Perks/freebies at work (not stolen/liberated items!)

[NellesVilla]

Hi,

This is a slight TAT. When trying to be positive, I thought about the good things about current and previous jobs, not just the rubbish pisstakey things workplaces do like:

• Expecting me to use my own car and have me pay for my own business insurance/low mileage reimbursement etc
• uniforms the employee must pay for
• no free tea/coffee
• shit pay job but have to pay for parking as no car park/just for management etc.
• As a TA, no paid breaks.
• No card, nothing, when leaving a job. Just charming.
• As a tutor, clients often cancelled last minute without paying me. Having to watch my blood pressure reading that back!

The one that still fucks me off a decade later is when working as a nanny, how tight some families were. Think, demanding I take the kids to the cinema to see a film I’d never choose to see, yet expecting me to pay the petrol, parking and my own ticket. If I dared to use their money for the parking or my ticket, they would get funny. Oh, and I often had to purchase food for the kids inside as no more cash. If anyone wants to know how to NOT treat a nanny, let me know!!

Anyway, the perks (little things) that I rather enjoy/have enjoyed have been:

• Free meals on duty and unlimited free tea, coffee and biscuits (why not!)
• Decent daily budget as a premium nanny (virtually unlimited if the trips were ‘educational-ish’). And not expected to pay entry for myself.
• In previous care type jobs, although no scheduled breaks, in quiet times it was lovely to just sit and watch a film with the client and take the weight off your feet for an hour or two. Bliss.
• Bonuses- big or small at Xmas and leaving card and gift- again, big or small- when leaving. One family at a tutoring job made me homemade cards when leaving- that was v sweet!
• Use of printer at work (I was permitted to do so, promise!)- really kind and helpful when I couldn’t afford a computer and printer at the time.
• Use of a house for 3+ months. Possibly outing, but a lovely employer let me use her house for a while when she went travelling. V kind of her.

Free parking - free hot drinks
Occasional meal out for team building
Generous out of pocket expenses
Use of copier within reason
Flexible working
Phone with sim
iPad
Laptop
Airbuds etc provided

Absolutely nothing. It works the opposite way. I buy paint, glue, books, toys and resources for my job. Tea, coffee and milk paid for via a staff kitty. There’s talk that we will have to start to pay to park in the school car park soon. No one will. We will all park outside in the community and walk in

Current job - free tea and coffee, free fruit (mostly apples but still good).

Free parking - I've almost always had that but most jobs have either been at a school or on a site that is out of town and purpose built. Didn't have any parking when I worked in Whitby actually.

Occasional freebies in the office from clients or client meetings. About once every couple of months.

Free stationery - no bar on taking anything I want and no need to account for it.

In previous roles freebies have included movie screenings and concerts, CDs, DVDs and a chance to meet the stars at the occasional showbiz party (music mag in London); food on inset days and parents' evenings (school); tickets to plays and concerts in return for a review (roles on weekly and daily newspaper); free coffee from the posh machine during Covid (NHS Trust).

I have worked in both private and public sector.

Private sector had way more perks and benefits but I was in a big law firm and work/life balance was awful.

Public sector pay was less, perks less. Rules about vacation and sick time much less flexible. But no time sheets. Public sector very heavy workload but I did not feel I had to stay late and work weekends unless there was something really urgent.

There were years of pay freezes, hiring freezes, and bans on things like muffins for all morning meetings unless approved by deputy minister (and who would ask). We went 8 years with no raise.

We started bringing our own treats for the long meetings.

But the main perk was I felt I was doing work that truly did matter, unlike what most people think of the public sector,

Forgot. We had free parking but the estimated value was added to our income as a taxable benefit.

Our office was in an industrial park. Even the bus stop was a good mile away.

NHS, we get free counseling for the PTSD caused by trauma at work (covid related)

Apart from that, not much (tea and coffee not provided). No mugs even.

I work for the NHS, so no perks as such and DH (private sector) is always amazed at what we have to pay for ourselves. We get the odd box of chocolates or biscuits from patients sometimes which is always a nice treat! DH gets free tea, coffee, squash and fruit at work which I've always thought would be nice.

Also no free parking, they even charge for bike parking.

Back in the day when I used to leave the building..

Free entry to big events (press pass!).

These days - freedom to mooch the net, read mumsnet, play games, whilst being paid more than min. wage, from the comfort of my own home. I have to be in front of the PC anyway, and work don't give a toss what im doing as long as I respond within an hour :D

Sometimes that means, as per today, that I am doing two jobs at once, so I've had my day rate paid by job one, and my hourly rate paid by job two (and yep, both know, it's all legit).

Free meals, three a day if I choose. Tea, coffee etc provided along with unlimited biscuits and cake everyday at the end of the day.
Sandwiches, cookies etc for parents evening and pastries and bacon sandwiches for insets.
Staff party/lunch and wine at ends of term.
Use of the pool and gym on site within certain hours and if the swim coach is free.
Certain discounts through pension and the staff wellbeing programme.
Parking on site for free or can cadge a loft on a bus if there is space for free.

Discount on a wedding if wanted (I did).
Massive discount on fees if I want (65% I think)

But pay isn’t great and those are fairly standard perks for a public school

At various jobs - free gym, subsidised meals, free dinner after a certain time, free taxi home after a certain time, cheap deals on holiday bookings/travel/shopping, staff discount for companies we represented, free products from clients, free private healthcare/dentistry, subsidised Costa/Starbucks coffee, free vending machines, free cakes/biscuits

@Marmite27

My office is based in a call centre and we have a Starbucks. Everyone in the office this weeks gets a free drink.

We have vending machines with free drinks.

Those are the only current ones, but I’ve had loads over the years, free weekly fruit baskets, free Disney on ice tickets, free Jake Bugg tickets, free fairground rides in the car park, and more food and drink than you can shake a stick at.

One year they did a sound of music theme and we got ‘brown paper packages tied up with string’ with bread and jam, tea and Viennese whirls in. There were sticky jars of jam littered around the office for months.

I think I know where you work

Black and white?

Nothing. I worked for the NHS, so a lack of any perks is to be expected. But my manager was a particular type of asshole. I worked in hotel services (cleaners, porters etc). We didn't have a stable restroom. It kept moving. He would not provide us with a fridge or tv (as it meant we would "stay there longer")... so we had to get hand-me-downs from the wards and organise all of that ourselves. We had to buy our own milk, tea etc.
One day, I brought a punnet of strawberries in. Our manager asked to see the receipt, as he was convinced I had pinched them from the fruit order for the canteen.... despite them having an obvious Tesco label on them.

I’m self employed and treat myself to refreshments and food throughout the day

NHS. Got my first Covid immunisation on day 1 the UK was jabbing. Don't normally get any perks, but that was a very major one.

I get free breakfast, Nespresso coffee and the breakfast food could theoretically be used as lunch or as part of lunch as it’s unlimited. Fresh fruit daily. Free lunch once a week. Donuts and/or similar sweet treats for holidays like valentines, Patrick’s Day. Also get nice packages sent to us randomly, like a wellness package during wellness week. It’s a lovely place to work. Oh and a free top of the range laptop but this is given back if you leave. (Private sector)

I got a £10 M&S voucher for working the millennium. Nothing since. NHS.

I work for the NHS. No tea, coffee, milk etc. we don't even have drinkable running water at the new site I'm currently based at due to a cock up with the building. We get no perks from our actual employer. Used to get a free coffee voucher for the hospital costa if we got our flu jabs, but that seems to have stopped now. Blue light card discounts are very good though.

First job, frozen turkey for Christmas :). Lovely idea but I was 19, lived at home, I'd already placed my mum's order for a fresh turkey (and paid a deposit) and we didn't have a freezer. Colleague kindly put it in her freezer until Easter.
Another job, tea and coffee came round mid morning and afternoon and lunch provided - all for £2 a month. Christmas present and large bonus even though I hadn't been there long - paid for a video player; free hairdresser, physio and I think dentist but never used. This was late 80s. We'd just bought our first home with mortgage at 14.95% and money was tight so this all helped.
Worked for a company who dealt with the admin for several retirement developments. Could rent the guest room if available for a few pounds per night. Stayed in one in Wiltshire for a wedding and one in York for an event at the railway museum. Much cheaper than a hotel.
Temping job, fresh supplies brought in every day for lunch. Warm Tiger bread, salad, hot chicken. Saved having to think about lunch before work.

Big boxes of sweets or biscuits that come free with the stationery order.

A constant supply of tea, coffee, bread, milk, eggs & baked beans in the kitchen

Chippy Tuesday (if the boss is in, he pays)

Fat Friday (breakfast) as above but he’s not always in on Fridays

Allowed to use printers/photocopiers within reason.

Staff car park within walking distance of the train station available to use.

Allowed to post the odd letter

Free milk and use of a fridge - our office is in a Regus building.

I provide a communal jar of instant coffee and occasionally take in a lemon drizzle cake.

Constant supply of free alcohol.. not much use to me as I barely manage a glass of wine… I gift it to others or donate to charity raffles etc ..
unlimited expense account for lunch and dinners etc …
Unlimited travel expenses eg taxis trains etc .. generous given that I have a company car as part of my contract ..
I don’t need to use the car for business and pay the petrol, they are happy to let me use other transport..
Car is generally domestic use ..

Other perks .. get to travel the world for “ commercial evaluation and brand experience “ trips …. Aka “ piss ups “ …

Must stop moaning about my job when I see that written down 🙄

Teaching in the state sector. Literally no perks. I wouldn’t like to think about the percentage of my salary that went on resources. Was signed off sick from one job. Never went back and left a load of my resources there.

Current job:

Free soft drinks, tea, coffee, fruit and snacks (chocolate, biscuits etc)
Free iPhone & mobile plan
Company car (or cash alternative, your choice)
Pretty much always free cake/ catered morning tea every week
Staff discount
On-site parking
Private health insurance (I'm not in UK)
Flexible working
Free day out at a theme park every year

I used to do a care type job part time in the mornings before my main job. It was actually fairly well paid for being in the late 90's (around £10ph, I earn less now as a TA). I used to take 2 individuals out on different days, one liked horse riding and another exercise classes so I'd join in those keep fit for free as mine was paid by the company too - I also love horse riding so that was fab then we'd go for something to eat - also paid for my the company and my petrol was paid too. Due to distance to my next job being the same as to home it also meant my journey to that work petrol was also covered. I don't suppose services like that exist anymore