The place I work now either pays for parking or public transit pass. I take the public transit pass.
Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
11–20 of 59 posts
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#12I am currently in the process of negotiating an employee agreement that limits IP claims to stuff reasonably related to the official line of business, rather than the more normal "everything you think about until you leave belongs to us".
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#13- Free Drinks / Snacks / Lunches
- 20% Time
- Music/Stereo System in the office
- Work from Home Days (where everyone does)
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#14I spent 2 months last year working in China consulting for "the Facebook of China" (not actually Facebook).
One thing that I loved about the office - every day at 6pm, caterers would come round with lunch boxes for everyone. Plus soup, plus drink, plus fruit. And every day it was different! (and delicious)
Sure it's a far cry from Google's 5-star catering with 10 page menu or whatever, but I remember feeling super happy every day when the food came round. Everyone ate, chatted, played games for a bit, then got back to work. It was good for lifting spirits.
Edited to add: this was for about 1000 people, every day.
(Of course, this was good for the company too as it meant people stayed that little bit longer at the office)
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#15Free food is the best. It's actually a really strong incentive to get employees to stay at work longer, and who doesn't like free food? Now it is becoming more and more of a standard perk at startups which is a great thing!
I don't like free food. In most cases, it isn't the food that I'd pick myself and it often leads to weight gain.
I figure that any company that offers free food woudl be willing to listen to employee suggestions.
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#16Ability to pick which projects I want to participate in. Also, being able to provide and revise estimates (as opposed to having someone with a 10 week management course and a fresh install of MS Project telling me that I should have been done implementing an obscure spec 2.5 days ago). Also, having a boss that understands life circumstances. Also, the option to work from home. Lastly, working on interesting stuff with intelligent and friendly people.
Wow, I guess I've been pretty lucky so far...
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#17Free flying lessons -- Avidyne wanted everyone to be a private pilot.
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#18- Free Drinks / Snacks / Lunches - 20% Time - Music/Stereo System in the office - Work from Home Days (where everyone does)
I'm not convinced by the music thing. We have music at our office but in practice it rapidly trends towards whatever offends the least people which is normally some kind of "easy listening" dreck. This doesn't seem to work for most people, given that a fair number of us still listen to our own music on ipods or whatever.
I suppose it would be a nice little benefit if the music played was interesting and cool, but I'm not convinced that's likely to actually work very often.
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#19I used to work for a web retailer selling outdoors gear (skis/snowboards, camping, climbing, &c). During the ski season, on powder days, we were encouraged to go play in the snow before showing up at the office. People at their desks before noon when there's fresh on the slopes were often asked what they were doing at work, and executive "going to get a couple runs in" lunches were the norm the rest of the time.
On top of that, we were eligible for significant discounts on season passes to many of the local resorts (in the Salt Lake City area). Between that and the free day passes that were handed out as rewards by team leads, project managers, and the like, it was hard not to get in some serious slope time.
(And, of course, there was the discount on gear...)
Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?
#20Nap room. Seriously. I'm often dragging a bit by 3-4PM, between general tiredness and food coma from lunch. I'd love to be able to crash out for an hour or two, and come back to what I'm doing refreshed.