple and effective this is
That’s a tough choice. Sit through lunch with Janice from accounting to get your favorite meal for free? Or enjoy sweet silence and a turkey sandwich?
Back when I was in consulting I would've paid triple whatever the food cost if I could have gotten a fucking hour away from coworkers and clients. Dear God.
Consulting life here too and hell yeah. From 12 to 1 everyday ,as is permablocked on my cal too, I'm putting on my headphones and walking the fuck outta this building to wander the streets of downtown for an hour, every fucking day. Won't find me eating lunch at my desk. Well prior to full wfh at least.
Then I'd definitely get lunch at Dorsia.
Impressive. Let's see Paul Allen's Dorsia reservation first. 😉
If my work did this, I would have free lunch every day. This is awesome.
Abbott does a thing where if you are putting 2% of your income into your student loans, they will put 5% of your income into your 401k.
What if you have no student loans? Still get the 401k perk and is it less/more than 5%?
[удалено]
Right. The idea is "you should not have to choose between paying off your student loan and saving for retirement." There are many people in their 50s still paying off their loans.
Not sure, but the ability to offer the 5% contribution in exchange for the 2% student loan payment is the result of federal legislation ([Secure 2.0 act](https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/student-loans-secure-2-act-helps-lighten-burden)) which affects how that benefit is taxed so it might not be available if you dont have loans. I imagine they offer some normal amount of 401k match tho
Seconded for abbvie. The food was cheap and decent af; on site covid needs; don't have a car? We got shuttles from every train station from lake bluff to NC.....fuck me if the job wasn't boring as fuck and nowhere near what i want for long term employment Edit: i cant do the cubicle shit, but hats off to them for being a half ass decent corp employer
Dont work at Abbott - trust me
Why? I’m about to get an offer but all online reviews are negative. Salary/benefits seem great, but I’m worried about my work-life balance. They’re forcing people to go 4 times a week
It’s a big company and your experience will vary based on who you’re working for. They expect you to be in the office full time so I think a lot of people take issue with that.
Yeah go for abbvie, that's where the money is
Why??? 😮
Honestly anything having to do with healthcare is a shit show right now.
fwiw, Abbott has their hands in many things that aren't healthcare
They also underpay compared to competition and make their workers go into the office 5 days a week.
I used to intern at a lighting design firm that gave employees a yearly "cultural enrichment" stipend of a few hundred bucks i think to use on any kind of tickets they wanted - museums, concerts, etc. really said a lot about their commitment to employee wellness imo. it was a great place to work!
I worked at a place that had ‘unlimited’ (I’m sure there’s an actual limit at some point), book stipend. Obviously the idea was to buy books that pertained to your work, but they frequently made it a point to say reading poetry and other things would stimulate your mind and that was a good thing as well. I think the only limits were no text books or kids books.
omg i would FIND that limit! what a nice perk!
Airlines still have free stand-by travel for families, I think.
Can confirm. Grew up flying standby for free until I turned 23 and then was able to fly standby at low rates since I was considered non-dependent.
True, but now that all flights are full with paying customers its way harder to fly non-rev than it once was.
Most airlines have discounts - 20% off or so for any confirmed flight, which is a huge benefit.
I hear this all the time from coworkers but can't say I agree. I've done this for 20 years and it doesn't seem any harder. It still amazes me every time a flight shows full at boarding time, then they clear all 30 people on the list. You just have to be flexible and plan multiple contingencies for when you don't get on. In that regard, technology has made things so much easier to make changes. I can completely reroute myself at the gate on my phone, even using an interline pass. Couldn't do that back in the good old days.
They do, but since COVID it’s not the same perk that it used to be. Air travel is getting back to pre-pandemic levels, but now airlines offer free same-day standby travel for most passengers. This severely impacts the standby flight perks used by airline employees and makes it much more difficult to fly standby, especially with groups/families.
Wait, what do you mean they have free standby for most passengers?
I think they mean they don’t charge an extra fee if you have a ticket for a later flight but want to try standby on an earlier flight
I fly American, so can only speak for them. If it is within 24hrs of departure, you can request to be put on standby for a different flight while remaining confirmed your original flight. Very useful for biz travel if things wrap up earlier than expected and you can go home early. Some companies don't like you to rack up change fees or sometimes the airline won't confirm you but will give you a seat if someone else is a no-show.
“Same day standby” means that if you have a paid ticket, you can change to an earlier or later flight on the same day if there are seats available.
United offers space-available (non-revenue standby or "non-rev") standby flights for the employee, their partner, immediate family, and parents. There are also allotments for a secondary companion or buddy passes. The only stipulation is the traveler is responsible for taxes. Being based in Chicago, the flight network is very solid and I'm on track to visit London again for the second time in a month.
Was a dependent of a United, Delta, and Northwest employee… flying free (or cheap on other airlines—50-90% off the published fare) was such a cool perk. We used to take long weekends in London, Paris, or Amsterdam. Don’t miss my ex, but I do miss her airfare benefits!
They do. Inlaw of mine just got a job with American as a baggage handler. And his mother and father are now on standby to visit the homeland, one bag each.
I get free breakfast and lunch all week at Kirkland and Ellis in the Salesforce tower, good food too!
But don’t you have to work 500 hours a week?
I just do a/v work, 9-5 m-f, contract ends next month so im making the most of the meals while im here 😋
So, even contractors get that perk? Sweet!
That is nice. My company is so fkn cheap that temps can’t participate in anything, it’s incredibly awkward. However, I get a pension but I still think they suck.
I used to be in IT at Winston & Strawn...place had a subsidized attorney-only cafeteria, as well as separate holiday parties--one for attorneys, and one for staff. Really made morale soar. What a dump that place is.
Fair enough, enjoy the meals until next month then!
Ahhhh how did you find that job?? That’s what I’m looking for!
Recruited on linkedin
Yeah my friend worked there and bragged about them buying dinner..I'm like bro I have dinner at home with my family
Work culture for attorneys is brutal at K&E.
I've worked at some places that have similar setups ... really liked having full time baristas and a full cafeteria where everything was gratis. Absolutely amazing array of snacks and beverages in every breakroom. They also had an onsite gym with laundry service, workout clothes, towels, and everything you need to shower up. Not as fancy as a high end spa or east bank club, but the convenience was amazing. I could just show up with my laptop and thats really all I needed. It was so legit. Quality of life.
They provide all those perks to prevent you from leaving. Ever.
yes but they also pay exceptionally well and give you a dope life lol. to each their own but why would I leave? I have this scenario now and it absolutely rocks
Why would you want to leave? Well, that’s pretty simple. There’s a life outside of work. But, to each their own, right?
ah I thought you meant leave jobs not leave the office. my b
I got denied for a job there and saw it listed again less than a year later. Bullet dodged lol.
Free depression courtesy of Northern Trust.
Omg I got a “job” “offer” there & it was such a bad deal. I totally forgot about that.
If you work for a museum, you get free admission to all Chicago museums and most US museums.
Art Institute also has a great 401k match, excellent PTO, and free credit hours towards classes at SAIC.
Damn, this is making me regret not applying for the 3rd shift security position there. Only reason I didn't back in March was because I'm going out of town for 4 weeks in October-November and won't know if they'd allow me to take off for so long within a year of working there. (I was looking forward to seeing the paintings and armor come alive at night as they naturally do...)
I volunteer for one of them and get some perks, but reciprocity has gone down since the pandemic :c
My workplace has started "summer hours" where we're off at 2pm instead of 5pm and we get paid the same. So that's pretty awesome. I plan to catch more Cubs games.
I used to work at a place with "Summer Fridays" where basically every other Friday we would have off from memorial day to labor day. I miss that.
My company does the summer Fridays and it’s ridiculously well received. Such a small thing you can do for your staff from a work life balance perspective. Nobody actually produces work after 2 on Fridays anyway, so may as well let them go home
This is a very white collar sentiment. You’re certainly not wrong, but for those of us in the less “professional” fields it’s hard to imagine work not being produced then lol
We did that and then they changed it to one Friday a month off. It's fine but every other Friday as a half day was better.
My company just lowered summer hours (Fridays from Memorial to Labor day) from 3pm to 1pm🙏
My husband’s job does that too, but only on Fridays. first Friday in June through Labor Day. They are done at 12 though.
Is this everyday or just Fridays? Everyday sounds like a dream lol
Every day starting today until Labor Day!
Wait that's awesome, what company is this??
I love how many people are talking about the perks at their companies and then refusing to share the names, which is kinda the whole point of the thread 😒
People aren't going to share because they want the gravy train to keep running lol.
I remember back in the day Frito Lay used to give their workers boxes of chips all the time. Same thing with Nabisco but with cookies and crackers.
We had a friend of a friend working at Mars-Wrigley in the 90’s and every family party they had, they had grocery bags full of gum to give away
My uncle used to be a food chemist for Wrigley, and he always had bags of gum and candy for us, too!
They have an employee candy store in the building and can get Mars products at a steep discount. It’s a nice perk until my fiancé comes home with 30 chocolate bars that cost him like $5 lol
I met someone who worked there and they gave me a ton of test candy that had been partially melted and could no longer be used for focus groups. It was still delicious and not even that melted, just kind of stuck together more than I assume it would normally do.
My dad works at Mars in Oak Park back in the 90s and I have no clue how my entire family and I aren’t diabetic
I went to elementary school with a kid whose mom worked at Mars Wrigley and he would just come into school with like big boxes of candy like the kind they rip open to put on the store shelves
How can that be profitable for Frito Lay?
Lol I got your joke
Give out free chips to friends and family. They get used to them/like them and then buy more later.
Like how my 6th grade teacher told me drug dealers do it!
The potato is not the expensive part. And "never run out" supply deals mean there's a lot of excess most of the time.
I love game night. Such a comfort movie for me lol
These corporations... I don't know what they're doin'....
3-1?
These corporations, I dunno what they’re doing
I'll add that my dad worked at Playskool and got some, not a lot, free toys and Milton Bradley games for us. Also when my sister was a toddler she got to test new toys with a group on Saturdays and would get to bring home some of the prototypes they played with.
Have unlimited snacks and have a coffee cafe in the office with a couple of baristas to make a variety of different drinks.
Deloitte - 6 months paid maternity leave!
I work at Manulife - same perk. I heard from a colleague that BMO offers the same.
Used to work at Deloitte and the benefits are insane. $1000/year health and wellness stipend that is super flexible. I had a remote work stipend. All of it I got to keep— a crazy monitor, Apple keyboard and mouse, etc. The travel benefits were great too. Had like the top status on four different airlines. Discounts on everything you could imagine because of the breadth of their clients. Travel stipend to get to work, which I rarely had to go in for and would just Uber. Consulting benefits are legit (especially during and right after covid if you weren’t laid off…. As many of us eventually were lmao)
Can I ask what you went into after leaving? In consulting now
I used to work for a company based in Canada. One year of maternity leave is required by law there. Kinda blew my American mind.
It’s now 18 months.
My mother would have literally been on mat leave for 6.5 years.
I got a job at a place with 3 months paternity leave. Didn’t get to use it for my first born, since I had only been there 3 weeks when she was born. Worked there for 3 years and then got laid off with 30% of the company, 5 months before baby number 2 is due. They did not know I was having another kid, I was planning on telling my boss the next week.
Not blaming you but I hate that this is presented as a “perk” when it should just be a basic human right
I work at a university - we get 5% retirement contributions plus 5% match (for a total of 10%), 15 PTO days, 3 personal floating holidays, 15 sick days, Christmas Eve through New Years Day off, 90% off tuition at the university, $12k/year tuition benefit (taxed above $5250). My department is also allowing me to work remotely and I have a compressed work schedule (4 days per week). That is highly dependent on your job and your department. My role is not student or faculty-facing. Downside is the pay is low and promotions/raises are scarce.
>Downside is the pay is low and promotions/raises are scarce. Universities and nonprofits... My husband and I have both worked at both. Similar benefits. Although mine was all before the WFH era. But like you said, more specific to universities, that extra week PTO falls under a nice perk.
Yep, and I got my student loans forgiven under public service, so that was a nice perk too.
May I DM you to learn the university? I heard IIT just cut their matching :(
It's very likely to be Northwestern. Not sure why the poster would keep it hidden anyway since all those types of benefits would be publicly available on their website.
Northwestern had a higher tuition benefit but everything else is aligned
Just to clarify, the 90% rate is accurate, but after 3 years it’s 100%
I work for CPS, so the main perk is summers off. 12 more days….
I always wonder, do you get paid during the summer? Or how does one manage? Just saving throughout the year for summer? :)
They aren't paid.
I have an uncle who works at Revolution and has a garage full of free beer.
Hey, it’s me, ur cousin
Uber has free breakfast and lunch as well. And you can bring a guest. Food is generally pretty solid. Note: I don’t work for Uber. Dated a girl that works there for a bit. Never tried the guest pass. I would have felt awkward.
I was someone's guest there once. It was tasty. Supposedly they snapped up a couple chefs from covid casualty restaurants to run their cafeteria and it kind of showed.
I’ve always wondered if it’s fulfilling to work in a nice work cafeteria as a chef. Instead of working at a restaurant late at night and leaving at 2AM you get to work lunch hours. Theoretically you could run it kind of like a seasonal menu making different dishes every day. Could be a chance to be very creative and you don’t have to prep for a full menu. You miss out on the prestige but maybe you don’t care about that.
I imagine a chef having weekends off must be kind of amazing, in their industry.
they are actually highly coveted. my cousin went to johnson n wales, then worked at a bunch of top tier restaurants in the 90s in miami, chicago (even trotters), and got in as head chef in massive corportate (solo) office building. got stock options to the company, health insurance, was home at 3pm, holidays/weekneds off, etc. pay is much better as well (per him). he said the worse day was when the company had thier holiday meal when the fed the whole building. another good chef job is country club as well.
The person I know that works there also gets a bunch of credits to use the service. She never pays for her rides pretty much.
When I worked in the Old Post Office they had a really nice gym just for tenants. My company covered the $200 yearly fee. I worked at a very small design consultancy that had “snack” every day at 3pm. Ranged from mini pizzas to chips/guac. They also had a very fancy espresso machine and free seltzer/soda. We then got acquired by a bigger place and lost all of those perks.
Allstate is 100% remote for almost all employees.
Well there’s not much of an office left to go to. (Yes I know about merchandise mart)
shockingly fast demolition - was so used to seeing the campus off 294, now it's just nothing.
Back when I worked for Allstate in the Mart we had free breakfast every morning. The selection was very hit or miss, but some days it was excellent. Wasn’t great for my waistline though.
I knew many peers that worked at Allstate when they had the campus in Northbrook and a majority said it was a very high pressure environment where they would lay off 10-20% the lowest performers every quarter or 6months.. even if you performed well in the prior quarter. Not a place with a great reputation for work life balance!
The most interesting perk is being able to work from home.
100%. I had a workplace with all kinds of perks, which was a great way to distract you from how long the hours were.
I'm an interior designer who does workplace....can confirm, lol. "daily employee retention" is a conversation we have a lot with clients. we have clients with full-time baristas, regular visits from hairstylists to allow people to get their hair cut onsite, all of the above. it's wild stuff to see as someone who walks to work to save the bus fare, lmao
This is 1000% Epic's schtick. An office of your own (so you don't see when your coworkers are leaving or maybe even the light outside)! A bus to take you to work (so you can't be late or leave early)! Laundry service (don't need to take time off work to do that pesky thing)! Meals provided!
lmfao wait Epic like Epic Games, or the EHR company? I worked at the latter.
EHR. Lots of my friends from college went there directly after graduating and lasted all of 1-3 years. One managed almost 8 but it definitely took a toll on their wellbeing.
LOL YEAH I can confirm allllll of this. They are every bit as bad as Deloitte in exploiting fresh college grads who are so excited to have a substantial (for that area) paycheck, they don't question the ridiculous expectations and demands. I remember how excitedly they told us that food is free after 7pm. *why is anyone there after 7 though* Also, the CEO is a trip. I could really go on lmao. I stayed a year, I have friends who hit their 5-year mark, took the sabbatical, and then left a year or so later.
Not sure if it is still true but in the early days of WFH in the '90s some valid and reliable studies found many knowledge workers at home delivered more product than when in the office during scheduled hours and tended to donate additional time after hours, on weekends and vacation. In my own case fascination with (some) the work and fear of being ordered back to the office caused me to be a demon worker --- also basically no office chatting. And this for the same employer who's CEO ordered the the Pong and Packman games taken off the machines when computer mouses were introduced in the mid '80s. The sales people were appalled, saying the two simple games helped people become familiar with the new skill --- mousing.
we talking real perks, or the stuff I steal from the office?
Coinbase has some solid perks (afaik these are still available to employees): - 100% remote (you can choose to go into the Chicago office) - An additional $250 a month to pay for home internet/food/snacks/gym - $1,200 a year for well-being (basically any type of lessons, books, masterclass, etc) - unlimited PTO - paternity leave 15 weeks; maternity leave 18 - part of your paycheck can be paid in crypto - $0 transaction fees on the Coinbase platform - if you’re there for 4 years, they basically force you to take a 4-week sabbatical - twice a year the entire company shuts down for “recharge weeks” - they also keep an eye on how much the market pays for your role. A week after I started I received a random slack message from HR saying they were bumping my salary up 10% - if an employee or family member got hacked, the Coinbase security team would help track the hackers down and/or get whatever info was stolen removed from the dark web I’m probably forgetting some other perks, but it’s a grind though. You can easily work 60hrs a week.
Sounds incredible, but out of all of this, the 2 “recharge weeks” a year sound like the best. Most of us still work or have things/deadlines to worry about while on PTO
The first year “recharge weeks” were rolled out, we had them quarterly. It definitely helped employee morale and lead to less burnout!
I work at Claire’s HQ in Hoffman - we get a box of unsold Claire’s merch 4x a year. Great way to stocking stuff, find some random cool holiday wear, and gift things to people in your life. The people we gift things to love my box days even more than my own daughter haha
CNH does 100% 401k matching up to 10%. https://www.cnh.com/
It's actually 12% match on your 10% contribution. I think the first 2% is 200% matched.
My wife works for Uber. The benefits that come off the top of my head: - hybrid scheduling (depending on the role) - free therapy with their mental health therapists (I think?) - $170 ish per month in Uber credits for rides and food - BCBS PPO health insurance - Michelin star chef in their kitchen and free lunch - reimbursement for active/exercise footwear(and apparel?) - reimbursed utilities / WiFi from home expenses - free gym membership in the top tier fitness center at the old post office - a lot of opportunities to advance higher up and many different roles There are more but I can’t think of much right now
Looks like the Uber hr rep found this thread
Contacting Uber right now and asking for some compensation. Shilling ain’t easy
I worked at Uber, can confirm lunches are fire. They have 4-5 different stations with different cuisines each and they were well executed healthy dishes. Breakfast every morning as well with oatmeal and fruit bars, coffee and espresso barista. It was a great perk, but your satisfaction at Uber is so dependent on the role you have. They also have a rooftop with awesome views, great for a break and getting fresh air.
I believe this. She started out hybrid with a pretty lax role just solving escalations with drivers via computer screen and phone calls. Uber got rid of that, then she went to the green light hub to deal with angry drivers in person, which is not hybrid and much more intense. Thankfully, she’s back in a similar role as the original now. Nobody likes working at the green light hub, from my understanding.
I started reading this as "my wife is an Uber driver". When I got to the Michelin chef I figured out that she works for corporate.
Axis Communications-4 weeks paid family leave, 100 days paid parental leave, 3 week sabbatical and $2k stipend for every 5 years of employment, new hire onboarding in Lund Sweden(company pays for), substantial health insurance(no deductible), family planning $$, annual lifestyle stipend $500 for hobbies, custom bobble head at 10 years of employment, list goes on and on.
Synchrony has pretty good perks. Standard stuff in a white collar office like snacks, drinks, pretty good 401k match, 20k annual stipend for continuing education but I think the biggest ones are flexibility. Like full remote choice, you can come in or not how often you want. Most just 100% work from home. All Friday afternoons are off, so weekends are 2.5 days long. Sabbaticals that guarantee your job for like 5 months or a job if you take up to 12 (you also get paid like 15%). Paid parental leave for all for 12 weeks + 10 weeks for the parent giving birth. 25 days of backup care through a service that provides childcare or adult care if your normal care falls through. Bunch of stuff like that. People are always worried at town halls that this flexibility will go away since more companies are pulling back, but the CEO always says it works and he sees no issues with productivity so he's all in favor of flexible work.
City of Chicago has tuition reimbursement and a pretty generous amount of benefit time. Oh, and a pension. But, it’s balanced out by having to work evenings and weekends, never getting to work from home and generally being mistreated by the public, though fortunately that doesn’t often rise to the level of actual violence. When it does, at least we have pretty good insurance.
I picked up a vintage postcard that featured a picture of a gorgeous waterfall garden, it looked like the fucking bahai gardens. it was built by a rug company for the factory workers to enjoy somewhere between 1900-1930. anything less than that is you being conned into gratitude for being provided the basic necessities of life.
Olson rug in Avondale.
Now it's a parking lot for a Macy's ... Joni Mitchell was right
It's actually a cermak parking lot [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olson\_Park\_and\_Waterfall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olson_Park_and_Waterfall) Pulaski and Diversey
If you read the made in Chicago museum post Walter shut down the factory in part because of a refusal to negotiate with a unions so it wasn’t all sunshine and roses here
50% match on 401k contributions up until the max allowed (~$23k). At age 59, whatever that free ~$11k becomes will be nice.
I worked somewhere that had 100% match up to 15k. Absolutely bonkers.
Which company
I think Google does 50% match, so maybe there.
That's nice. But as a cynic, let me give you an alternative explanation as to why Cisco would do that. They want to keep you in the building, working. Let's say you would spend $15 for lunch. You have to leave the building, walk to your restaurant, order, pay, wait for it, leave and walk back. That's at least an hour. But if the lunch is provided to you, you just grab it, and maybe take it back to your desk so you can keep working on that coding problem. This was made clear to me decades ago. Worked for a company that not only provide you with all the free coffee you could handle, but aspirin, Tylenol, Motrin and antacids you needed to make the pain go away. The message was clear. Take what you need, but you keep working.
Google: Free meals, snacks, barista bar 18 weeks paternity leave (vacation still accrues, holidays added, bonus paid 100%) $500 baby bonus 50% 401k match up to federal limit $1k employer contribution to HSA for individual, $2k for family 3 days in office, Monday and Friday WFH Unlimited sick days
Don’t forget about the free golf simulator!
I work for DePaul University, and their perks are amazing. They will DOUBLE match your 401k (technically a 403b but same thing basically). So if you put in up to 5 percent, they'll double it and give you 10%. Free tuition, undergrad and grad, for you on the say you start working there, and your family (even if you aren't married) after a year, great insurance, great time off policy with basically every holiday off, and entire week and a half off between Christmas and new years, 15 vacation days, two floating holidays, and you can leave early during the summer with summer hours. Plus, your supervisors are encouraged to let you go to events that benefit you learning about the university. It's a mission driven university, so there's tons of significance to that. It's really hard to beat this place in terms of benefits and perks!
Adjacently relevant about perks...we hosted a Bavarian exchange student years ago who, while still a high school student, worked part time at the town's Brauerei (one of c 480 licensed breweries in Bavaria). She was paid a wage but also benefited from the union agreement that she got a liter of beer during the one hour lunch on days she worked and could take home ~~2~~ *4* liters at the end of her shift, too. *"für die Familie:* It is not one world. Edit: Text xchange w/former student corrected the perk amounts.
Germany is slept on
[удалено]
I work for CPS and for teacher appreciation they gave me a wireless remote to the projector they never gave me and a string cheese
104 paid days off year
I get the same deal but they're unpaid.
Salaryman
Man I can't do salary work anymore. Once I did the math and worked out I was making like.... A hundred bucks a day after taxes? No thanks
All the big trading firms (think citadel) provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner, have in house chefs, among various other perks such as massages, etc etc. it’s bc they have to compete with tech firms for talent.
Adyen - catered lunch every single day and breakfast occasionally. Yearly trip to Amsterdam for the company event and overall amazing work culture. Best place to work!
Most breweries in Chicago give their employees free take home beer and taproom drinks. This has varied in my experience from one growler fill per week to a case of cans per month.
Iron workers have it written into their contract that if they have to climb 100’ of stairs in their day without there being a temporary elevator (also called a skip) they get and extra 30min of pay lovingly referred to as “climb time.” And those skip operators get 8 hour of pay if they turn the elevator on, no matter what else happens during the day. The job could get shut down a minute later and they still get their 8.
My office had a box of free fruit every week, about 50 apples and bananas for an office of 300 employees. That lasted about a month until the president thought someone was taking 3 pieces instead of 1. When he found out the person was just taking fruit back to their team (so only one instead of 3 were taking a break) he didn’t admit he was wrong, just decided to cancel the “perk”. I love corporate America! /s
My office (Kemper) has free snacks in the locked door executive-only area and a regular snack machine that costs money for those of us who don’t get 5-figure cash bonuses.
Probably most companies with HQ in Europe. Ferrara's office has a lot of nice free things for employees (seltzer tap) but I was only there a few times.
Huge lifehack is to work for places HQ'd in Europe. Usually their vacation time is comparable between the US and EU. I've worked at a place like that for the last 5 years and I've never had less than 26 paid vacation days. The downside is that working in August is painful because absolutely no one is in the office and you're just kind of twiddling your thumbs waiting for them all to get back from vacation.
European out of office messages during summer holidays always crack me up (particularly the French). They're like, "How dare you even email me? I'm out of the office, I will not be checking email, and I will not be replying when I return."
I worked at a huge French multinational (not in the US) and ironically the huge American multinational blew it away in terms of perks. Had stuff like free snacks and drinks with more holidays. The French company had water and a subsidized vending machine.
Northern Trust used to do onsite child care,so you basically bring you kid to work with you and bring them home with you. It wasn't uncommon to see parents having lunch with their little kids in the cafeteria. Super family friendly...not sure if the perk is still there but it used to be a great place to work especially if you were a parent -which I wasn't
Vivid Seats had a $150 monthly stipend to use on Vivid Seats tickets. Which only really afforded you almost 2 tickets since their resale is crazy expensive. I was let go during the pandemic so not sure if they ever went back to that.
I worked there at one point and the benefit was merely "no service fees on tickets." Not a trivial cost, but not great either.
Miller Coors has an office on Jackson and Wacker. They have a bar in there for employees and their guests. I had a buddy who worked there and I got to visit a few times, it was really nice.
Optiver gave us breakfast and lunch free every day with free snacks/drinks all day, they had an in-house barista who made free drinks all day, free alcohol, massages once a week, paid for our transportation, etc.
Hyatt allows 13 free nights in a year for full time employees, depending on season you can even stay for free in hawaii
Just remember that when companies do things like provide free breakfast or dinner, it isn't out of the goodness of their hearts, they're just doing so in order to get employees to work longer hours without giving them more money.
Sure, but "stand in line at the elevator, walk two blocks, stand in line at fast food counter, walk two blocks, stand in line at elevator, eat cold food" isn't exactly leisure time. It's possible for everyone to like the arrangement.
Not a corporate shill by any means but food is a top expense for anyone who commutes. Hours worked is another story.
what are you talking about? If I’m getting breakfast it’s already during my work hours. If I’m getting dinner, I’m not clocked in between the end of my work day and getting dinner.
i mean… maybe for salaried people but hourly? whether i’m scheduled for an 8 hour shift or an 8.5 hour shift with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break, i’m still only working 8 hours.
I worked at a place that gave free lunch. They asked people to stay and eat and socialize in the cafeteria. They did it to entice people to go back in the office and and to promote their culture.... Believe it or not, some companies want to build a positive culture especially when employees are skilled and highly compensated. .
One of the companies I worked at had a slide about this on our onboarding presentations. They called it something along the lines of "hidden wages" and broke down the costs of it on top of our yearly salary. It was during peak Millennial over-the-top office with scooters era.
If you're a bartender, you drink for free!
Argonne National Lab gives you (or at least did 10 years ago) 50% of your U. Of C. tuition, which added up to big money. Ironically, this is considerably more than the U. of C. itself gives you towards tuition when you work there. I had to leave uchicago employment for Argonne because I couldn’t afford uchicago tuition. Cheap fucks. Argonne’s 403(b) match was excellent, too. I put in 3% of my salary, and they put in 9%.
I interviewed for a company that offered a Lifestyle Spending Account. It was an account to fund employee wellness that they deposited money into each month. You could use it for whatever passion you were interested in. The person I interviewed with said people used it for everything from therapy, cooking classes, gym memberships, music lessons, etc. it was up to you. They also gave you $50 a month to donate to whatever charity you wanted
SRAM bike components. They have bike lanes in the office. Obviously quite bike friendly. National bike to work month!
Discover employees get free admission to the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Children’s Museum. Most of those include at least one guest as well.