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?"
Seriously, it seems the job market is only marginally better these days.
Would you really want to hire employees who would be motivated by "free beer?"
I can understand how it could be to a company's advantage to offer free perks, but I can think of dozens (okay, thousands) that would be better for the company than free beer but still motivate employees.
My only job perk is Vogue!
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!
Free beer... They offer free breakfast, lunch AND dinner... and snacks.
Once you say "free beer", saying "breakfast", "lunch", etc. are redundant.
"Beer" pretty well covers everything.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
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
free beer all day, personal hammock, and massages every hour....cant beat bein' a kobe cow....
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its July 30 report:
"There was no recession in the second quarter of this year, but BLS data show 131,000 fewer American computer software engineers employed in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2004--a decline of 15% in three months."
So, I seriously doubt that we are going to get anything at all like the late 90s going on for technical workers.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
I guess a good perk would be for the company to buy my plane ticket to India when they outsource my job there.
Language classes would be good too.
There's only one thing I'm allergic to... Sudden Death. (Danger Mouse)
Also, note that with our current immigration rate- we need 300,000 jobs EVERY MONTH just for population expansion. 32,000 jobs is NOTHING.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
That's how they do it where my wife works. Medical and Dental and the usual stock purchase and 401k programs are non-optional for everyone, but the rest is a-la-carte. She gets so many "points" to spend: Membership at a fitness center is x points, free legal services is y points, etc.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Being self employeed I give my self my own perks. So for the long hours, sleepless night I get a meal out at the local pub on a Friday. God I'm a cheapskate
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
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!
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