Lunch at Work

[hairyunicorn]

Work pays £12 per day for lunch through Deliveroo; they have just announced this amount will increase to £15 per day.

I can not say how happy I am. While it is a taxable benefit, I hardly buy dinner these days. I have a gastric sleeve, so i just eat a little and then save my lovely lunch for dinner. Honestly, saving me around £120 plus a month.

We also get a lovely breakfast on a Monday to welcome us back to the office, a fully stocked kitchen with every snack you can imagine and paid for team drinks every month. There are only 50 of us in the office.

These little perks really make being in the office 5 days a week a little more bearable (work in facilities, so we have to be in). What's the best little perk your job offers?

Well, it’s not really. Local government funds are a government grant and can only be used for specified purposes.

There’d be justifiable complaints, not least on here, if public funds - people’s taxes- were being used to pay for tea and biscuits for LA employees.

That's illegal isn't it? :-)
Mind you, I used to work in press industry, no lunch breaks either but then was self-employed so presume normal rules didn't apply.

We get to pay £55 to work all night attend the Year 11 prom...

@hairyunicorn my lovely co work centre dies Monday welcome back croissants and cereals, Wednesday afternoon cake and tray cake buffet and a Friday afternoon drinks trolley - plus as much lovely coffee , tea and herbal teasas you want - at £200 a month I get a lot of value and the extras really do give it a nice vibe -

Been years since I worked in an office-based job, or employed (self employed for years) but I can remember us having a tea trolly come around mid morning and mid afternoon with a lovely lady handing out cuppas. That was nice. Those days would be long gone now I presume, employing someone to make tea.

We get lots of free snacks in the staff room (crisps, chocolate bars, cans of drink, etc) and have a very nice coffee machine.

The paid time off for medical appointments is appreciated.

Personally I appreciate the flexibility and understanding when I'm navigating school holidays and childcare, school events, etc. I never have to miss anything because work encourage me to go and trust me to have my work done.

I wish for better pension contributions - my company pay the absolute bare minimum (they're only contributing 2% into mine).

I've always had free tea and coffee. I think they're just the basics that every employee should have.

I did work for a while at a place that had a free basket of fresh fruit delivered every day. That was a nice touch.

Lots of schools the same.

Great perk OP! Unlimited tea and coffee plus free fruit for us. Paid for Christmas and summer parties (the Christmas party is always somewhere nice and free drinks). Everyone is entitled to private health, which is a taxable benefit.

I used to work somewhere that had a chef come in and cook for everyone a restaurant meal for lunch.

Dh has a subsidised canteen, so he pays less for his dinner than if I buy one in the school canteen. Think he has private health too.

I have regular order of black pens from amazon, because I get through them so fast in school and I think we've spent our budget this year. Kids complain cos the pens are a bit shit. 🙄

Yeah I think it is illegal now at least. This was like 30 yes ago. I remember the place before that gave me a 20 minute break for a ten hour shift. But I used to hide and find places to sleep! 🥴😆

I work in local government and we would obviously never have anything like this. However, a couple of years ago during a staff questionnaire it repeatedly came up staff would like tea provided so to keep everyone happy our director goes to a cash and carry and buys huge bags of Yorkshire Tea bags with his own money and people seemed disproportionately happy! 😆 (I don’t drink tea)

Couldn't agree more! I owe my husband's life to them.

Yes me too, NHS Nurse. Trying to dig deep to think of a perk of my job? Maybe I could say pension but then the £515 I paid into it this month keeps me from thinking of it as a 'perk'. Maybe free access to the toilet is the best perk 😂

Tea and coffee, Christmas night out and occasional work socials paid for. Private sector.

Swings and roundabouts, we may get tea and coffee but we don’t get 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay sick pay as is common in public sector. We get 2 weeks and then onto SSP.

Use of a car whenever I need it, sometimes fuelled as well, occassional lunches and the odd Friday afternoon bottle of alcohol

Most important thing is that have a good team, so we have a lot of laughs in a stressful industry

I cannot believe that nurses don't even get free tea and coffee never mind snacks during their long day. Owe my daughter and grandaughters lives to NHS staff so when we visited we stocked up their biscuit cupboard

Free urinalysis if you think you have a UTI?!!

I'm not a nurse, but NHS lab based and we get nothing too, have to pay for our own tea and coffee, christmas nights out etc too.

I’ve had:

free lunches either in the restaurants I worked for or staff canteen.

unlimited soft drinks and beer fridges, fruit and snacks.

food trucks turn up and you can order what you want.

ballot for free theatre tickets

discount in store

up to 70% discount on products we sold

ice cream fridge full of ice creams and lollies in the summer.

sample sales where you can buy products for 50P or a bag full for a fiver.

bonus throughout the year £150 JL vouchers

I work Head office for hospitality/retail and the perks are always good

edit: missing word

We have unlimited tea and coffee. Lunchtime meetings always have food provided and if it gets super busy our manager will sometimes buy lunch for everyone. We’re a small branch of a big company.
Clients often hand in chocolates and biscuits- it all has to be logged before we get to have it. Something to do with bribery laws?

I work in a university. Sometimes we get the leftover sandwiches after an event. There was cake once and that just about sent us over the edge. We do have unlimited access to pens and whiteboard markers.

My last job (now retired) was with a food bank and we would get coffee or tea if there was any available. I like fruit tea so would buy boxes of that and be lucky to get one drink because it turned out others liked it too. We did get free pick of anything past it's sell by date (couldn't give it to our clients) or anything with alcohol (church based so nothing alcoholic allowed, even Bailey flavoured chocs).
Prior to that I worked for a large bank and we had free tea and coffee, a fruit bowl, occasionally croissants etc, Easter eggs, advent calendars, small stuff. Pre covid there was a Christmas party laid on and during covid we got to choose a present to be bought with our party money instead. And during covid lunch was provided daily for those in the office and the restaurant chef was over the moon as he didn't have to follow a menu set by head office. I was in one day when he had decided to cook rack of lamb - I was so happy.

They might start charging for that soon!

When I was young I worked for several financial services/insurance firms. Small town, not in the city. They all had a very subsidised staff restaurants. One even made all the food free. I had quite a few free roast dinners mid week 😆 Another also had a lady with a tea trolley who would come to each floor mid morning and you could buy drinks, chocolate, cake etc. That was only year 2000 but seems very old fashioned now. I work from home now, so I have to pay for everything. No travel costs at least.

I work for a small business. No perks except a team Christmas activity is paid for.