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.

Retail, so not really associated with benefits, but we get
Free parking
Free tea and coffee
20% off the products
A 1/10 chance of winning employee of the month and a £50 gift card.
Share plan where they double what you contribute.
A couple of £100 bonuses in the past 2 years.
Random chocolate bars, pens, treats sent from head office.

Free tea/coffee/mineral water/cans
Free lunch on Tuesdays. It used to be twice a week, but with hybrid wfh/office they've just reinstated once a week.
Vending machine with key fob that allows £5 worth per week spends
I've got free T-shirts/jacket/rucksack/hat, but that was partly down to a recent rebranding

They're crap at card/gift for people leaving though. Barely gets a "thanks for all your hard work, you'll be missed" mention on last day

I'm NHS admin.... so nothing! However job satisfaction, job security, and having excellent access to covid and flu vaccinations helps.

@Foolsrule

Free parking is scraping the barrel!

Not really

A lot of places I have worked don't have parking, or only have limited spaces

You have to get in really early and forget going out at lunchtime

Local government worker here so no perks /freebies as such.

Previously you might have considered these as perks: for the most part a decent wage, job security, good pension and flexi leave , but these can no longer be guaranteed.

Some of the perks in earlier posts sound fab

Ex got chocolate through the post. They are very nice.

I work for a well known (domed) holiday centre.

Our perks were suspended over covid but are being brought back gradually.

They include free spa access, discounted holidays and free use of the on site facilities

Isn't it funny how so very few people mention enhanced annual holidays, enhanced sick pay, enhanced maternity pay and enhanced pension contributions - these are the big-ticket items the things that cost the employer loads and have the greatest benefit to the employees.
But it all come down to free coffee and tea 😂
I recall one senior manager we knew who got a new job - it was most likely 6 figures+, boasting about his new workplace providing free fruit, I wondered how long that novelty was going to impress him.

We gave our staff a fixed sum benefits pot and polled them on how they'd like to spend it so we could provide services they valued, it was no surprise that they universally opted for medical insurance (which we could obtain at a very low price) and the rest in cash for them to spend exactly as they chose - they were not impressed by gimmicky perks.

All travel and food/drinks paid. Internet at home and gym membership. I get to go to vair fancy restaurants too.

@nancy75

Wimbledon tickets & tennis club membership

I want to come and work for your employer!

I wouldn't want the club membership (pisspoor co-ordination, I wouldn't be any worse at tennis if I played wearing a blindfold) but I'd love the tickets. I haven't been able to get tickets via the ballot for years, and they're not doing the ballot this year.

Oh I miss working in a 5 star hotel in London sometimes!

Discounted rates across the whole hotel chain worldwide which meant phenomenal savings and allowed me to visit parts of the world in absolute luxury. It was virtually free if you went off peak.

Free canteen food cooked by Michelin trained chefs ( although a lot of the time it was jacket spuds, but sometimes it was the stuff left over from buffets and conferences)

As a department manager I often had to attend leavings drinks - there was one virtually every couple of weeks which was basically management getting pissed on champagne for a couple of hours before going down the pub.

Great parties - often in other 5 star hotels

If you were friendly with the restaurant manager you could often wangle freebies for friends and family

Ditto the concierge - there were often free tickets to shows knocking about that guests couldn't use so if you could drop everything last minute you could get a great seat in the west end.

Tips from guests -£50 a time for just dropping something to their room was standard.

Free parking is scraping the barrel!

My last employer was charging over £7 day to park in the staff car parks.

We get free tea and coffee while at work, and there's an employee assistance programme that pays 50% of private medical consultations, 6 free sessions of counselling, a partial refund of dental costs and a few other bits and bobs. There are low-interest loans for help with car purchase for essential users and to help with rent in advance/deposits when moving.

However, we haven't had a pay rise that's kept pace with inflation in the last 12 years, our mileage rate hasn't gone up for most of that time and for anyone doing frontline work, the work has got harder and harder and can sometimes be quite distressing.

But this is the reality of the 3rd sector, where all the work we do is funded by housing, social care or health money which has been cut to the bone. In other ways, they are a hugely supportive employer, scrupulously fair, flexible, family-friendly and really good at giving staff opportunities to extend their skillset by secondments etc.

Best one ever - Arts Council (many years ago) - tickets paid for anything I went to see, plus loads of things like attending dress rehearsals that werenlt available to the public. Was reminded part way thrugh my contract that I could claim for travel and subsistence as well - but that really felt like CFery.
Sept 2020 - org I worked for hired a temporary regus-type office for anyone that didn't like WFH - for almost a year I was the only person that used it 95% of the time.

Should have added, we have flexitime and generous leave. I'd get 35 days if I was f/t, plus bank holidays, because I have 15 years service.

I only work 3 days a week, and don't work Mons or Fridays, so my bank holiday adjustment gives me a big gain. I have trouble using all my leave, and am carrying 2 weeks forward this year.

Lunch provided plus some very high level hospitality food that doesn't even get sent out from the kitchen .
Paid travel, overnight and subsistence expenses at a decent rate
Get to meet some really interesting people and make useful contacts from all backgrounds.

Dh has the best as works for an airline . Free flights ( pay taxes only ), often turning left and discounted hotels , car hire , travel insurance. Its been cheaper to go to the usa for 2 weeks than 4 nights at a uk centreparcs.

Dh also gets private medical for the whole family with a very low excess . That's the biggest perk really as I've has wisdom teeth removed after only a week of pain, gynae surgery that the nhs doesn't do and shoulder surgery that would have been. At least an 18 month wait on nhs

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Public sector. Nothing. Have to provide own tea, coffee and kettle. Have to pay to park in a public car park.

Reading this thread it's easy to pick out those who work in the private sector and those who work in the public sector. I once had the temerity, in the early days of widespread computer use, to suggest that we should be recompensed for paper and ink when we worked at home, on our own machines, printing worksheets etc. No way!

Public sector - enhanced maternity, enhanced sick, enhanced pensions, enhanced annual leave - do these really not mean anything? Lots of employees don't get these benefits

Years ago we got a free Christmas lunch in our NHS dining room.
The consultants and senior managers waited on tables, it was fun.
Then the trust brought in a private catering company. Expensive food and no free Christmas lunch.

@Sitdownnext

Public sector - enhanced maternity, enhanced sick, enhanced pensions, enhanced annual leave - do these really not mean anything? Lots of employees don't get these benefits

My dh was a civil servant. When he moved to a private company he got a good pension scheme, good holidays, a bonus annually and much better pay!

@Riseholme yes the things that actually matter...he didn't leave for a bowl of apples or a daily cup of instant coffee.

I get good basic holiday leave, all publics, and a "free" week off over Christmas because we close.
Im not used to that as previous work in a completely different field I never got the "holiday" days off as they were prioritised to people with families.

My boss takes us out regularly for dinner, or to a spa for a group chill, and pays all the Christmas "do" costs. Before covid our last Christmas party was a weekend in Germany.
He also sends someone out to buy us a morning coffee when we're in the office. He's a good guy to work for and genuinely treats us well.

We also get a profit share which keeps everyone one the ball and freebies from manufacturers or clients who send us stuff.

I work 10-6 daily but im also on the end of the phone evenings and weekends, this isnt so good, but if I need to take a day off to go to a funeral or sort something private, I just have to ask and it isnt taken from my leave. I appreciate that flexibility.

Lateral flow tests,.

@IfIHadAHeart

I also get free travel on any TfL service, as well as Northern Trains. I’m a police officer so it’s not a benefit from my employer as such, just an arrangement we have with TfL, and Nothern for some reason let us travel for free. There are no perks or freebies at all from my actual employer, just cancelled rest days and forced overtime

It's not free - you pay £60 p/m for that Oyster card (retired PC!) 😊