Free job perks

[Packratona!]

I am particularly interested in "types" of jobs, and actual jobs that forum members have or have had recently, that have free valuable perks. Volunteer minimum wage jobs included.

[Ultralight]

I am particularly interested in "types" of jobs, and actual jobs that forum members have or have had recently, that have free valuable perks. Volunteer minimum wage jobs included.

I get free parking and free university tuition through the doctoral level (if I were insane enough to do that). I am a researcher at a university.

I used to work for a labor union as a researcher. I got all my food for free up to $35 a day M-F. Restaurants, groceries, Quicky Marts, etc.

[bae]

I get:

- free/reduced health club membership, & access to workout equipment/training on-the-job
- *lots* of free medical monitoring/care - bloodwork, cardiac/respiratory testing, ...
- free/reduced-cost food at work - breakfast/lunch/dinner
- free room a couple of nights a week if I wish to stay at the station. I could live at the station if I committed to covering a certain number of scheduled shifts a week.
- health/wellness consulting

[Kestra]

Work from home and flexible work hours were my biggest. Also companies paying for education, especially if you can potentially use it elsewhere is really nice.

[Williamsmith]

I get free golf. Golf is an expensive game.

[Tammy]

If we get medical care where I work, they don't bill me or my husband for any copays.

[freshstart]

I used to work for a labor union as a researcher. I got all my food for free up to $35 a day M-F. Restaurants, groceries, Quicky Marts, etc.

why are companies doing that? 35 bucks a day is a lot, they could offer better benefits instead.

I knew it was like this in the tech world but had no idea it happened at many other jobs

[freshstart]

we get a turkey as our yearly bonus, the week AFTER Thanksgiving, lol

access to exercise equipment on the main campus but it is in another city

EAP program

minimal tuition reimbursement that was job related and for each year you used it, you owed a year back when you were done with school. BAD deal, a ton of new NPs, no jobs for most of them in the system so had to pay back all those years as a regular nurse. Although, we are bigger now, you probably could find a NP job if you were willing to move to another state

if you got your medical care through them, the insurance was reasonable. Though I am finding out the hard way all the expensive tests they don't do in our huge system (makes no sense) and will be paying thousands for tests that only the competitor offered. That's changing Jan 1 when new insurance takes effect.

cheap, generic OTC drugs

50k in life insurance

disability benefits

a 403B that changes providers it seems like yearly, the latest has the exact Vanguard funds I wanted, mediocre match. Old defined benefit pension that is frozen, after 20 years, my pension was worth 30k so thank God for403Bs

discounted cafeteria food if you happen to be in the other city. The last time I used it, someone was in the hospital so someone else and I went to grab a quick dinner, when it rang up I said I had the employee discount, she said she knew and I had saved 33cents on two meals! I have to laugh, they list this as an actual benefit at benefit fairs.

FSA/HSA

allowed to do documentation at home

[Chicken lady]

Hugs. (I teach)

The "employee fitness program" (I teach on the third floor of a walk up high ceilinged building - some of the equipment I need is kept in the sub basement)

Sometimes cupcakes (on birthdays) and gifts like candles and soap and candy and hand drawn pictures.

Lunch 3x a year. The Christmas lunch is amazing. Parents make us really healthy yummy stuff from scratch! The beginning of the year and end of the year lunches are ok.

Chemical free blood pressure adjustment (I have to monitor my blood pressure - when the technician took it yesterday on my day off it was 132/88. Today, after 6 hours with my kids, it was 107/73.)

One paid sick day.

Seriously. The only "official benefit" of my job is one paid sick day. And one of my goals is to not have to take it. Because then I miss a whole day of being at work. And my blood pressure goes up. ;-)

[freshstart]

Hugs. (I teach)

One paid sick day.

Seriously. The only "official benefit" of my job is one paid sick day. And one of my goals is to not have to take it. Because then I miss a whole day of being at work. And my blood pressure goes up. ;-)

is this a public school? Ours are unionized and pretty powerful. Is that even legal to give one single day to be sick? Do you get holidays, vacation days? We just get hours in a bank to be used at our discretion.

we used to have a decent Christmas party at a nice live jazz club, fun, we'd have our own room. The ONE year i couldn't go, I start hearing that all these staff took their shirts off, walking around in bras until going home! Even this extremely introverted, no drinking social worker did it. I thought I was being punked. We go into morning meeting, the director is there and just by looking at her face, I realized holy crap, they really did do this! We got chastised for representing our company by "stripping", in a room that had a Welcome, Hospice sign in front of it. She could not contain her fury, she said, and she slammed out of the room. Meanwhile, once I believed it had happened, I could not keep from laughing, so I was coughing and making no eye contact. The more the director said "my employees, nurses to boot, STRIPPING in a public place", the harder it got not to burst out into full blown laughter and asking if anyone had recorded it, per chance? Then I thought, could they lose their jobs? And that wasn't funny.

So the fall out was no parties outside of the office ever again. They allot a decent amount for this party. This year, when we came in the morning of the party at 8am, they had 2 cheese pizzas, 1 bottle of soda, and there were a dozen cookies on a platter. And there had to be 45 people there. Where do you even get pizza at 8 am? People dive bombed the food, it's gone in a matter of minutes and there was nothing for the remaining 30.

So were going to suggest they give the allotted amount and we'll plan something nice and fully clothed? Sigh, now I will never know a Hospice Christmas Party again. And damn it, I missed the very best one!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Really though chicken lady, I don't think many of us have many perks anymore (in this economy?), we're lucky if we have formal "benefits", partially subsidized health insurance (only partially, obamacare is cheaper but not better), and a 401k with minimal or no matching, sick days and 2 weeks or if we've been there forever 3 weeks vacation a year and 7 paid holidays. Perks? 40 years ago maybe. Paid education benefits? LOL. There is some free food (but you must make bagels one of the major food groups) and caffeine. They pay for parking for work. There is an xmas party after work hours.

[freshstart]

we got charged to "park" even though we were not on the main campus, our parking lot was huge and FFS we drove all day! Took two years and they finally agreed.

[rosarugosa]

Perks or part of the Benefits package? For perks, we get free coffee & tea, we can park in the downtown Boston parking garage for free at night and on weekends (would cost about $20). Sometimes free passes are available to local museums and we can get discounted movie theater tickets.
We have a really decent benefits package, but I see this as something separate. I've been there for a very long time, so I get 7 weeks of paid time off, but everyone gets at least 3, and everyone gets 11 paid holidays. Subsidized medical (getting more expensive all the time though), dental, vision, LTD, fully-paid STD, DB pension, and 401K with decent match, paid education (subject to certain restrictions), annual bonus, wellness incentives. We sometimes have decent quality lunches at meetings and they do paid employee appreciation events (which I personally find to be torture). Overall, I would say I am pretty well treated and compensated for my servitude.

[goldensmom]

Nothing. My brother, however, gets to use the frequent flyer miles, earned from tickets paid for by the company he works for, for personal use and he flies all over the world for his job. He never pays for a plane ticket for personal use for himself or his family.

[Chicken lady]

No, it isn't a public school. It's an alternative program for homeschoolers. Some of the kds attend one class and some attend full time and are only "homeschoolers" because we have no certification and legally the parents have to declare them homeschooled and be responsible for their education.

And I wouldn't trade my employer for all of the sick days in the world! The kids come first. Always. No testing unless you as a teacher feel a need to give a test to find out if your students learned something. Easy access to a responsive administration. Pretty much complete control over my classroom. We just had our morning welcome meetings (first week every year) and the director goes over the rules. We basically have one - respect. This is not lip service or jargon or a slogan.

So yeah, basically no benefits package. We're paid hourly and we get the same unpaid holidays the kids get - and summers off. All week I've been hearing how glad people are to be back. The "perks" at my job are amazing, they're just a little hard to quantify. Most meetings are unpaid and truly voluntary. If it's for the entire 38 person staff, we're usually missing 2 or 3 people who had conflicts. If it's a specific group it gets arranged so that everyone who wants to come can be there. Sometimes that means the director works somebody's lunch duty and the staff member still gets credit for the time. Because we only have meetings when we actually need to have a meeting. The director sent everything out by e-mail, handed us hard copy at the opening staff meeting, and said "we know you all can read. If you have any questions about any of this, I'm here for the next three hours and you have my e-mail and phone number and you know where my office is.". Then we used the meeting time for some group discussion/planning/brainstorming, broke into smaller groups for specific items, talked to colleages about things that mattered to us, tried to orient the new staff, ate the free lunch, and mobbed the director with requests.

[freshstart]

The director sent everything out by e-mail, handed us hard copy at the opening staff meeting, and said "we know you all can read. If you have any questions about any of this, I'm here for the next three hours and you have my e-mail and phone number and you know where my office is.". Then we used the meeting time for some group discussion/planning/brainstorming, broke into smaller groups for specific items, talked to colleages about things that mattered to us, tried to orient the new staff, ate the free lunch, and mobbed the director with requests.

all of what you said is great but especially about not having unnecessary meetings.

[TVRodriguez]

Now that I work for myself, I'd say that one perk is getting to get nice tasty good and even sometimes healthy restaurant lunches almost daily. The caveat to that perk is that these are networking lunches. But it's usually just with one person and is enjoyable.

A friend has a great perk of getting free concert tickets. And they are in her bosses' private box at two large arenas. She has taken me to see Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Sting, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and others. It's awesome.

[rosarugosa]

I would give a lot for no unnecessary meetings. Meetings are the bane of my existence!

[freshstart]

A friend has a great perk of getting free concert tickets. And they are in her bosses' private box at two large arenas. She has taken me to see Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Sting, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and others. It's awesome.

my brother gets stuff like that, Paul McCartney two nights in a row, box seats (is that the right term?) at Red Sox games, the concerts kill me, I want that perk!

we get media perks, we watched the DVD of Happy. Good film, it's on netflix

my favorite was an Oncology Nurses' Assoc dinner at Bucca di Peppa, free, but only if we watched a power point with photos on intractable diarrhea for two hours while we ate! meh, more diarrhea, pass the pasta!

[rosarugosa]

Freshstart: That is a riot!

[SteveinMN]

I've been trying to think of free perks from my old job. About all I can think of is the occasional pallet of product from which we were allowed to take items for personal use. No free coffee or snacks (well, there was a budget for anniversary parties). No free show tickets. "Free parking" only in the sense that we were in suburbia; travel and parking otherwise was reimbursed but not "free".

I used to work at an airline, and we could fly lots of places for free. That was great. Working for that airline -- not so great.

[Packratona!]

Very interesting replies. What I am amazed by is the very few perks I see mentioned here. If I were a business owner trying to retain valuable employees, I would rack my brain and others', do surveys and everything I could think of, to arrange the work environment with perks that can make all the difference between a job you absolutely love and one you absolutely hate. Stupid not to. It's not just the paycheck, and I can't understand why they don't do this. There are many things that make a job much more tolerable that are SO worth it.

[Packratona!]

So let's brainstorm...what are the perks, besides the usual fare, do you think would be fantastic that employers should consider offering?
For me, way less stupid meetings.

[freshstart]

yup, way fewer useless meetings that could be sent in an email.

I would've liked some of our old perks to have stayed, like a once a year luncheon for nurses in all 7 counties and for four hours our beepers were off and we got to see friends from far away and for once just socialize. Then they started all this nonsense that went on the whole time so you couldn't mingle. Making silly hats, sand art, shell necklaces- not one nurse wanted to do that. And games, like pull a disease symptom out of a hat and your table had to make a song about it. Really, what purpose was any of that serving? Then a special guest who we had very little to pay out of the budget. So the special guest was Dr Gigglebritches, a clown who visits children and adults in the hospital (adults? she is the last person I would want to see in the hospital). She is so over the top stupid silly, loud and had horns and whoopie cushions. A few years of arts and crafts, the crazy clown and sing alongs about terminal illnesses, no one wanted to go anymore. I was on the committee and tried to explain, we are happy with a sandwich and getting to see each other. But management had decided the luncheon had to be educational. WTH was educational about all that nonsense? So I said that would be fine but maybe the educational piece could be, well, remotely educational. A speaker who can teach us something to help us do our jobs better (i.e.: not years of Dr Gigglebritches). And every single response to a survey was sing-a-longs and arts and crafts were detested. And since this was supposed to be a celebration and thank you to the nurses, then let us socialize and network. They did another repeat the next year, made it mandatory, still hardly anyone went and it was taken out of the budget. They took the only 4 hrs we ever had off, had fun and totally, completely wrecked it.

[Tammy]

I just want to be treated like an adult without all the micromanaging. Trust me to not use the bathroom too often, to only check my personal cell phone for reasons that matter, and to be able to express my opinion without fear of not aligning myself with the company mission.

Instead companies write policies that treat people like they are children.

[freshstart]

The best job perk I had, when I read your post, I realized how great it was not to be micromanaged patient care-wise. You set your schedule and as long as you dealt with emergencies, your day was your day. And having your assessments of a patient situation respected because you earned your stripes, that was nice. But being micromanaged in so many other stupid things did made me feel like I was a child, you are right about that.

[Gardenarian]

I work part-time in a university library. Perks are:

Tuition reduction for myself and family members (I may take advantage of this sometime.)
Large discounts on local concerts and theater - I love this one.
My own office - I spend little time there, but it's nice to have my own space, with a window. I can also use the office during my free time for my own projects, when things are too noisy at home. (My work is a 10 minute walk, so I have occasionally used my office for writing.)
I'm not sure if it's really a legal perk, but everyone uses the photocopier and printers for personal use, though I haven't (yet.)
There is a shower and changing room, which I've never used. It was installed to encourage people to bike to work rather than drive, and some people do use it that way. If I wanted, I could shower at work, but I'm not THAT cheap. Or smelly :)
Discounts on computers and printers.
First dibs on all the donated books - very nice little perk!
At my previous job we had a good pension plan. I am officially retired, and will be receiving my pension for the rest of my life. (Assuming the pension plan remains solvent.) When I die, my daughter will get $500 per month for the rest of her life. (That job was also at a college library.)
Not really a perk, but just being a part of a college community has all sorts of benefits. You are plugged into that network and find out first about all sorts of cultural things going on in the community. You can also avail yourself of the (very inexpensive) campus cafes and eateries.


I've only been at this job since January, and I had the summer off. So far, so good - as a part-timer, I don't have to go to meetings - the whole thing is very low-stress. Not very well paid, but I've got my pension.

[profnot]

At my last job wherein I was employed, the firm had a mileage points credit card. The boss gave me all the points. I used it for all office supplies - everything I could. There were enough points for flights on one or two trips to Europe each year.

The boss also paid for annual flu shots for everyone.

No one had to work overtime.

When someone had a birthday, the entire office got free lunch.

The office employed several undergraduates. When one of the gals graduated, she got a pair of real pearl stud earrings.

Annual Xmas dinner at a posh restaurant.

That's when I ran the firm and the boss made great money.

Now the bookkeeper tells me all perks are gone except free coffee & tea. He mistreats everyone (I used to be a buffer between the employees and him). He requires overtime work but won't pay more than regular hourly wages. (Yes, that is illegal. And the owner/boss knows it.) They are all overworked and hate working there and leave as soon as they can. And the boss wonders why his profits are low, why he can't retire even though he is the right age for it, and why he is miserable.

Over on MrMM, many people have posted that they didn't quit jobs, they quit managers.

[pinkytoe]

Aside from good benefits (healthcare, pension, etc), some of the freebies that come to mind are:
One basic health checkup, vision and hearing screening.
Substantial discounts on performing arts events
Free bus and light rail fares (that's a biggie)
Advance seating for big political or civic events (VIP speakers, etc)
Lots of free meals and birthday/holiday parties
A gold pin every five years (not sure why they still do this)

[SteveinMN]

I just want to be treated like an adult without all the micromanaging. Trust me to not use the bathroom too often, to only check my personal cell phone for reasons that matter, and to be able to express my opinion without fear of not aligning myself with the company mission.

Instead companies write policies that treat people like they are children.
I always was amused that the company at which I worked insisted on hiring the best and brightest right out of college and recruited heavily to hire people with demonstrated track records of accomplishment and drive -- and then played "daddy" for the rest of their career. Too many committees, too many process control programs, Byzantine spending rules,...

And, always, the creation of policy by extrapolating from one incident. I had one director who would not let me attend a conference for the software I was supporting, despite an invitation to do so by the software vendor. Apparently, years ago some people went to a (different) conference and pretty much squandered their time away from the office in bars, and dammit he wasn't going to give anybody the chance to do that again. Ditto for the manager who refused to let me go to a sports event at (another) software company's suite -- along with several others from our software user's group -- on the notion that it would look bad. Like I would throw a software evaluation worth tens of thousands of dollars because the software company essentially bought me a $90 ticket to the event. >.< Manager, if someone is abusing company policy, enforcing that is YOUR job. Don't make the rest of us innocents have to pay the price.

[dinah]

i'm a public servant...so no perks for me. I do have an excellent benefits package though, which is good.


So let's brainstorm...what are the perks, besides the usual fare, do you think would be fantastic that employers should consider offering?
For me, way less stupid meetings.

I think some good perks would be -

-getting reimbursed for bus passes or a subsidized public transportation program.
-reduced or free gym memberships
-flexible hours
-being treated like a valuable and worthy human.
-random days off

[freshstart]

I guess mine are very job specific- bring back some of the things that made us feel like a team. For instance, we would weekly light candles for each patient that had passed and anyone could say what they wanted to about them, it was very moving and it allowed you to thank a team member who did an awesome job. Took less then half an hour, gave respect to the dead and each other. People would cry, it was cathartic. My boss was a nurse, when she got promoted, she cut this, saying, "this is the crap we don't have to do anymore." We said we actually got a lot out of it, cut anyway.

2 days a week we all started our day at the office for short meetings, our wonderful chaplains would start the meeting with a prayer or a poem, something secular, something from a religion none of us were members of, and it was always a peaceful moment of centering before a busy day. That got cut as more "crap we don't have to waste time on". That must've made the chaplains feel really good. Waste time? It takes maybe 3 mins max to read the average poem and it was all good, I had never heard anyone complain about this or the above example.

so far, she had managed to cut time wasters by 33 mins a week

Then she announced we no longer had to sign the sympathy card that goes to families, "I hated doing this, I'm sure you do. We'll stamp them instead". We said we liked them because you could put a personal note in it. "Already ordered the stamp and we have a volunteer to do them and send them out." Ok, am I working at hospice or an auto factory where 3 mins might matter? Getting a personalized sympathy card with a note from every team member was nothing but good and really, how far down hill are we headed that management cannot recognize even this? Even my vet sends a personal note when my dog dies. Another 3 minutes saved.

none of these sound like perks, but they honestly were, the whole tenor of our team changed over time when these things were gone. We always supported each other and that was harder when there was no time to publicly thank a peer, no one to support us if we had a really bad death, those candle memorials turn out to be crucial when you deal with death day in and day out. The cards (as well as phone calls to the bereaved, we were still allowed to do those) were closure.

we were promised an outside therapist to meet only with staff once a month, it would be confidential, management would not know what was said, and we could talk about how hard this job can be or whatever we wanted that made us feel supported by our employer while doing a difficult job. I was there for 11 years. This came up quarterly at staff meetings, we were told they still hadn't found anyone, but it was staying on the agenda, we would get one! So I sat through 44 staff meetings with "find outside support for team" on the agenda. In a country where you can throw a rock and hit someone with a psychology degree.

it's sad, what made us us, the stuff we did to create support and closure, is long gone. And they really weren't "perks" that cost the company any money.

[pinkytoe]

I remember another one. Our director at the time OKd free yoga classes for our small group of 12. Every semester we would meet twice a week in a classroom down the hall for yoga.

[Packratona!]

I just want to be treated like an adult without all the micromanaging. Trust me to not use the bathroom too often, to only check my personal cell phone for reasons that matter, and to be able to express my opinion without fear of not aligning myself with the company mission.

Instead companies write policies that treat people like they are children.

Yup. I think that's one reason for the meetings...to be able to scold us. Plus a lot of bosses just want to grandstand. It's so ridiculous, a huge waste of time, and one of the things that burn people out.

[Packratona!]

Best job perk I got was free college classes. All my master's degree was paid for until my last semester when a new stupid boss took over and decided, unilaterally, to ration us to one class per semester. She was so autocratic I just resigned as soon as I got my master's degree, and got a different job that upped my pay by a LOT. I can't stand having a dictator boss.

[rosarugosa]

Freshstart: That's so sad that practices were eliminated that were low or no cost, and must have meant so much to patients' families as well as staff.

[kib]

Working as as AD (something like a contractor) for the Forest Service, when I was on an an assignment I received free hotel, a per diem allowance for food that I could choose to spend or bank, usually a free rental car or mileage reimbursement on my own car, and other small perks like getting reimbursed for laundry. Basically, my life was free as long as I was on a job, which could last anywhere from a week to three months. No other benefits but hey, three-four months a year of free living isn't bad.

[freshstart]

Freshstart: That's so sad that practices were eliminated that were low or no cost, and must have meant so much to patients' families as well as staff.

it is sad, we were such a good team until this nurse got promoted, she also got rid of at least ten old timers, they had to resign or be fired for some crazy reason. that was heartbreaking, those people had hospice in their hearts and were the best people I ever worked with. A humble, gentle chaplain in his 60s who was so good there aren't even words had to take his personal effects in front of two security guards they brought in from the hospital 15 miles away. He did not tear up, he asked to take one file of his favorite prayers he had collected since becoming a chaplain, they said NO! I was bawling, if this is who we are now, do I want to do this? But the nursing was the most fulfilling I had ever done so I waited and then got sick and sicker so I never got to make that decision, it was made for me. But I stole that chaplain's file of prayers and sent it to him on the company dime, my only way to fight the system, lol. We got down to two social workers and me that had not been 'resigned' yet. Hired new grads (if you have never been a nurse before, hospice home care is NOT the place to start), cut training from 8 wks to 2 wks, so we were purposely hiring new grads and giving them 1/4 of the training everyone else gets? Sounds like a plan! The new grads were so over their heads, were scared to death of our boss, I was the only experienced nurse left so I got all the crying phone calls, "I don't know what to do!" The first few months I was out on leave, they called me at home! Stopped getting calls, they were all let go at the end of their probationary period. They started the same process. It had to be a management way of cleaning house of expensive staff, IDK, it was the worse thing I ever saw our company do. They would make up fire-able offenses, with documents to show they had been repeatedly counseled and did not improve. They were forced to resign AND sign these fake counseling sessions documents. I figured I was next and had been keeping notes on what was done to others and planned to pursue getting an attorney if it happened to me. 1 attorney against a company with 89k employees, yeah, that would be easy! Maybe it's a good thing I didn't get to make that decision to continue to work where ethics are non-existant

hmmm, who's rambling without a point with her broken brain? Sorry! OMG, world's longest paragraph, lol

[Chicken lady]

Technology and I are not good together. Most of the administration of my job is paperless and we are constantly getting new "tools" to help us. Many of the teachers like this, but I get very frustrated. We have to use our peronal computers and mine is a 6 year old tablet and no longer updatable. Last time a form I use at most once or twice a year went electronic I couldn't find it. The assistant director walked me through it. Then she printed a copy out and said "here, keep this. If you have to use one of these just copy it and fill it out and leave it on my desk."

They are always really patient with my ignorance and incompetence. Yesterday I had managed to pull my class page up on screen and was using the list to put paper handouts in student folders. The electronic handout symbols were visible on the page (students always get paper and access to an electonic copy. Often we also e-mail a copy to parents) My boss went by, saw what I was doing, stopped, tapped me on the shoulder, grinned at me and down at my computer and said "nice!".

It wasn't condescending, it was "hey! I just noticed you are trying to make friends with the electronics! Good job on that!". She is really good at that kind of individual positive feedback.

I never get feedback on saving us money because it is second nature to me, but sometimes she refers other teachers to me to ask about help getting cheap/free supplies. This year I had a "horrible" supply bill - I bought half my supplies for the year up front because I could get them 25% off and I was really nervous about turning in my reciepts. We're supposed to get anything over $50 approved and i didn't. It was an "act now" situation. My check came back without comment.

[gg_sl]

Large member-owned financial services company:

-- $17K + paid towards family plan health insurance
-- on-site gym (large, with showers, zumba/yoga/etc..classes, Towels and workout clothes provided)
--$5K annual education reimbursement. $10K if requested. There are literally hundreds of employees who had their education paid for
--Pay for certifications (CPA, etc...)
-- quarterly outings (laser tag, bowling)
-- flexible schedule, depending on your role and boss. Lots of folks work from home one day a week. Two people I know of flat out moved and kept their job. One moved to Hawaii. She just has a VPN connection. it was kind of crazy. I only would have contact with her once every couple of months, then all of a sudden I went by her cube and she moved to Hawaii and started working from home.
-- Lots of opportunities to work in other parts of organization
-- I go to a conference once a year, paid for by company. last year went to DC and partied for a week. This year New Orleans. But this is only for certain areas not company wide
--Extra paycheck in December (we get paid every two weeks)
--All employees, even the lowest paid are eligible for annual bonus. Over past 20 years, I am told the bonuses have been between 12% and 18%
-- 8% 401(k) match

There is more but that is off the top of my head. The organization prides itself on employee benefits.

[freshstart]

yup, I picked the wrong field. If I got a bonus like that I would have to lie down from the shock. That company sounds even better than the ones in the money magazines do their report on best companies to work for. Did they have to work so many years to "repay" the education money?

[gg_sl]

Yes, there is some period of time you need to stay in order to not have to pay back the tuition but I am not sure how long. As for the bonus, it works pretty well. If someone contributes 8% to their 401(k), and saves their bonus, they can save ~30% of their salary without expending too much effort. A few other things:

-- Onsite clinic and physical therapy
-- company provided vans for commuters who live out in country for vanpooling
-- Various ping pong, pool, and foosball tables
-- Relaxation and nap rooms (I take naps fairly regularly).
-- Company-wide sports leagues after hours (kickball, softball, volleyball, tennis, and others)
-- Onsite Starbucks with lots of tables (not free)

Hourly workers can't really take naps and such during work hours. But salaried folks are pretty much in charge of their own time. if I feel sleepy, and don't have any scheduled meetings, I will go take a nap. Or see if a friend wants to play ping pong or grab a coffee. It is a pretty nice environment.

[freshstart]

nap rooms? seriously, this sounds like nirvana, good for you! Is retiring early a goal?

once 3 area hospitals got sued for colluding to keep nurses' salaries low, so I got a 7% raise, I think they were trying to protect themselves. I actually asked my boss, "is this real? I am for sure getting a 7% raise?" not too shabby, a 7% raise once in 23 yrs, lmao!

[Williamsmith]

Yes, there is some period of time you need to stay in order to not have to pay back the tuition but I am not sure how long. As for the bonus, it works pretty well. If someone contributes 8% to their 401(k), and saves their bonus, they can save ~30% of their salary without expending too much effort. A few other things:

-- Onsite clinic and physical therapy
-- company provided vans for commuters who live out in country for vanpooling
-- Various ping pong, pool, and foosball tables
-- Relaxation and nap rooms (I take naps fairly regularly).
-- Company-wide sports leagues after hours (kickball, softball, volleyball, tennis, and others)
-- Onsite Starbucks with lots of tables (not free)

Hourly workers can't really take naps and such during work hours. But salaried folks are pretty much in charge of their own time. if I feel sleepy, and don't have any scheduled meetings, I will go take a nap. Or see if a friend wants to play ping pong or grab a coffee. It is a pretty nice environment.

If I was a shareholder......I think I'd be a little pissed off. What is the name of your employer?

[gg_sl]

If I was a shareholder......I think I'd be a little pissed off. What is the name of your employer?

There are no shareholders. It is organized like a Credit Union, or an old style Mutual insurance company where depositors/policyholders own the company. Overall, expenses (all expenses, not just salaries/benefits) are lower than industry standards, and that is something the Board of Directors explicitly looks at. As for the employee benefits, the idea is that the organization will make some or all of it back with happier, better employees.

[gg_sl]

nap rooms? seriously, this sounds like nirvana, good for you! Is retiring early a goal?

once 3 area hospitals got sued for colluding to keep nurses' salaries low, so I got a 7% raise, I think they were trying to protect themselves. I actually asked my boss, "is this real? I am for sure getting a 7% raise?" not too shabby, a 7% raise once in 23 yrs, lmao!
Well, what I am calling nap rooms are really eight dimly lit private nooks (four on each end of the enormously) with a recliner and a curtain for privacy. In the same area, there are eight or ten soft chairs with things to prop your feet on. No cell phones, food, or talking in these relaxation areas. You hear people snoring all the time.

I had always heard there is a nursing shortage, which indicates that employees would have some bargaining power and could expect good wages and a good environment. I guess this isn't always true. But nursing is a job that people can feel good about. They are doing a good thing, as opposed to just making a widget. :-)

[Tammy]

Fresh start - I have gotten a few 2-3 % raises as a nurse. They were either small market adjustments or cost of living adjustments. But over my 18 year career the bulk of my raises were a result of taking a nursing position with a different company.

I'm always amazed by the superior working conditions in the for-profit world.

I worked the most difficult shift if my career last week. 14 hours straight with only two quick bathroom breaks. I ate bites of food I had brought from home at various times while answering the phone and pager. I drank water when a nurse brought me a cup of cold water while I was dealing with an emergency cause she realized how my day was going. She's known me for years and noticed that I wasn't taking any breaks.

I would love to experience this other world just once - where you actually have some control to pace your day in a humane fashion.

[ApatheticNoMore]

[Fresh start - I have gotten a few 2-3 % raises as a nurse. They were either small market adjustments or cost of living adjustments. But over my 18 year career the bulk of my raises were a result of taking a nursing position with a different company.

I'm always amazed by the superior working conditions in the for-profit world.

what is being described by gg_sl is so far from typical from life in the for profit world that there are no words. Anyone who believes that is typical of the for profit world quite simply has no clue. 2-3% raises are often normal IF YOU ARE LUCKY. And I've never heard of a company that actually gave COLAs, it's all merit raises and many might be deemed unworthy depending (which might mean no increases to keep up with the cost of living for years). A lot of people I know get their best raises by shifting companies, it's almost common sense that that's what one should do at least when they are young, anything else is ruining one's potential future salary. Company loyalty? I've never yet encountered much of it. A few people are the type to stay depending on the job, many aren't.


I would love to experience this other world just once - where you actually have some control to pace your day in a humane fashion.

that varies widely. While most people in the corporate white collar world are not working 14 hour days there are always the white collar sweatshops where they are. Someone just putting in a 40 hour week can be looked down on sometimes, they often openly expressed expectation is to put in more and often there is no over time pay due to the salaried designation (think of what kind of incentive not having to pay for overtime creates for employers to take free labor, and it's almost the goodness of their hearts such as it is that they all don't).

I don't really have any overwhelming impression of the non-profit world, I get the impression that while the corporate world is sometimes rather exploitative and doesn't always care about employees (the less you give them the better for the bottom line!), the non-profit world is often dysfunctional as it can lack the clarity a bottom line provides (but with 14 hour days I'd have to say exploitative in that case as well - you guys need a union!), government work does seem rather cushy I have to say, and university work super cushy (unless you are some poor adjunct I guess).

[SteveinMN]

There have been a few posts in this thread which have listed plenty of benefits which are not free -- which was the point of the thread (I thought).

I worked at a large campus; the buildings I worked in offered two cafeterias and a coffee bar (not free; no discount). Maybe that should have been considered a "free" perk, though if I always brought my lunch or ate out, it wasn't a perk at all. There was a van pool, but it was not free (or discounted). A gym on-site (oh, boy, just what I wanted: a chance to sweat and grunt in front of coworkers) (also not free). I guess the parking was free.

Not to denigrate discounted benefits, be they insurance premiums or education reimbursements or discounted beverages or meals. Just that they're not free. They're a benefit ("perk"), but they're not free.

/grouchmode

[freshstart]

Fresh start - I have gotten a few 2-3 % raises as a nurse. They were either small market adjustments or cost of living adjustments.

I'm always amazed by the superior working conditions in the for-profit world.

I would love to experience this other world just once - where you actually have some control to pace your day in a humane fashion.

2% became the norm but for years the economy was blamed and we got nothing even when the economy was booming. Hazard of the job. It is inhumane that nurses work like that and for us a "free perk" is 5 mins to pee. Maybe on the occasional bad day but when I did floor nursing, no matter how fast and organized you were, there seemed to be an awful lot of those bad days.

Have you thought of home care or Hospice where finally you're permitted some flexibility in setting up your day and where you do your charting? However, this is usually a pay cut for floor nurses. How do you feel about management? I did not want middle management and come out of the field, I actually would try to avoid the director every time these crappy positions became open to avoid the awkward conversations. One position would give me $1 an hour raise to do what I hated, because I'd been there so long I was at the top of the pay scale. No thanks. After years of discussions that I preferred to be a preceptor and mentor in the field than be in middle management, thank God I got sick and never have to have those conversations again. The promise of real money being unlocked to me if I took the higher positions but had to be "working" on my MBA. In my 11 yrs there, none of those upper-management people ever graduated, lol. I should've taken bedside jobs that paid more but there are no alternative hospices and I really loved it. How many people can say that? that's a free perk, helping ease pain and suffering

I would like to experience that other world, too. My brother has had some pretty sweet deals with amazing perks. Working for Sir Tim Berners Lee being one. He also got to do projects with Cornel West and Noam Chomsky. When he met Chomsky, his name was given to Chomsky. It was assumed my brother knew who this amazing man is and he does but it didn't click right away. So Chomsky was asking about his latest project and my brother explained it dumbed down for someone like me, then it clicked, Noam Chomsky was engaging in conversation with him and he talked down to one of the smartest people ever. He goes, "Mr Chomsky, I am so sorry, I forgot my glasses, I couldn't see you well." Chomsky goes, "You better get new ones, kid, they're on your face. Don't worry about it, keep talking." LMAO. But after moving on to the job he has now, he has more tangible perks as the type listed above, more money but none of the experiences he had working for Berners-Lee, he was happy about work for the first time in a very long time. Money and perks aren't everything, working with the innovators in you field can be stimulating enough to keep you there.

[Tammy]

I have many animal and environmental allergies with my asthma. Going into home care would be horrible as I have to take Benadryl just to sleep in a hotel or fly on a plane. Second hand smoke and fragrances also mess with me. So institutional settings are best for me.

I am a supervisor but still hourly. I would actually take a cut per hour if I moved into a salaried position.

This is my first nursing position where there's a chance for a few shifts each month where I run out of things to do and can work on my continuing education at work. Of course the other side to that coin is that any problem with any of the 75 patients in my building becomes my problem. Hence shifts like the one I described above.

Believe it or not, this is a big improvement from any other nursing position I've had.

[freshstart]

I am a supervisor but still hourly. I would actually take a cut per hour if I moved into a salaried position.

This is my first nursing position where there's a chance for a few shifts each month where I run out of things to do and can work on my continuing education at work. Of course the other side to that coin is that any problem with any of the 75 patients in my building becomes my problem. Hence shifts like the one I described above.

Believe it or not, this is a big improvement from any other nursing position I've had.

I believe you! That is weird you are hourly in management. By some freak chance when hospice joined our hospital system, they decided to make professionals salaried to avoid overtime pay. But someone must not have looked at the hard numbers because we rarely have much OT as we have an on call staff to cover 4p-8am. So while we occasionally would have some, it was nothing like what hospital nurses get. So this made us the lowest paid but we got some managerial benefits other nurses, paid hourly, did not have. And, as I found out, long term disability is a God send, hourly workers do not have that benefit at all. I'm sure my payout from it will never equal making a lower wage but whatev, I loved my job enough to stay there knowing the pay was lower.

Years ago they tried to make hospital nurses salaried by saying if we wanted to be regarded as professionals, we should be salaried. Utter BS said to distract us from no more salary differentials, no holiday pay and no overtime. That was the first time the nurses revolted, they were quitting, getting the story out to the public. To me, this would've been the perfect time to unionize, all other attempts at unionization never worked. I think this might have been enough to do it. Instead management dropped it. It was stupid to begin with, who would work nights salaried, paid the same as everyone else? No one.

[LDAHL]

I get to be buried with military honors. Looking forward to it.

[freshstart]

that is an honor, good for you, just not too soon!