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The Worst Perk at Google

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Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#31

Post by rektide »

What about the more than twenty-something workers? Does Google pay more for them?

I agree it might not be good for twenty-somethings. And I'm sorry, your expected value is low here. The tax situation makes this awkward, an ask I'd rather not make. But: I hope you're ok paying the taxes on this free benefit, if it includes older folk too. They do have- I'm sorry to report- an expected positive value.

In healthcare, a group-pool means the healthy & young pay a little more than their fair share. But it means we all can have benefits. And if catastrophe does happen, well, everyone's glad this is here.

I might cheekily throw in that we can possibly unwind some of the college-educated 0.3x multiplier, because Googlers have enough money to get themselves into some stupid & dangerous hobbies & travel. I wonder if that's actually real... Probably not.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#32

Post by aabhay »

This is a complete misunderstanding of probability, payoff, and return on investment.

The value of a life insurance policy isn’t in its amortized yearly returns. This policy is not an investment. The policy allows you to pay a negligible amount of money to avoid a devastating situation — family pain and debt that might arise from your death.

Anybody who uses this article as justification to end their life insurance policy is so badly mistaken that it hurts.

Edit — the “buy it yourself” argument is stupid. It doesn’t solve the problem outlined in the article.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#33

Post by gretch »

orzig wrote: post #25
gretch wrote: post #21

I work at Google I like that this is taken care of for me and that I don't have to spend my personal time trying to research a bunch of life insurance options and figure out what works and what doesn't. I also love that there is some amount of collective bargaining being applied here instead of me making the purchase as an individual. I'll gladly pay a $300/yr premium for that, and the ease of mind that my loves ones…

Does Google help the family with detailed claim resolution in the event of an employee's death? I don't have evidence either way, but that seems more personal than I'd expect.

To be honest, I don't know the detailed structure for this as I'm relatively young and have the luxury of it being out of mind at the moment.

What I know is that you will for sure have allies that you wouldn't have on an individual basis.

For example, my wife would be able to call up my colleagues (from my team that I work with every day) and ask for connections to HR or whatever. They would definitely help her because 1) they care about me as a person and 2) they are invested from a game theory perspective, because they also want to know that they'll be paid out if the same thing happens to them.

Most likely, there is some existing structure to actually help, as Google is at the scale where this kicks in non-zero times.

However, I just looked it up on the internal search and as you'd expect, it differs based on your country and its laws. So I can't speak for all Googlers

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#34

Post by tverbeure »

gretch wrote: post #21

I work at Google I like that this is taken care of for me and that I don't have to spend my personal time trying to research a bunch of life insurance options and figure out what works and what doesn't. I also love that there is some amount of collective bargaining being applied here instead of me making the purchase as an individual. I'll gladly pay a $300/yr premium for that, and the ease of mind that my loves ones…

> some amount of collective bargaining being applied here instead of me making the purchase as an individual.

The whole point of the article is that Google's pricing is terrible compared to the open market. If they actually did any bargaining they did it this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPqAcOnEBUI.

Having competitive rates and having HR helping out the family when an employee dies can be completely orthogonal.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#35

Post by JackFr »

This is simply terrible analysis. The likelihood of death analysis is beside the point. By enrolling every employee in a group life policy, Google is able to get a very favorable rate from an insurer. Googlers in general are going to be younger, healthier, with greater access to health care than the general population, let alone people who are seeking out life insurance who don’t have access to one through their job (or union).

There is no way an individual would be able to get the same rate Google is paying.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#36

Post by no-dr-onboard »

aabhay wrote: post #32

This is a complete misunderstanding of probability, payoff, and return on investment. The value of a life insurance policy isn’t in its amortized yearly returns. This policy is not an investment. The policy allows you to pay a negligible amount of money to avoid a devastating situation — family pain and debt that might arise from your death. Anybody who uses this article as justification to end their life insurance p…

Should also mention that the site that posted this _sells_ insurance packages.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#37

Post by mathgeek »

aabhay wrote: post #32

This is a complete misunderstanding of probability, payoff, and return on investment. The value of a life insurance policy isn’t in its amortized yearly returns. This policy is not an investment. The policy allows you to pay a negligible amount of money to avoid a devastating situation — family pain and debt that might arise from your death. Anybody who uses this article as justification to end their life insurance p…

Also a bit of survivorship bias. No employee who literally makes use of the perk is around to say how useful it is. Thus we debate how valuable it is if you never actually need it.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#38

Post by JackFr »

aabhay wrote: post #32

This is a complete misunderstanding of probability, payoff, and return on investment. The value of a life insurance policy isn’t in its amortized yearly returns. This policy is not an investment. The policy allows you to pay a negligible amount of money to avoid a devastating situation — family pain and debt that might arise from your death. Anybody who uses this article as justification to end their life insurance p…

In general insurance has a slightly negative expected value (that plus the time value of money) is how insurers make money. You are paying to reduce variance.

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#39

Post by remotecar »

aabhay wrote: post #32

This is a complete misunderstanding of probability, payoff, and return on investment. The value of a life insurance policy isn’t in its amortized yearly returns. This policy is not an investment. The policy allows you to pay a negligible amount of money to avoid a devastating situation — family pain and debt that might arise from your death. Anybody who uses this article as justification to end their life insurance p…

Why doesn’t “buy it yourself” solve the problem?

Re: The Worst Perk at Google

#40

Post by gretch »

tverbeure wrote: post #34
gretch wrote: post #21

I work at Google I like that this is taken care of for me and that I don't have to spend my personal time trying to research a bunch of life insurance options and figure out what works and what doesn't. I also love that there is some amount of collective bargaining being applied here instead of me making the purchase as an individual. I'll gladly pay a $300/yr premium for that, and the ease of mind that my loves ones…

> some amount of collective bargaining being applied here instead of me making the purchase as an individual. The whole point of the article is that Google's pricing is terrible compared to the open market. If they actually did any bargaining they did it this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPqAcOnEBUI . Having competitive rates and having HR helping out the family when an employee dies can be completely orthogo…

No, because this entirely ignores the dimension of quality. I mean maybe they are right, but it's not considered in the analysis.

The author recommends I buy Geico life insurance for $156/yr.

I have Geico car insurance and have filed claims when people broken into my car. You would not believe the lengths this scum bag company goes to in order to not pay you the money you are entitled to. I don't want my family subject to that if I die.

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