Slashdot Mirror
Are Job Perks Coming into Vogue Again?
Pharmboy asks: "The Register is reporting on a company that was awarded 'Best Small Company to Work for in America' by the Detroit Free Press, in part, for providing Free beer to their employees. They offer free breakfast, lunch AND dinner, gym and snacks. This sounds similar to the late 90s, where companies were offering extreme benefits to attract extreme talent, before the bubble burst and most workers were just glad to have a job. As the job market gains strength, what are companies willing to do in order to attract the best talent? Are we about to enter another era where employers are willing to make work fun again, in order to attract and keep talent? Will this have any effect on other employers, forcing them to again offer benefits to keep pace and talent? How important are these kinds of perks to the average employee anyway? What kind of perks would you have to have to switch to a job that pay the same?"
The only perks I get... are free soft drinks & training. Oooh, and a fast computer. I want a notebook damit!
Job market getting stronger? I think you'd better go back and check the monthly jobless claims against the (revised downwards, sometimes repeatedly) new jobs reports. The past four years may see a zero gain in jobs, possibly even a net loss in jobs in the US.
People are still getting laid off. The example you cite is an exception; it's nowhere near the norm these days, nor will it be anytime in the near future.
.@.
How about providing healthcare and retirement, seeing these two have been disappearing for quite some time now.
$cat
I'll change the place with free snacks to the place with good psychological cimate and interesting projects in a blink of an eye.
- Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
- Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
Different strokes for different folks. I can't think of a better perk than beer for two reasons.
1. Its beer...
2. If my employer is handing me a beer it means that the work day is complete and there is no expectation that I'm going to go back to work and do anything more productive than surf the web. Recognition that the day is complete is one of the best perks there is.
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
Cafeteria and feeding the employees is nice and all.
What do I consider perks? HOw about a boss that lets me DO MY FSCKING JOB.
This sig no verb.
I work for an EXTREMELY large company. For the last four years, our perks have been cut and cut and cut again. Our salary increases have been typically half of cost of living in the years we actually get them. Annual bonuses are gone for good. Training has been cut back to less than acceptable.
Hearing that some companies are starting to give perks again means that the cycle is turning back. I will be so glad to see employers like mine losing all of their best employees next year, because they'll be playing catch-up -- and it will be 'too little, too late' for most of us.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
screw that, I perfer a big company that doesn't panic every time there is a stock blip.
Of course, the last company I was with made no sales for 2 quarters. their solution? fire the half the develepors, and treat the sales staff to two weeks in Jamaica.
Morons.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
LOL @ #1 !
I read the original Register article and thought the best thing was the laundry service, mainly because thats a chore that I *hate* and therefore something like that would improve my quality of life. If an employer offered to do my ironing as well, then I'd probably be an employee for life!!
Although I do like the beer idea also, there's only *so much* of the stuff you can drink, and although drinks are work are fine, my work collegues aren't the people I want to hang out with all the time. And I'm not really a day-time drinker -- even if it is end of working day!
Sometimes I think employers try to offer "perks" because they are cheaper than offering real incentives, like group insurance plans and retirement help.
I worked for a webhosting company recently called WestHost in their support department, and one of the things that they would do is advertise to potential hires "we offer free pop, and LAN parties!" Then, they would hold this over our heads, and if we didn't perform perfectly and clean up management's messes and smile all the while, we got no LAN parties and they acted like we were not deserving of the free pop.
Oh, and did I mention that they paid us jack crap?
I really would rather be paid more and have no extra 'perks' as long as they treated me right. I will always be willing to work my tail off for an employer who does that.
The ultimate goal is to have them never leave the office.
Only to those unenlightened souls who believe that by spending more hours at the office you're getting more done. People simply aren't machines... they require more than just food, drink, and sleep.
Sadly, too many people believe in the concept you've brought up.
Small problem with the statisic. Thousands of high school and college graduates finishing and May and June, and we're suprised about the number of new jobseekers outpacing new jobs in the last month or two? Come on now, be fair.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
I think it's not a bad team building thing to have some beer with the office-folk on Friday afternoons. I worked in one company where the executives opened up the bar in the boardroom on Friday evenings. Not for everyone though.
No, I wouldn't want employees to be motivated by beer. But I would want employees who appreciate a sense of community and who feel they are truly valued. By providing perks at work you get employees will want to reciprocate the treatment they received back to their employer and will feel a pride of accomplishment and a loyalty to their employer. This will translate into increased productivity and profits.
Now, if you get "Perks" like Gym, free food etc, that's still coming from your total compensation, and on average just makes your paycheck smaller. That's true for Perks as well as "Free" insurance, Social Security and all the other things that "the employer pays for". If the Employer does not pay for it, you would get that money.
Kinda, except for the fact of the big black hole that is taxes. Normally many perks are not taxed, so you get 100% of them instead of the taxed 50%.
Eliminate the income tax. Vote Libertarian.
Today I went to my current employer and told them my situation--- they are going to counter offer.
Random slashdot guy,
Do NOT, repeat NOT take that counter-offer. It is the end of your career there, because they know you've been interviewing and are on your way out. The reasons you were leaving in the first place hasn't changed. Now, you'll be at the same place, but they'll be making sure they can get rid of you in 6 months.
I'm not saying that you're going to be fired in a few months automatically, but you'll be miserable.
Not to mention that, while the number of new jobs created was pretty small, at least it was positive. Or that unemployment fell from 5.6% to 5.5. That's pretty low to be called 'bad.'
I just finished off 8 months of unemployment by landing a new gig at a much better salary than my old job, and in the past month have received an increasing number of calls from recruiters. I'm not saying we've warped back to 1998 (oh, the glory), but it is getting better.
The sky is not, in fact, falling.
I'll tell you what the 'effect' is! It's pissing me off!
I'd want a job with 401k, pension, 2+ weeks vacation time when you start, and bonus...or are those now completely dead in the US except for executives?
Mod parent response up on this.
NEVER EVER take a counter-offer. More money isn't going to change why you were looking in the first place.
A couple of things the parent post didn't mention:
If they have layoffs, your name will be on the top of the list.
Salaries are generally in one pool of money. If you get a raise now, you'll either NOT get one next time raises go around. It's also probable that the people you work will think they won't get as big of a raise because of YOU if the raise they get doesn't meet expectations.
Plus, if you really want to work for that other company, turning them down how will make it much much harder to go back there to ask for a job. Oh, you can do it, but they'll likely say "oh, that's the guy who was just looking to make more money at the place he was at... don't bother".
There are MANY more reasons never to take a counter-offer. Do yourself (and your career) a favor, and don't take it.
Good luck
If you believe what you see on those web sites, then I have a bridge to sell you.
But you know what? I'm not going to particularly care about free beer (though I do like beer), or a foosball table, or free dinner. The kind of "perk" I want is not having to have my dinner there. Good maternity (and paternity) leave. Flexible hours. Maybe day care. I want to work at the kind of place where it's OK for me to bring well-behaved kids into the office if I need to. Where it's OK for me to be part-time for a year. I don't want my career to suffer unduly if I think my family is important. I don't want to work long hours until I burn out.
And as I'm writing this, I wonder what the hell is wrong that I regard this sort of basic sanity and moderation as a "perk". The perks of the dot-com boom were great fun for self-absorbed twenty-somethings... which is what I am now, but I won't be forever.
blah blah blah
You obviously haven't ever applied for any of those jobs. You'd get a better response forwarding your resumes to /dev/null.
I don't know about you guys, but I could care less about about company "perks." All I care about is that after my 8 hours + 1 for lunch are over, I'm out the door. The current IT shop that I work for is like that since we are a satellite office a thousand miles away from the main corporate office.
Besides, what's the point of a gym membership "perk" if you are too tired to go after a 10+ hour day coding, +2 hours commuting?
Yup, that's what happens. As people bitch about not having a job, someone like you comes along and works their arse off to make something of themself. Imagine that, working hard to improve your life and that of your family.
:^)
You know what folks, the parent is the real American. He/she realizes that noone hands anything to you. They work their butt off to make something of themself and if the job market turns bad (here's a thought) they work harder.
Funny, I'm a young engineer and my company is laying people off. Yet, somehow they keep me around. I wonder if it's because I EARN MY KEEP.
Sorry, just a little conservative ranting.
"How about, instead of all the free donuts and beer, you just give me a raise?"
With a raise I can choose to buy my own donuts and beer and consume them at a time of my choice, rather then my employer's.
I know of a place local to me where the company offers 50% 401k matching (up to 3% company contribution), there is a pension-plan that is contributed to at about that same rate, (contingent on the company making a profit, and it hasn't failed to make a profit for over 20 years), there is a monthly bonus consisting of 5% of the company's after-payroll revenues distributed among the employees, and at the end of the first year, you'll have acrued 2 weeks of vacation time, usable in hourly increments, with the amount of vacation that you acrue going up each year. Also, there is a flex-time program that allow employees to take time off on one day and make it up on other days.The company health and dental plans are, I believe, ~50% funded.
Sound good?
Well, it's a maufacturing job, and I'm pretty sure that they are only hiring for production positions. Starting wage is $7/hr.
Still sound good? Didn't think so.
Benefits aren't everything.
What is the difference between a small revolutionary change and a large evolutionary change?
But what kind of perks? You can separate several distinct types:
As an employee, things like flexitime and "pillow days" are great for me. Options are nice as-well-as but not instead-of your regular package -- I'd be very unlikely to accept a below-par salary/bonus package in exchange for options. I have no interest in the third kind of perk, and would much rather have the money to spend on my first home, since houses are ludicrously expensive around here.
I'm not sure this discussion makes much sense until you've identified what sort of thing you're going to call a "perk".
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.