To ask your work 'perks'

[WhoTookTheChristmasCookie]

I've read a story this morning about the employees of a company being up in arms that their 'free, unlimited beer' perk has been limited.
Due to noise complaints and a concern for the working environment they've been 'rationed' to four glasses between 5 and 7pm on Thursday and Friday.

I'm gobsmacked!!!

Before that they were able to drink as much as they wanted whenever they wanted throughout the working day - how was any work getting done?

Are job perks like this normal? I was lucky enough to get a free tea in my last job and that was subject to conditions
Does your job give you good perks? If so, where do you work? I'm on the hunt for a new job!

There is unlimited beer and wine at my work. People don’t tend to take the piss with quantities tho. You will see people drinking anytime from 3pm at their desks however - they do supply low and zero beer which are both popular!

We also get fruit, snacks, professional coffee machines, massages, health checks and flu jabs, etc

Plus heaps of tickets to movies, shows, sporting events etc.

Occasional domestic/international travel too, purely for fun. Although there is work (meetings) travel too. Ski trips, international rugby matches abroad, tropical islands. Next week I’m going to a big sporting tournament in another country for a few days as a guest.

We are really lucky, but we are also expected to work really hard and deliver the results for multi millions of dollars of other people’s money.

Nhs. Reasonable holidays and sick pay. And we get get milk. But I drink oat milk so it doesn't benefit me. Other than that nothing.

Free breakfast, lunch, dinner buffet style in the office. Free lunch deliveroo on Tuesdays if we are offsite. Free all day snacks, fruit, drinks tea/coffees etc. Free beer on tap but wine and champagne locked in fridge only opened for occasions. Free x5 session personal counselling/therapy sessionals. Full time team of chefs employed as well. Baristas who serve a range of coffees in a 'coffee lab'. Sleep pods, sleep rooms. Games room. Fully padded sound proof music room. Onsite massage room with 1 free hour massage a month. £3000 matched charity donation to any charity of choice. 5 days paid leave to work on any charity of choice in addition to 5 weeks holiday. 15% pension, share options, usual perks of medical etc. Onsite free gym, onsite visiting (not free) hair dresser and manicurist. Summer and winter balls. ££ Contributions & sponsorships to personal development courses which are tiered accordingly to course types..MBAs will get more. Presidents club for high flyers (i.e a week in Maldives for you and spouse). Sometimes Michelin star restaurants for team meals. Decent cash contributions for car allowance. Paid home internet, company mobile. Complete flexible working arrangements - hotels paid for no quibbles if needed for work or to make commute arrangements easier.

BUT - the employees work HARD, are mostly alpha personality types, ambitious, bright (often 2nd or 3rd degrees, multi-lingual), there is no such thing as a 9 to 5, and our work is very global/international focus. It is extremely performance based but if you do well, you do extremely well. My boss put through 7 kids through private school.

Free private health insurance for me and family. car allowance. work from home possible, but not (too) regularly. heavily subsidised lunch. Not that much, but pay and bonus are very, very good.

In my previous job I used to get every other Friday off in addition to 27 days annual leave. I used to leave DS 1 and DS 2 in nursery and use it for me time

I can do a good chunk of my work from home,
I can choose my working hours,
I can choose how many hours I work and I can choose how much holiday I take.
I can claim a small amount of my utilities and phone/broadband as expenses,
I can choose the clients I work with.
However, no holiday or sick pay. No pension contributions. No support from other colleagues.
I am self employed.

Hmm some of these jobs sound amazing! I thought my ‘perks’ were good.

• 28 days A/L plus all bank holidays
• Can buy 5 days A/L
• Free flu jab
• 7% pension contribution from myself, 11% from company
• Free broadband (when you buy home phone)
• Occasional perks such as a free lunch
• Bonus
• Flexi time (although not really as it’s 9.30-3.30 core hours ) & you can have some toil days off or paid overtime (at the mo!)

Oh & 6 months full pay mat leave.
6 months full pay sick leave! Not that I’ve ever used it

I’d love to work for some of these companies! Only “perk” at mine is a free glass of wine once a month at work drinks 🙄

Absolutely nothing. Even have to buy my own tea/sugar/milk

Free parking
Free, unlimited tea, coffee, milk, squash
2 or 3 days closure at Christmas on top of bank holidays and weekends
Flexible working, some working from home and fair time off in lieu
Boss keeps a pretty constant supply of chocolate for staff
Nespresso machine but we need to take our own pods

I do find the 13 weeks off to be a perk, although the lack of flexibility if you need medical appts etc is a pain. All that time off with my own children and no worry of how to cover childcare during school hols for the 11 years I had primary age kids was definitely a good thing!

We take it in turns to contribute to tea and coffee, but the number of kids who don't want the milk that's provided for them means we have plenty of that in the staff room so it doesn't go to waste.

Can't believe someone else had to contribute to the cost of the kettle! Our previous head insisted on an instantaneous water heater as part of the new built staff room, which is great... not waste of time waiting for the kettle to boil in the 8 mins I actually get to try and drink a cuppa and go to the loo.

The HT buys our Christmas dinner and as I'm on the SMT I get a bottle of wine from them too.

Pension as a given isn't exactly a perk, but I doubt I'd have prioritised one as a young NQT, but I'm grateful now for what's accrued so far and what age I can take (part of) it. I also took out a AVC when school arranged someone to come talk to us which really will help for all the years I worked part time.

We have a county reward scheme card that offers discounts on different food/drink/shops as well as occasionally offering discounts on holidays or airport parking. Not always worth using but sometimes it is.

We get to use the wifi. But obv have no time to use it and aren't allowed to use phones in class/on duty or in meetings.

I get free germs. Lots and lots of them. I'm a SEN TA. Other perks are the opportunity to spend my own money on pens and pencils and the opportunity to be sworn at, sometimes even by the parents.

Free milk! Whoop
Free slap up lunch at beginning and end of term with wine at the end of term.

Very 'naice' presents from the parents at the end of term.

Champagne and panatone at Christmas.
18 weeks holiday.

Local Govt - I get a good pension, flexi tone, work from home a couple of days a week, season ticket loan, good holidays leave (currently 30 days a year but likely to go up through continuous service) but not all local govt is the same - for example I work now for a large Labour controlled unitary authority so they treat officers better than the small conservative controlled district council where we were treated like ‘staff’.

I do get paid a lot less than the equivalent in the private sector though. Like £10k pa less.

A second passport

And a client of mine has a key and ski chalets. He’s flown dh and I out to the chalets a couple of time’s so I can meet with his accountants. Dh came along for the ride (and to ski). I don’t ski.

He also bought beautiful gifts for ds when he was born and a wonderful back to work gift for me (leather monogrammed notebook cover and a supply of notebook inserts together with a monogrammed Filofax) after maternity leave.

Free dental care of Meghan Markle's dentist, nice Christmas bonus, lovely bosses.

A discount card when shopping in store and pension etc

Remember you pay tax for many perks
I was quite shocked when I got massive bill from tax people Charging me 40% of the healthcare costs

But lots of free lunches and stuff (maybe I get taxed on that too )

My dh gets free Tube/local train travel plus free RAC. I get fuck all.

Teacher. Bizarrely I get free coffee and (rubbish plain) biscuits and free lunch (wow!). But I have to buy my own pens for marking, my own paper (and I'm probably going to cave and buy some for my students) and I've had a major battle to get school to pay for an A level textbook for me to teach with.

I get 31 days holiday plus bank holidays, can work from home whenever I like, which makes school holidays much more manageable. iPhone paid for. I also get a decent car allowance, life insurance, dental insurance and medical insurance. Very flexible, e.g I usually work a 7am -2.30 day with an hour lunch but taking half hour at the end of the day to finish early and I can change this around as I need to. 35 hour working week as standard. In the 12 years I’ve been there we have had a small yearly pay rise and bonus. We get good rates on the products we sell along with discounts across multiple retail stores and restaurants. I also have what I would consider a good pension (they will pay up to 13% depending on my contribution) 4 weeks paternity pay, 16 weeks full pay maternity then statutory but topped up with an extra £500 per month for the remainder. 6 months sick pay if required. We have a wellbeing team who can arrange financial advice, will writing, counselling etc. Oh and we also get 10x our salary as a death in service payment, and as a minimum, 3.5 weeks pay for every year we have worked for the company based on the salary you are earning at that point if you are made redundant. Depending on which office you are in, there is free tea and coffee. We also have 5 days a year of community support allowed within work time and matched charity donations. Quite a decent amount really!

Remember you pay tax for many perks
I was quite shocked when I got massive bill from tax people Charging me 40% of the healthcare costs

But lots of free lunches and stuff (maybe I get taxed on that too )

Benefits in kind you are taxed for, which covers items such as healthcare, cars etc...

Things such as food, parties, prizes etc you are only taxed on if the company spends more than a certain amount on for you. I cannot remember the exact amount, however I do know that at my company they keep a track of spending per employee (some things are obviously averaged out) to ensure it stays below the threshold and we do not get penalised by tax.

Teacher - holidays are good

DH gets loads of perks though and always gets a good pay rise and bonus