What Interesting Employee Perks Does Your Employer Offer?

Hi All,

I recently transferred over to Fitness Passport which is a perk provided through my wife's employer and it got me to thinking about what perks my own company offered.

After digging around a bit on my own Intranet, there are some other benefits available to me that I had not been availing of (and probably still wont), these include:

Corporate rates on: Novated lease, Car Hire Worldwide, Car Dealership Corporate Memberships

Discounts on: Health Insurance, Dell Computer, Apple products & Qantas Membership

Access to: JB Hi-Fi Corporate Purchase Portal

Not too bad but not exactly earth shattering. I really believe that Fitness Passport craps all over my potential perks.

So what perks do you have access to from your employer? Were they made known during the hiring process or are they hidden in a musty corner of an Intranet page somewhere?

Keen to hear on what I am missing out on :)

Comments

  • +109

    Jack with a side of nothing.

    • +82

      My workplace once advertised 4 weeks annual leave as a perk

      • -1

        plus two weeks of sick leave :)

      • Join the armed forces, everyone will say to you "thank you for your service" anytime. you feel respected.

        • +1

          Thank you for your service

  • +43

    I get a balanced lunch provided every day. They give you two options - a balanced lunch, or an an even healthier option. You order your lunch every week for the following week, it's really handy.

    They also have a cafe-grade coffee machine on site for free coffee, lunch room always has fresh fruit, biscuits, snacks etc. There's also a beer on tap for Friday arvo beers :)

      • +1

        Beer NEVER voids insurance. FIGHT HIM !

    • +7

      Let me guess, you work in some type of IT field (eg. Web Hosting)? Seems like a lot of IT related fields offer what you have described, not 100% sure why but hey it's better then most hahaha

      • +6

        You're half-right. I work in I.T., but not for an I.T. business. It's a farming biz

        • Sounds like a powerful farming group 😉

        • Agriwebb!

        • What is the business?

      • -6

        Theres nothing free about free coffee or lunch.

        They give free coffee because that means your break is only for minutes instead of taking much longer to walk down the road to get one etc.

        • +8

          No job I've ever had have given longer breaks for people who want to walk somewhere else for anything…

        • Yes, but their intrests align with their employees its a win win.

          Employees can still go and buy one if they wanted.

          • -8

            @Franc-T: So you think trading one hour of breaks over a day for a few free coffees is a win ?

            Do you also think losing one hour break for lunch for ten minutes with a free lunch is win so basically you work an extra 5 hours a week ?

            Then again with this attitude its hardly a wonder employees also abuse employees to work nights and weekends for next to nothing.

            • +7

              @CowFrogHorse: Are you drunk?

              • -5

                @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Instead of being a mental giant and replying with a brilliant observation how about you actually address what ive said.

                • +3

                  @CowFrogHorse: You could just take the free lunch and take the lunch time too?

                  • -3

                    @jjno41: Ever wonder why they dont give free dinners to employees outside of work hours ?

                    Simple answer because thats a cost and they get no return.

                    Of course people COULD take the free lunch and still go out, but after all this time they know in the end most people DONT do that.

                • +4

                  @CowFrogHorse: How about you start with pointing out where anyone has said they're sacrificing 'one hour break' you are so valiantly trying to protect.

                  • -7

                    @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Wow so many mental giants here today.

                    I never claimed anybody actually said they are losing their hour of lunch. I simply said that most people take the lunch and continue to work, which means the employee gives them a $10 lunch which is far less than even McD employees get.

                    Im making a simple observation on what ACTUALLY happens in the end. Take a look at yourself you couldnt even make the connection.

                    • +3

                      @CowFrogHorse:

                      Wow so many mental giants here today.

                      If you smell crap everywhere you go, it's time to shower.

                      You have a problem dude, get help, and stop trolling on a forum.

        • +2

          CowFrogHorse: member since 13/12/2022 with 57 troll comments already…

    • +5

      I am in the wrong industry :) That one makes me quite jealous

      • +5

        They didn't even mention the lunch part when I interviewed, way to bury the lede ay!

        • Let me make a wild guess. AWS?

          • @yamahamoto: I work in I.T. Support for a non-I.T. business. By AWS I assume you're talking about Amazon - so that's a no

    • A lot more perk than the last enployeer i had, terrible pay + coffee. How can they include tgat in a contract, it was just a coffee machine coffee I can get at 711 for $1 now $2

    • +3

      we get most of this also - free coffee from professional machine, lunch is free 4 days per week, there's usually plenty on like a free buffet (Not an order system those days, someone prepares and lays out various food options with serving tongs etc) and its $5 to order something more elaborate for Fridays (subsidised - good for what you get).

      Friday drinks is every second week but limited to one drink, as many people drive (and its work), but it includes some basic spirits options.

      We also have access to free gym / pool, free 'employee assistance' / counselling service access etc.
      Discounted child care, and partnerships with discounts on banking, car purchases, health insurance, with various organisations.

      We used to get cake for every single persons birthday until they realised there was so many people there were massive catering cakes every ~2 days so now its a monthly morning tea with cake and usually held on the biggest milestone birthday or the likes for the month (e.g. someone's 40th).

      Various other things like catered Christmas party / gifts etc…

      • That's alot of perks.

      • This sounds like where I work too… I hear they do awesome parties too with great singers

      • Dont forget the free cheap crappy merch!

      • +4

        Yeah, mate. I take my hour to the minute

      • +6

        You seem to have a warped idea about these perks! Your break is your break whether there's free food or not - I have no idea why you would just voluntarily cut your break short and do extra work, but in any job I've had where they've provided food, no one ever did…

        In fact, many people ended up taking longer as instead of dispersing to get their own stuff, everyone would be together and chatting.

        If you want to be cynical about things like this then you could call them a cheap way to boost morale (if they gave you the equivalent in cash in your pay packet you likely wouldn't even notice) and therefore productivity. The chats would also inevitably fall back to discussing work sometimes so I guess you could call that "working during your break".

        • +2

          He does have a point, at my last work there was a clique of people who would take a coffee break at 10am each day, they only went across the road but they would be gone for 20-30min due to the wait and that there was usually 5+ people going. Agree that it's a bit cynical to devalue when an employer does something nice for you, but there's some truth to he fact that people are less inclined to leave the office.

        • +1

          Why not step back and think about it…

          Companies pay people money because they get an advantage from it.

          Do companies give free food after work hours or when you are on holidays or weekends, of course not. Why is the case, because they dont care or get any profit from you having a feed out of work.

          Im not saying everybody who eats lunch at work stays inside and skips their hour break.im just saying that enough people do and the company gets the advantage of paying $10 or $20 for a lunch which they give you and enough people in turn just stay inside and work instead of going out. When you add the total cost of the lunches and figure out that most people stayed back and worked an extra 30 or 40 minutes, the company wins. For $10 they got 40mins of work back, that rate of pay is far less than they pay most people.

          Did you really think they gave you a free lunch at work because they love you ?

      • wot da f

    • I get a yearly team lunch, with allowance of $25 pp, drinks included.

      Coffee machine and Fruit and Bikkies if I would come in earlier, by the time I'm in ( around 10AM ) there is only non ripe fruit or nothing at all.

      • I almost think free bikies as perks…
        Must be shady business

  • +27

    What Interesting Employee Perks Does Your Employer Offer?

    Free Nescafe.

    • +24

      Man and here I am thinking I got it good with International Roast :-(

      • +5

        Caterers Blend sawdust or the regular stuff?

        • +1

          Mud from the high hills of Madagascar or just regular low land mud?

      • public servant by any chance?

        or just a shit boss?

          • +3

            @[Deactivated]: You literally can't milk the public purse lol

          • @[Deactivated]: yeah I love how they think the public would be outraged if basic supplies where supplied (equivalent to the low end the private sector generally supplies staff)… but don't think the public would be outraged they create useless positions for people to do things like just make up such stupid rules and change the name of the department and rebrand all the stationary and emails every year or so.. and provide all sort of other time related perks many in the private sector would never get regarding work time not expected to go one minute over without overtime, RDOs, extensive training days etc.

          • @[Deactivated]: You got that wrong. CEO would be outraged if they had to shorten his BONUS to buy milk for employees

    • Hope they provide milk too?

      • -1

        Only dairy….

    • Gotta be a paid member of the tea and coffee club at my employer for those kind of benefits!

    • +1

      (profanity) that slave coffee

    • we have Moccona

    • My employer pays for Necafe Blend 33 and Lipton yellow label tea. We tried to suggest Moccona once when it was on special and cheaper than Nescafe, but were told that it is stipulated that they will only pay for Necafe.

      • it is stipulated that they will only pay for Necafe.

        kickbacks

  • +22

    16 extra days off a year, free coffee machine, snacks (fruit, nuts, cheese & crackers, yogurt etc), paid for lunch once a week (via reimnbursement), budget for each team to have an event each quarter (dinner, activities), beer/wine fridge, PS5, table tennis, pool table and a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.

    Probably helps to preface this with the fact that I work in the land of Tech, these benefits aren't outrageous by any means when you're looking at places like Atlassian etc.

    Edit: Oh and WFH only have to go in once a week if I want

    • Amazing. what is this company?

      • +4

        I work in tech, a company that provides solutions to other companies.

        • +13

          Once, I just want to work for a company that provides problems for other companies.

          • +25

            @Kangal: Oh, that's easy, go work for Microsoft then 🤣

    • Seems common in tech (and other profitable industries?)

      But 36 days annual leave plus public holidays? That's outrageous!

      • +16

        Should be the standard to be honest. 20 days a year is nowhere near enough with all the burnout we're seeing and long hours.

      • We also have I think approx 11 public holidays depending on year and whether there's a local show holiday so we are circa 31 days total (but I think maybe only paid for 9 public holiday days in some states = 29 paid leave days).

        However there are countries that offer more leave, mostly paid for full time staff (in some cases after probation period ends etc):

        UK has 28 days and 10 public holidays.
        I believe employers can choose to count the public holidays and leave days but many don't and treat it as up to 38 days total.

        Panama is 30 + 10 public holidays = 40 days.

        Russia is 28 + 14 public holidays = 42 days.

        Brazil is 30 + 13 public holidays = 43 days.

        Austria is 25 + 13 public holidays rising to 30 days + 13 PH if over 25 years service = 39-43 days.

        France is 24 days + 11 public holidays = 35 days.

        etc

        • And that's before you factor in 105 days of Saturdays and Sundays

    • All decent but common, except the leave. That's a crazy amount of time off, more than 7 weeks!

    • 16 extra years off a year! Wish I had that!

      Do you tend to work long hours unpaid (time in lieu vs paid overtime)?

    • You have to go in once a week! Horrible

    • -3

      Atlassian ?

      They dont give anything to their employees, i know many people there when in the office times, were forced to stay back on fridays to play cards etc and talk about work for hours. THey also schedule meetings that run over lunch or home time and more.

      Not sure why you think they are your friend.

      • +6

        Atlassian has crazy benefits.

        A friend works there and he has got like $250k worth of Atlassian shares, gets like 30k more than market standard for his job, gym membership paid for, 1000 USD of WFH equipment (I think this renews every few years), macbooks provided for work can be kept for personal use after 3 years or something, fully remote wfh, and lots more

        • -7

          How many nights and weekends did they work and for how many years ?

          When you factor in the 250k of shares and divide that by the hours you will realise they were working for McDonalds rates.

          I know friends who worked there and did work weekends and nights and for their extra work they got $2k or $4k bonus at the end of the year. A McDonalds worker gets more when you factor the hours.

          BTW: You cant realistically buy thousands of dollars wfh equipment - you are clearly exaggerating. There are only so many desks or fancy chairs one can buy and next to nobody is going to by new ones every year. Maybe once or twice but in the end its not much.

          • +2

            @CowFrogHorse: Lol wut?!

            The two people I know who work there love their work and have never once said the work was too hard. If anything they seem to have a lot of time on their hands for working out during working hours and family time (one friend stopped sending his kid to daycare cuz she could manage work and the kid without issues).

            And McDonalds rates?! I wish Maccas paid that kinda money for that kinda relaxed work. I would join up.

            • -7

              @0FoxGiven:

              The two people I know who work there love their work and have never once said the work was too hard.

              I never claimed the work was hard, i only mentioned the TIME.

              Theres a big difference between HARD and TIME.

              Again you havent denied or mentioned HOW much TIME your friends worked.

              If anything they seem to have a lot of time on their hands for working out during working hours and family time (one friend stopped sending his kid to daycare cuz she could manage work and the kid without issues).

              You seem to confuse TIME with being BUSY.

              The fact they have to work many HOURS doesnt change the fact they are away from Family and friends, and thats my problem… my TIME is valuable i dont want to give it away.

              Again i ask how many hours did they "work" (lets call it that) to get their extras ?

              This should be an easy maths….not sure why you cant provide this, i mean if you hear they are working half the weekends thats pretty obvious they are working a lot of extra time and so on.

              Try a bt harder to actually address the question

              • +6

                @CowFrogHorse: They don't work a min after 5pm. Heck if anything they log off early. And they go to the gym at noon during lunch time. They have plenty of TIME. They dont have to work EXTRA at all to get the benefits. I dunno wot the heck you on about. They have the most amount of time to spend with family amongst all the people I know who work in IT. They are not expected to come into office (100% remote) and like I said, one of my friends can even easily manage a toddler at home while working.

                • +4

                  @0FoxGiven: A friend of mine works there and can confirm they have a pretty good work-life balance and are not expected to do crazy hours.
                  He also encouraged to do charity work a few days per year fully paid. His team is very well resourced so knowledge or responsibility does not fall to a single person.

                  • @Indomietable: Seems you are trying to sell your friend's company as a workplace. Could be mine if you do not look at all the other 'crap' the company unleashes at the employees.

        • We can buy our laptops, after 7 years, when they have their RAM and HD-Drive stripped ( because containing confidential data :-) ) for $150.

          • @cameldownunder: Do you also have to pay for the replacement one?

            • @Mr Haj: Kidding me ? Pay for Work Laptop ?

              • @cameldownunder: yes I'm kidding. but who would want to buy a 7 year old laptop without ram and hdd for $150? haha

                • @Mr Haj: That is the point. It's not really a perk, it's more a trap for the dummies who think they got something for low cost, but they are actually recycling them, or transport to landfill via home. And pay $150.

      • +5

        Not sure why you think they are your friend.

        Where did I say they were my friend?

        They dont give anything to their employees,

        Lol. I know over a dozen people that work there. Their $500k+ worth of Atlassian shares and $2xxk salaries would beg to differ.

        Also, your comment below is laughable.

        When you factor in the 250k of shares and divide that by the hours you will realise they were working for McDonalds rates.

        You seem to have a grudge against them, did you get rejected or are you envious of the perks? Truth of the matter is that they pay really well across the board, have amazing benefits and at least from the exposure I have had, do not have crazy working hours - and even if you do, it's definitely not "mcdonalds rates"

        • -7

          Im just pointing out that Corporations dont give away money like they are your friend.

          Lol. I know over a dozen people that work there. Their $500k+ worth of Atlassian shares and $2xxk salaries would beg to differ.

          So now its 500k i shares before you said 250k.

          You also didnt deny or mention how many extra hours they worked ?

          You seem to have a grudge against them, did you get rejected or are you envious of the perks?

          No just pointing out the bullshit.

          I dont consider working overtime a perk - i value my time.

          have amazing benefits and at least from the exposure I have had, do not have crazy working hours - and even if you do, it's definitely not "mcdonalds rates

          I never mentioned the word crazy, i simply stated they require people to work nights and weekends.

          Learn to read and reply to what others have actually said.

          I value my free time i dont want to work nights and weekends for a small bonus at the end of the year.

          Now tell me how many extra hours did your friends work and divide that by the bonus…and tell me how much an hour did they earn ?

          • @CowFrogHorse:

            I never mentioned the word crazy, i simply stated they require people to work nights and weekends.

            Cant imagine there are many jobs that pay $200k+ that dont require nights and weekends at times. If you want a job that allows you to 'not work nights and weekends' then you get a job that pays less. Up to you, plenty of people make that trade off. But just because you dont want it doesnt mean its wrong for others.

            Plus for many people they, gasp, like their job and like the intellectual challenge and what they are doing

            • -1

              @dtc:

              Plus for many people they, gasp, like their job and like the intellectual challenge and what they are doing

              In what way are their products an intellectually challenge ?

              Next to nobody has anything good to say about them, go ask your friends about JIRA…

              Cant imagine there are many jobs that pay $200k+ that dont require nights and weekends at times.

              Well when you work 80hours a week for $200 you are not doing better than someone earning $150k for 40 hours.

              You effectively earned that extra $50K for doing 40 hours extra a week. Now please tell me how much did that person earn per hour for that extra ?

              But just because you dont want it doesnt mean its wrong for others.

              Not saying there is anything wrong, im simply saying BE HONEST about it what they really gave and what the worker actually received.

            • @dtc: I work in an IT role that exceeds $200k a year, i dont work weekends or nights. My work life balance is pretty good as i can WFH 100% if i want

        • -1

          You seem to have a grudge against them, did you get rejected or are you envious of the perks\

          Atlassian produce crappy products, you might want to read all the security posts about exploits their products constantly suffer. I would be embarrassed to put them on my resume knowing my name would be associated with such terrible solutions.

          Ask anybody who uses their systems, more than half dislike and thats a easy description of what people think of JIRA, Bamboo, Confluence and so on.

          • +2

            @CowFrogHorse:

            I would be embarrassed to put them on my resume knowing my name would be associated with such terrible solutions.

            Given the doors that Atlassian unlocks, especially in Product, you are in the absolute minority there my friend.

            Learn to read and reply to what others have actually said.

            I'm going to stop, because you clearly have a bee in your bonnet about this and I don't really care about it, but objectively you are wrong on your stance about the renumeration in this particular scenario. You seem to want to justify your own view, either because (like I said) you got rejected, are envious, upset with your current situation or something else that's causing you to not see things clearly.

            Have a nice day.

            • -5

              @coffeeinmyveins:

              but objectively you are wrong on your stance about the renumeration in this particular scenario.

              I have asked multiple times to tell me how many hours they worked for their renumeration and you refuse to share. Each time you share your stories the numbers change which of course can only mean one thing.

              Cant you do simple maths ?

              You seem to want to justify your own view, either because (like I said) you got rejected, are envious, upset with your current situation or something else that's causing you to not see things clearly.

              My current situation and lifestyle out of the big smoke is far superior to your wasted lifein traffic and working overtime.

              • +2

                @CowFrogHorse:

                My current situation and lifestyle out of the big smoke is far superior to your wasted lifein traffic and working overtime.

                In keeping with your theme of actually not knowing anything about reality, you assume my situation.

                How do you know if I own a car? I actually don't work any overtime, work from home 9/10 days a fortnight and don't live "in the big smoke".

                You're insufferable. I feel sorry for the people that know you because you clearly have some impairment.

                • -1

                  @coffeeinmyveins:

                  How do you know if I own a car?

                  I never claimed you own a car, feel free to quote where i said you own any car.

                  i simply made the generalisation that you are wasting hours of your life in the big smoke, and traffic and commuting is part of the big city.

                  Whether you drive a car or catch a train or whatever it really does not matter, if you ever want to do anything you must factor in the travel cost. If you want to goto the beach that costs you hours, want to goto the shopping center to buy your food, well that costs a lot more time, traffic, car park, the long lines etc etc.

                  actually don't work any overtime, work from home 9/10 days a fortnight and don't live "in the big smoke".

                  I never claimed that YOU did work overtime , i said YOUR friends at Atlassian worked overtime.

                  Please show me the courtesy of quoting what i actually said instead of changing my words.

                  You seem to have a problem making shit up about what i have actually said. If you were honest and quoted my words you will see i carefully worded my responses and you will see your replies are dishonest.

          • +1

            @CowFrogHorse: I love Atlassian products.
            Interesting you find them crappy.
            I wonder how many other billionaires made their wealth by building something really crappy then convincing the masses to switch to it.
            I'm sure you have the answer as you have an opinion on everything here.
            Easy to opine on everything when you take pride in being low functioning at your own job.

  • +92

    pay for yourself christmas parties

Login or Join to leave a comment