What's been your best work perk?

[gildalily]

I was reminded on one of those fb nostalgia posts about Luncheon Vouchers. In my first job I got luncheon vouchers as a perk. I think it was about 50p a day. The idea was you put them towards buying your lunch and in those days (1989) lots of places accepted them in payment. It was a nice perk if the job at the time and I'd save mine up and go for a pizza once every couple of months. It seems like an ancient concept now.

I then moved to work at M&S head office where the perks were amazing and legendary - hairdresser; chiropodist; staff discount; medical area like a full-on hospital with nurse; discount; fed at all lunches and breaks (and after work if you wanted!) for £10 a month. I think I lucked out perk-wise there.

What have your best perks at work been? Official or unofficial

I contribute 8% pension and work contribute 16%. So I think 24% pension is a pretty good perk!

There's a range of different perks here. Funny how you can guess where people work based on them. Travel is a lovely one. I'd like that.

Free BUPA and it carried on into retirement. Gordon Brown taxed me on it, as it had been a tax free perk for pensioners.

Flexi time and finishing at 4 on a Friday!

Before Covid, the company took everyone on an all expenses paid, week-long holiday. Food, drink, and partying. Loads of fun team building events like cooking courses, escape rooms, etc. I swear some people only stayed at the company for this one week.

Optician and skin doctor coming to the office once a year to do eye/mole checks

The last Friday of every month they held a catered party on the top floor, starting around 12 noon so basically you could got the afternoon "off" to drink wine and eat buffet food with your colleagues.

Covid has taken away pretty much all of that and i am sure they won't be bringing any of that stuff back now.

Covid jabs
Annual flu jab
They pay may registration fees
Annual bonus and present circa £200 (pre tax) and a present at Christmas (this year was a bottle of bubbly and some cosmetics)
They fund boat loads of additional training, yeah long term it benefits them but I’m not contractually obligated to stay with the workplace and the skills are in demand.
One of the receptionists does a banging cheesecake if you ask nicely

@Pongo101 What industry / field do you work in?!?

Free parking in my office building in the centre of town. 30 seconds from my desk. Made it possible for me to avoid the need for before school care when kids were at primary school

Building materials at cost + 5%
Use of company tickets to a local premiership rugby team which just so happened to be my team anyway 😍
Anything that wasn’t used on sites was open to taking home, so I got an incredible bathroom mirror, motion sensor lights, Bluetooth music etc worth £££ for nothing once!

Flexi hours
Good pension
...
Not so much a work one but the site had a couple of unused buildings and some parents asked if they could have a nursery. Work gave them free use of a building (incl services) the group organised staff and set up a nursery. When we had our children we used it, cheap(ish) open 07:30 - 18:00 (full flexi coverage) a godsend. The nursery was successful and is still going though elsewhere (site closed).

Not now but years ago I worked in a shop on a retail estate. McDonald's gave everyone who worked in the shops on the retail estate staff discount. This meant we got food for what the staff paid. Big mac meal with chocolate milkshake was £1.99. Same retail park we all got 10% discount in all the stores on the park.

BP gave legendary perks when I worked there years ago - £5 credit every day to use in the expansive restaurant, free shares every year, free medical, large bonus scheme. Never worked anywhere with perks as good since!

I got long holidays with plenty of notice, that I could plan ahead for. Obviously the fact that they were fixed, inflexible and at peak time, were downsides. But my travel buddy's difficulty in planning anything ahead or jumping on good deals and limited availability because he has to apply for time off and doesn't know if he'll get it, makes me realise that I didn't always appreciate how fortunate I was.

As for the perks I'm most envious of in this thread, fancy travel is right up there!

Currently it’s being able to choose my hours and when Covid eases foreign travel but only if and when I want to
In previous jobs I have had 5star hotels and amazing hospitality packages but it was exhausting. One of my favourite jobs involved visiting amazing properties I could never afford myself and getting invited to launches of swanky new apartment buildings with all the canapés etc.

@LudoBear

Not now but years ago I worked in a shop on a retail estate. McDonald's gave everyone who worked in the shops on the retail estate staff discount. This meant we got food for what the staff paid. Big mac meal with chocolate milkshake was £1.99. Same retail park we all got 10% discount in all the stores on the park.

I worked in McDs as a student and our food was free, the number of meals depended in the length of your shift.

Free BUPA
Onsite dentist and dental hygienist
Subsidised canteen
Extra day annual leave after every 5 years service
5 days wedding leave
2 days moving leave
Free gym
Flexitime
Staff shop and general convenience store
Onsite hairdresser and dry cleaner
Very generous share save and share options
Good final salary pension
Good redundancy package
Generous relocation and hiring packages (moving costs like stamp duty paid)
Business class airfares
Loads of team days and rewards, training etc

I miss the good old days.

Friend who worked for a brewing company had a drinks allowance - you got points you could exchange for boxes of the alcohol. But they also had a drinks trolley going round at 5pm on a Friday which sounded so civilised.

Also another friend had her car cleaned every week which again, in the absence of any other perks is a nice one to have.

Option to buy and sell holiday, meaning up to 35 days annual leave a year.

On site gym

Fitness instructor sessions

Exercise classes including yoga and pilates

Free parking

Free annual parties and social events

Modern, eco friendly office

Free parking 2 minutes from Picadilly Circus and a free (v fancy) gym. Then somewhere that did great biz class travel, make up artists for company events, good parties and freebies (but they were terrible sociopaths, so yin / yang). I fear I’ve taken free medical / dental / flu jabs and eye tests totally for granted and thought it was all entirely standard. Moves to a small company and it isn’t! (Free fruit and Friday evening sushi and beers somewhere else. That was fun)

Full Health insurance, cash plan insurance that pays for prescriptions, dentist trips and opticians.
Top spec mobile, don't care about personal use.
I used to be able to bring my kids into the office for the odd day for inset day etc. Now WFH.
£500 bonus for Xmas plus wine and gift vouchers.

So much travel that I feel pretty much travelled out and I feel extremely fortunate for that.

I felt I'd missed out by not taking a gap year to travel around the world like many others I knew so I made it a priority for my jobs to include lots of travel.

I've been to so many amazing places and loved it at the time but I've absolutely had my fill of airports and planes and am now a complete homebody.

My favourite perk of my current job is flexible working hours and 35 days off a year.

My company lets everyone finish early on the Friday before a bank holiday. So yesterday we were allowed to finish work at 12pm. It’s essentially an extra couple of days’ annual leave. There are lots of good perks where I work but that ones everybody’s favourite.

Two years on a Mediterranean island with token rent, a good school/preschool, free gym, etc.

Not paying VAT on a new car.

These are DHs, but I benefit as well.

@Horehound - that is the kind of perk I’m interested in! I turned down a job with a very similar scheme and have regretted it ever since. If you can get a higher employer contribution you needn’t worry about changes to tax, etc.

Mine relates to a job I had years ago. Job was extremely monotonous and micro-managing was off the scale. The most exciting part of the role was when I had to print and file things. Meant I could get up from my desk and walk a few metres away! Use the filing cabinets! Then I moved sideways into a new role and was sent on a three-day training course in the same city. It was AMAZING. Being somewhere different, learning, having a nice lunch paid for. As one colleague said, feeling my employer thought I was worth spending money on.

Since changing jobs, I’ve been on many courses and trips but none will ever compare to the first!

All school holidays off so no holiday care to pay for and know holiday dates a year in advance and any dc of staff get free wrap around care - primary ta

A little bit different as it’s a reasonably standard part of an expat package where I live, but I get a sizeable chunk towards my rent each year, school fees covered for up to 3 kids, excellent worldwide private health insurance (which has even covered me having a course of totally cosmetic Invisalign) and a return flight to the U.K. for me and my family each year.

I also get discounts on a lot of the big hospitality chains, we have an on site gym, subsidized canteen and they always offer lots of nice things like massage vouchers for all the female staff on International Women’s Day etc.

Was also grateful to have the Covid vaccine offered to my entire household very early on.