What are your favorite perks at work?

Besides your compensation package (base salary, bonuses, etc), what are the fringe benefits that you enjoy? Here are a few that I enjoy at my current employer:

- Onsite gym which I cannot make use of now for obvious reasons, but hope to take advantage of that again.
- So many personal development opportunities. Besides team budgets, each employee receives 1,000 euros annually for training. This budget can also be used towards purchasing up to ten books per year from an organization partnered with my employer.
- Public transportation paid for in full. All internal employees can receive a pass for use on all trains, buses, and metros throughout the country. Once you reach a certain pay scale, you just receive a mobility budget of 700+ euros/monthly to use as you see fit which I am just pocketing because of the pandemic.
- Budget for being able to expense up to 500 euros every two years on a new phone. Also, my employer pays for the mobile plan.
- I work for a financial institution so there are small employee discounts on mortgages.
- Prior to full-time remote work I enjoyed the flex-desk environment. Most of the workforce uses laptops so you could work from any company location of your choosing depending on your responsibilities.
- Each team that I have been on has had very fun (and expensive) team offsite activities.
- Being able to travel to other countries on the company's dime. I am based in the NL and have been able to attend conferences/trainings in Barcelona (twice), London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Krakow, and Las Vegas.

There are more, but these are just some that I have taken advantage of. With previous employers I have enjoyed the following:

- Discounts on attractions such as amusement parks, zoos, aquariums, etc.
- Free tickets to sporting events. This is when I lived in L.A. so I have been to my share of Dodgers, Clippers, and Kings games courtesy of the company. They also gave out free movie passes.
- Free shuttle service to the airport when I worked near LAX. It was nice that I was also able to leave me car on-site for weeks while on vacation.
- One team I worked on used to grant a day off to the people in the team with the best attendance. You could even win time off and other perks when engaging in certain activities at the request of management.
- Being able to go on vacation without using all of my vacation time. I worked in a 24/7 NOC that required that you get your 40 hours per week and didn't care how you did it. I would work Mon - Wed for 10 hours per day and fly out that Wed night. I would return Wed the following week and work Thu - Sun for 10 hours per day to get 40 hours that week. I have taken several full week vacations while only using 10 hours of vacation time. Those were the days.
- The same 24/7 NOC seemed to allow unlimited overtime because there was always work to do. I always worked no less than six days per week for at least 10 hours per day. That paid off student debt, lots of vacations, and my wedding. The company also paid double time and a half when working on holidays so I took full advantage.
- One employer reimbursed public transportation almost 100%. A monthly metro pass would cost $50 and they would reimburse $49.
- Reimbursement for passed exams and training materials plus paying for expensive trainings.

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Comments

TechGromit

Free radiation, but I can't take it home with me.

We have a gym too, but no locker room, or bathroom so If I want to go to the gym, I have change in a different building, go outside to the next building, that forms a nice little wind tunnel between the buildings, not bad in the summer, but unpleasant when it's 17 degree outside.

E Double U

TechGromit said:

Free radiation, but I can't take it home with me.

Homer Simpson Nuclear Power Plant GIFs Tenor

UnixGuy

Literally nothing, just salary..

one employer had a really nice building, fun xmas parties and an onsite barista.

kaiju

When I want to clear my head, I can walk down to the beach and just chill since it is only 3 minutes from my office.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030959/uploads/editor/tz/thdu8pazs5q5.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030959/uploads/editor/ow/taqtbrngn6p9.jpg

Best thing is I get to work with lots of different systems and foreign organizations while trying to keep the enterprise compliant. Full reimbursement of certs and their upkeep; ridiculous per diem when we travel; chances to attend boot camps (I never do); being able to train and mentor the new people who are only with us for a year before transferring back to their main section; ..... blah blah blah

Danielm7

Ha, @E Double U you're just rubbing it in! Really though, in comparison my perks aren't great. We had a gym in the office, but you had to pay for it, pass. We had a deli, but it wasn't really subsidized in any way so you were just paying the prices of going out to lunch without leaving. I've gotten a bunch of training, but I've had to develop the request for myself every time, and there is no real training budget otherwise outside of "just ask". Even the just ask part was often ignored but I'm pretty persistent and have managed to get them to pay for SANS, only work study, a few times.

I do work completely remotely now, it was a few days a week pre-covid, but I've been very clear that my team isn't coming back in even if the world somehow turns normal again. There are too many good jobs in security to have to drive in if you don't want to. I have faar too many meetings every day, but outside of them my schedule is pretty flexible, I can book a doctor, go for a walk, etc, and don't have to tell anyone outside of just blocking my schedule. The remote work, authority and some freedom and decent pay has definitely kept me there, but will not forever.

E Double U

@kaiju - You made me think of my times working in two Southern California beach cities - El Segundo and Seal Beach. I often took advantage of lunch breaks walking on the pier. That is a location perk that I do miss.

@Danielm7 - When I did have a subsidized kitchen it was amazing. But that was one of the first things to go before my employer offshored operations and closed up shop. Every perk was taken away little by little before they let people go. After no more food subsidies and the rideshare program was cancelled, they stopped watering the plants and allowed us take them home. People were getting let go left and right after that lol. It was fun while it lasted.

TechGromit

I have a few others that came to mind.

Stock options where I can purchase company stock at a discount.

Pension

Profit sharing, the $ is deposited into my 401k at the end of the year. I think it was just over 1k last year.

Retiree medical benefits. $333 a paycheck is added to an account, which I can draw on to pay medical expenses when I retire. I have to be with the company at least 10 years (Currently 7 1/2 years) to get this benefit, if I leave before 10 years, I get nothing. There around 30k in the account (it earns interest at well)

There a small training budget, but nothing like it was when I started where they were throwing $ at us to get training. Company paid for Blackhat, Network Forensics (at black hat), three SANS courses Plus paid for certs, two firewall courses, CCNA, Red Tiger SCADA training, SIEM training, and travel / hotel to trainings. All them in person, none of this Virtual training BS.

Free Lunch cards, when we go above and beyond, we can spend them in the Cafeteria.

Occasionally free stuff like T-Shirts, hats, jackets with company name/logo.

Sometimes rewards for working on projects. used the points to cash in for $500 in Amazon gift cards one year.

E Double U

TechGromit said:

There a small training budget, but nothing like it was when I started where they were throwing $ at us to get training.

This is exactly why I take full advantage of an employer's development budget whenever possible. I just feel the well will run dry at some point so I get what I can as long as it is available.

Johnhe0414

- Never have to take my work home. When i finish my day, that's it.

- Pension

E Double U

Johnhe0414 said:

- Never have to take my work home. When i finish my day, that's it.

I have been very fortunate to have this perk at every position that I have held.

UnixGuy

TechGromit said:

I have a few others that came to mind.

sounds like you work for an awesome organisation! what industry is your employer in out of curiosity?

TechGromit

UnixGuy said:

TechGromit said:

I have a few others that came to mind.
sounds like you work for an awesome organisation! what industry is your employer in out of curiosity?

Exelon, it's a Utility that produces power, in some cases, they own the local distribution grid a as well, ACE (South Jersey grid), PECO (Philadelphia Grid), PEPCO (Washington DC Grid), etc, The area I work in, they sell there power to the local utility. Other than one substation, they don't own the local grid where the power station is located.

UnixGuy

TechGromit said:

Exelon, it's a Utility that produces power, in some cases, they own the local distribution grid a as well, ACE (South Jersey grid), PECO (Philadelphia Grid), PEPCO (Washington DC Grid), etc, The area I work in, they sell there power to the local utility. Other than one substation, they don't own the local grid where the power station is located.

That's awesome man, It's really good that a non service prodiver/tech company have these benefits. Companies here don't have any benefits apart from salary, "lunch and learn" and some useless web courses