1. Congenial colleagues.
2. An office with actual walls and a door that closes. Full-time remote work is a good substitute.
What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
21–30 of 38 posts
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#22How the hell has no one said insurance yet?! I guess this mostly applies to the US, but I wouldn't want to work at a place with bad insurance. Otherwise - fun/intelligent people to work with - vacation, both in length and ability to take it whenever I want (I have 20 days right now) - ability to take an hour here or there to get a haircut/deal with bureaucracy/etc. I guess wfh is included in this -office being in a c…
It's also a solid perk in the UK. I've not worked at many big companies, but most places I've worked at have had good health insurance plans.
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#23How the hell has no one said insurance yet?! I guess this mostly applies to the US, but I wouldn't want to work at a place with bad insurance. Otherwise - fun/intelligent people to work with - vacation, both in length and ability to take it whenever I want (I have 20 days right now) - ability to take an hour here or there to get a haircut/deal with bureaucracy/etc. I guess wfh is included in this -office being in a c…
It's also a solid perk in the UK. I've not worked at many big companies, but most places I've worked at have had good health insurance plans.
I've worked at a few major, but mainly smaller over my 30 year UK career, and none have had health insurance. Mostly outside London.
I have had gourmet meals in-house, gym membership, book allowances, discount hardware and others, but never yet health insurance.
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#24Salary
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#251) Respect for my role from upper management. This one is huge for me. I have a friend working as an engineer in a company where engineers aren't considered impact players (i.e. aren't perceived as revenue generating, even if the perception isn't 100% true). She is paid well and her boss loves her. But her boss's boss and everyone from there on up have the attitude that engineers "just don't get it" and she's miserable there, because her work can't have as much impact without upper management buy-in. This is a cultural thing and varies highly even between companies in the same industry. For example, there are hedge funds where good engineers are rock stars and there are hedge funds where they are looked at as support staff. In that industry, your importance to the company is often reflected in your pay, but pay aside, where do you think that the engineers are happiest?
2) Some people reading this aren't going to like it, but: Coworkers and/or bosses who have kids, or at least are sympathetic to the fact that I do. This one is really only applicable once you have kids yourself, but if you are in a startup where everyone is young and childless (or old and childless), it'll be hard for them to understand the myriad number of things that come up with children. You need to take your kid to the doctor, you need to stay home because the nanny is sick. I can make up the time, but sometimes it means missing important work or things that can't be rescheduled. The excuses add up and I've met many people who aren't sympathetic to them. And I even understand where they are coming from. But as a parent, I value a company where people are respectful of this.
3) An even keeled boss. You can be a nice person or you can be an asshole. But as long as you are consistent, I can figure out how to deal with you. But if one day you are Dr. Jekyll and the next day Mr. Hyde, then I'll always be afraid to approach you.
4) Good health insurance (in the USA). Our system of having health insurance tied to employment is stupid. But it is what it is, and if you aren't getting good health insurance from work, it can be a fortune to pay for it out of pocket.
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#26company car with unlimited mileage. So far I've driven more than 11.000 km in a month - mostly private, due to the customer being 5min away from my home.
But this could easily be replaced by an increase in salary right ? It is not really part of the workplace (unlike coworkers, location, size, etc.)
Or reimbursement for mileage. Businesses can take this as a tax write-off (i.e. no payroll taxes) from the IRS [0]. My father used to get reimbursed for mileage from his work at the IRS rate, which accounts for things such as reduced car value, gasoline and maintenance costs, but is actually quite generous. The reimbursement rate was high enough that he actually made money from it, since it exceeded the costs of gas, increased maintenance and depreciation. That said, if you drive a ferrari which depreciates quickly and guzzles lots of gas, the calculus is going to be different.
[0] https://www.ifebp.org/news/regulatoryupdates/Pages/2019-irs-...
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#271) Respect for my role from upper management. This one is huge for me. I have a friend working as an engineer in a company where engineers aren't considered impact players (i.e. aren't perceived as revenue generating, even if the perception isn't 100% true). She is paid well and her boss loves her. But her boss's boss and everyone from there on up have the attitude that engineers "just don't get it" and she's miserab…
Tagging on the kids part. It's not just the kids being sick, it's all the other things that only happen traditional work hours. My daughter had field day last week starting at 10am. Parent-teacher meetings during school hours. Holiday or end of the year parties. Those things add up and it's easy to forget if you don't have kids yourself.
Thankfully I work from home and my boss (who has kids) doesn't mind my schedule as long as I get my work done.
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#28I'm a Jr. Engineer and I really appreciate working in a positive learning environment with a bunch of experienced, helpful Senior Devs.
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#29Do you guys ever think about the light inside your workplace and how it affects you?
We're in a dungeon with fluorescent lights here. It makes me so miserable that I'm considering looking for work simply because of the lighting. Every other group in the building has windows they can look out of.
Re: What would you say is the most important workplace perk to you?
#301) Respect for my role from upper management. This one is huge for me. I have a friend working as an engineer in a company where engineers aren't considered impact players (i.e. aren't perceived as revenue generating, even if the perception isn't 100% true). She is paid well and her boss loves her. But her boss's boss and everyone from there on up have the attitude that engineers "just don't get it" and she's miserab…
>I have a friend working as an engineer in a company where engineers
I categorize this as a place where there are "leaders" and "peons." The "leaders" see themselves as the important people who have ideas and make decisions. The "peons" are the grunts who are involved in execution and are easily replaceable by another peon. The most valuable people are the ones talking about all supposedly great revenue generating stuff they getting peons to do.
Don't work for these places if you like to be an engineer. As you pointed out, an individual manager may be great, but everybody above them sees you as a cog. If your manager is replaced you are done.
I think the only benefit of these places is that execution is mixed in with so much BS that great work life balance can result from it.