In contrast to the "they're watching you" thread, what sort of perks do you enjoy in the workplace?

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2000

Answers

For example, the place I work now celebrates milestones, successes, etc. with big on-site parties. The company also has a gym, sand volleyball, hiking trails on the grounds. My department has ice cream socials, birthday parties, and 'sports challenges' like touch football, bowling, and laser tag.

My husband's company buys everyone lunch twice a week from local restaurants. They have a mini-arcade with several video games and a pinball machine. The snack machines in the break room are free.

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2000

Healthcare, pension, Christmas bonus, inflation-adjusted annual salary increases, season ticket loan, subsidised gym, subsidised cafeteria, and last, but certainly not least - free cable TV. Cool.

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2000

I get to have a company cell phone for free, and it's perfectly ok to use it for personal calls. I am careful not to abuse it, I probably only use an average of 10 minutes per month, but it's still nice to have when the need arises. The boss also buys us lunch about twice a month. And my year end bonus is SWEET!

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2000

I've actually complained a lot about my job in my web journal recently, because I'm doing 2 or 3 of them for one low-for-NYC salary.

However, there are some great perks:

-Access to a scanner and gobs of web dev software. Now that we have a web developer who works even later into the night than I, I don't have as much access, but I have spurts where I plow out new graphics and layout like nobody's business. One of these nights I'm going to stay late and finally teach myself Flash if it kills me. I haven't learned anything new in a while.

-Ok, this one's not so much for me (I don't like most of our artists, I prefer singer-songwriters, besides there are too many employees in the New York office for me to get tickets a lot of the time), but makes me the coolest big sister/cousin in the world. I was able to get my brother great seats for the sold-out-in-30-minutes-so-just- forget-it-unless-you-have-$500-kid Backstreet Boys concert (hey, he's only 9) and he and our cousins not only had good seats for Britney Spears, but they got to meet her also. You should see the smile on his face in the picture. (Of course, his head is strategically positioned...) I was glad I could do something special for them. That made me feel good, especially because it was everyone's first concert.

-CDs, videos, autographed pictures and posters for the little bro and cousins

-I get mad CDs, yo and got ta hook Pamie up. Yo, Pamie, you know you want the Britney Spears home video and DVD.

-While I complained about my holiday bonus because two people who hardly work at all told me theirs were $5k each, the other side of me says "Hey it's extra bucks, just when I needed it." Even though Uncle Sam takes 45%

-Swanky-ass holiday parties. Last year it was at one of those hip, exclusive, NY clubs with the velvet rope and everything. I certainly would not get into that kind of place (let alone pay the cover) normally, but we got in, had freefreefree drinks (I had at least a dozen), dinner and the option to stay after the club opened to the public. This year, it was at the Russian Tea room, which I'd wanted to check out because it just reopened. Shortly after I cruised by and discovered it was too rich for my blood, I find out that's where the holiday party is.

-stereo on my desk

-casual dress code...I can't thank the CEO enough for that one -- he also hates formal dress. I almost accepted a lower-paying job that would have cost me so much in pantyhose and dry cleaning -- thank goddess I didn't! This offer came shortly thereafter.

-birthday parties

-free bank account

Of course, I pay handsomely for all of this. I'm on the same floor as pop A&R and when they're mixing a new single/remix, they play it all day, everyday for a week or more. If I never hear "Bye Bye Bye" by *NSYNC again, it'll be too soon. (As I was writing that, I was asked to double check the stream of that very song, ARRRRRGHHHH).

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2000

Great health & insurance benefits, plus super matching 401(k), but that's boring work stuff.

The really cool stuff is this: -passes into the Estee Lauder & Lancome company store (not for me, but I'll bet it makes someone happy) -cd's from BMG for $5 -half-price movie tickets (a big deal in NYC) -free admission for myself and a guest to the Metropolitan Museum, the Cloisters, the Frick, the Manhattan Children's Museum, the J.P. Morgan Library, and the MOMA -discounted memberships to local gyms -$100 "fitness" benefit, where they'll pay you back $100 of any gym membership or exercise equipment you purchase -half-price magazine subscriptions to G+J mags -half-price books from Book Club -tuition reimbursement -discounted amusement park tickets -20% discount at Michael Fina (silverware/crystal/china store)

And the best perk? FREE BOOKS.

Of course, they pay us NOTHING. But the perks are nice. I suppose it's how they think they'll keep us from rising up against The Man. They're probably right. Nothing seems so horrible when I can get my books for free and my cd's for cheap. I'm just a sheep. Baaaaaah.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

even though i was the one bitching about being watched, there are a few perks to working at the largest university IN THE WORLD... okay, and this is particular to the division i work in, which is not funded by The University (yes, they copywrited the capital "T" in "the"), but has to play by their rules... 1. super laid back boss. i can pretty much leave at a moment's notice, and if i look the least bit unhappy, i'm encouraged to just leave. 2. definate 8-5 work hours, but twice a year, overtime for moov-in 3. my boss likes to bring breakfast tacos or doughnuts to work for us 4. my hubby goes to school here, and drops in occasionally 5. i have access to every student's mainframe info. EVERYTHING. that's power talking. 6. i live 3 miles from work, and can ride the bus free b/c i look like a student. 7. my boss had us audited, b/c he thinks we should make more money. (we didn't get it- yet) 8. ETHERNET, baybee! 9. they let me snack all day at my desk. they have learned to stop commenting about it. 10. i have buddies to watch "bold and the beautiful" with everyday.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2000

The standard kinds of stuff: salary + bonus, health insurance, paid vacation, paid holidays, 401k with 50 cents per dollar company matching on the first eight percent of pay sheltered in the plan. (Hey, that's FREE money, and now that I've been doing this for a number of years, it is mounting up to interesting amounts.) But also... casual dress (which has become extremely causual, jeans and sneakers); flexible schedule (if I don't have something specific scheduled I don't have to be in my office at any set time); work-from-home (all I have to do is leave a voice mail or e-mail message to let people know that I'm working from home); training (last year I attended a number of internal training courses, did some CBT's, took an evening course at a university to get certification as a professional trainer, and spent a week in New York attending a java class -- this past week I was up near Boston taking a four day class in object oriented analysis and design using UML and a one class in doing visual modeling using Rational Rose, and I expect to be going away for at least one more java class -- all paid for by my company)

And, although I complain sometimes about having to travel (being away from my family, cramped airline seats, etc.), my travel more often than not has taken me to interesting places like London, Vienna, Sydney, Honolulu, Mexico City... so even though I complain, I also enjoy getting to wander through art museums, climb the pyramids of the sun and moon in Mexico, hike to the top of Diamond head in Hawaii, experience London almost every summer.

And a couple of very important things: I get to work with some good people and I really love my job.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2000

Hmm.... So tell me, Jim, just where do you work? ;D Sounds great. I'd love to be able to telecommute.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2000