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Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

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Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#51

Post by StavrosK »

dfranke wrote: post #42
cperciva wrote: post #34

The best benefit I've ever heard of is Matasano's unlimited books budget. I have absolutely no clue why nobody else (AFAIK) does this. I'm sure it more than pays for itself just by making people more productive, never mind the value to the employees themselves.

Think what would happen if this became widespread. Book publishers start charging exorbitant prices because most of their buyers don't care. Employers push back and negotiate deals for themselves with publishers. Do you really want the book market to look like the US healthcare market?

"Unlimited budget" doesn't mean "unlimited spending". I'm pretty sure people would only buy things they needed, so the situation you describe wouldn't happen any more than it does now.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#52

Post by dcaldwell »

j_baker wrote: post #30
dcaldwell wrote: post #28

Allowing employees to donate 10% of their work time to nonprofits of their choice. Employees feel like their company gives a crap and helps them feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves.

This is good, but these kinds of deals are almost always more of a gimmick than anything else. If I work 36 hours and volunteer 4 hours, chances are I'll probably still be given 40 hours of work rather than 36.

Yeah, I suppose it depends on the type of business. If the business espouses the 37Signals philosophy of not overworking employees, then it can be a good thing. If not, then it could just lead to more work.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#53

Post by bryanlarsen »

WTH? 51 comments and nobody's mentioned vacation time yet? I would take a job with a proper amount of vacation time over a job with the American mandated minimum (1 week) but double the pay. It was different before I had a wife and child, but now, vacation is more important than anything.

2 weeks to visit family at Christmas. 1 week to visit family during the summer. 2 weeks for a proper vacation in Europe or Asia or whatever 1 week for home renos. There's nothing like swinging a hammer for a week to destress. 1 week to create a few extra long weekends to get stuff done, show visitors around the city, et cetera.

total: 7 weeks, which is relatively common for professionals in Europe. Unfortunately, I don't live in Europe.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#54

Post by zackola »

tibbon wrote: post #22

Between my experiences at several jobs: -In office music -In office shower. Somewhere to store extra clothes and items -In office kitchen (and a good one at that) -Bike rack -Basic bike tools on-hand at office -Easily accessible set of basic hand and small power tools in office. Stuff happens. You need them. -Motorcycle parking -Chair budget. Get what you want/need to work best -I liked Pixar's office/cube budget, al…

Please explain the - In office music bullet. I worked at a consultancy once that piped a local top 100 station over the PA all day long and it drove me mad hearing the same awful songs/advertisements/DJs ad nauseum.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#55

Post by pasbesoin »

This isn't in the programming domain, nor does it originate in private enterprise, buy my cousin retired at... about 52, from a county health department, with full health benefits through to Medicare eligibility (as I understand it).

They can now work as much or as little as they wish (including in private enterprise), where they wish, on a contract basis, and not worry about health care.

It's not a cash benefit nor one you can buy with cash (other than being wealthy enough not to have to worry about such things), so I see it as a significant "non-cash" benefit.

Recently, they were working in an office where the management and politics were wearing them down. When their commitment ended -- even though the organization wanted them to remain -- they were free to decline and look for something more comfortable.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#56

Post by anamax »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #15
anamax wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I figure that any company that offers free food woudl be willing to listen to employee suggestions.

Listening to, and stocking based on, employee suggestions isn't enough. You have to provide the food that I want, even if I'm the only one who wants it.

Stocking based on employee suggestions will miss about 10-15% of the employees.

Yes, I understand why that is, and I'm not suggesting that companies change, I'm pointing out that it's a problem.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#57

Post by anamax »

benmccann wrote: post #23
anamax wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We have fairly healthy food. The signs are all labeled green, yellow, or red to indicate healthfulness and there's salad and vegetables every day. Of course no one is going to stop you from going up for seconds if that's what you want to do, but I've found I eat much healthier at work because it's difficult and time consuming to prepare that variety of food and vegetables for a single person. One of my coworkers lost…

> We have fairly healthy food.

I know what it takes to keep my weight in check and it's a small subset of what is considered "healthy".

> One of my coworkers lost 60 pounds since starting.

Good for that person. Untill I'd done it, I didn't know how hard it is to do.

Yegge says that the typical experience at Google is +10. Is he wrong?

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#58

Post by benmccann »

anamax wrote: post #57
benmccann wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have fairly healthy food. The signs are all labeled green, yellow, or red to indicate healthfulness and there's salad and vegetables every day. Of course no one is going to stop you from going up for seconds if that's what you want to do, but I've found I eat much healthier at work because it's difficult and time consuming to prepare that variety of food and vegetables for a single person. One of my coworkers lost…

> We have fairly healthy food. I know what it takes to keep my weight in check and it's a small subset of what is considered "healthy". > One of my coworkers lost 60 pounds since starting. Good for that person. Untill I'd done it, I didn't know how hard it is to do. Yegge says that the typical experience at Google is +10. Is he wrong?

People joke about the Google 15, but I don't know of anyone that actually put on much weight. I ended up putting on 15-20 pounds, but it was muscle mass that I was trying to gain, so I'm not sure that counts.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#59

Post by daemin »

archangel_one wrote: post #18
wpeterson wrote: post #13

- 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…

Headphones / earphones are always the answer.

Not only can you listen to music with them on, listen to whatever music you want, it's also a bit more of an effort for other people to bug you and take you out of the flow. Of course you can still be interrupted but the barrier is ever so slightly higher.

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