5 ms·

> I don't care how free the food is I tend to see perks like "free food" as a red flag when I'm job hunting. In my experience, employers that go way above and

by pluto9 9y ago

> I don't care how free the food is I tend to see perks like "free food" as a red flag when I'm job hunting. In my experience, employers that go way above and beyond to make an office comfortable are doing it because they expect you to spend virtually all of your time there. Any office that has a game room or a cafeteria is extremely suspect. All I need is relative quiet, a reasonable meeting schedule, and decent equipment. I'll buy my own lunch and leave at 5, thanks.

watwut 9y ago
As one blogger said, perks are cheaper then salary raise.
- pluto9 9y ago
  Exactly. I once had a manager who tried to incentivize my team to work overtime for two months to hit an unrealistic deadline set by the sales department. The incentive was that we would have a pizza party IF we hit the deadline. Monetary compensation was never even discussed.
  - bugsy 9y ago
    > The incentive was that we would have a pizza party IF we hit the deadline. This same thing happened to me when I was a wee lad. I then personally ordered and paid for a few pizzas, breadsticks, root beer, a greek salad, about $50 all together, and hosted a pizza party myself at work late at night. To get your slice I just had you sign a petition against unpaid overtime and interest in joining the Teamsters Union. A couple guys didn't want to sign, the others did. A few weeks later I was fired with cause, had a better paying job by the end of the week. Company folded around a year later. And good.
  - watwut 9y ago
    Funny thing, the dude I had in mind was not criticizing the practice. He was giving advice to other employers on how to save money and motivate people. I always wondered what his employees thought when they read that article and whether the perks worked as nicely after he explained his thinking in public.

5 ms·

> I don't care how free the food is I tend to see perks like "free food" as a red flag when I'm job hunting. In my experience, employers that go way above and

by pluto9 9y ago

watwut 9y ago
As one blogger said, perks are cheaper then salary raise.
- pluto9 9y ago
  Exactly. I once had a manager who tried to incentivize my team to work overtime for two months to hit an unrealistic deadline set by the sales department. The incentive was that we would have a pizza party IF we hit the deadline. Monetary compensation was never even discussed.
  - bugsy 9y ago
    > The incentive was that we would have a pizza party IF we hit the deadline. This same thing happened to me when I was a wee lad. I then personally ordered and paid for a few pizzas, breadsticks, root beer, a greek salad, about $50 all together, and hosted a pizza party myself at work late at night. To get your slice I just had you sign a petition against unpaid overtime and interest in joining the Teamsters Union. A couple guys didn't want to sign, the others did. A few weeks later I was fired with cause, had a better paying job by the end of the week. Company folded around a year later. And good.
  - watwut 9y ago
    Funny thing, the dude I had in mind was not criticizing the practice. He was giving advice to other employers on how to save money and motivate people. I always wondered what his employees thought when they read that article and whether the perks worked as nicely after he explained his thinking in public.