April 16, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Take your choice on how to phrase it, "in the good old days" or "back in the day" but, when HP first started out and was a small, single factory company, I knew a guy who had worked for them for a while. He often told of the Friday afternoon keg parties. It seems that the whole company would gather on the parking lot and they would tap a keg. (You were expected to not get drunk, though.) You could have a couple of beers and talk to anyone on any level in the company and pitch an idea, register a complaint, or just shoot the, uh, . . . breeze . . . yeah, the breeze. 😉
Unfortunately, as things always do, things changed and that particular corporate culture went the way of the Dodo bird.
Ralph D. Wilson II
Development DBA
"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the ax."
A. Lincoln
April 16, 2010 at 3:13 pm
cengland0 (4/16/2010)
But how does your company pick a reward that would be wanted by everyone it's given to?
They talk to your manager. He/she should know something about you and be able to tailor something for you. A new TV, maybe a month rental in a fancy car, a really nice set of watches for you and your wife, season tix to Disney for your kids, I'm sure there's something that would work for you.
Or not. Maybe cash is the best gift for you.
April 16, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Steve Jones - Editor (4/16/2010)
cengland0 (4/16/2010)
But how does your company pick a reward that would be wanted by everyone it's given to?They talk to your manager. He/she should know something about you and be able to tailor something for you. A new TV, maybe a month rental in a fancy car, a really nice set of watches for you and your wife, season tix to Disney for your kids, I'm sure there's something that would work for you.
Or not. Maybe cash is the best gift for you.
I'm a work-at-home associate. I've never met my manager. I live in Florida, he lives in North Carolina.
I have 4 Tvs now and I don't watch any of them. I usually use my slingbox to watch my TiVo on my computer monitor while I'm working.
I don't travel. Remember, I have agoraphobia so a rental in a fancy car is no motivator for me. Besides, my current car is 6 years old and I only have 21,000 miles on it.
I won a trip to Disney from a previous company and they made me go. I didn't want to but I was forced. Some prize huh? I used one day of a 5-day ticket and still have the others available to be used. I don't know why but most employers think everyone enjoys traveling. My current company offered me training on Cognos recently but it required that I travel to the training location. I refused to go risking being fired.
I don't wear any jewelery so fancy watches are out. Jewelery is too flashy and people who wear it flaunt it around trying to make others believe they have more money than they actually do.
I'm at that point of my life that if I want something I go out and get it. I don't need my employer picking the items they think I should have. In fact, I keep my birth date secret from everyone in the company and from all of my friends. I don't want them buying me any gifts because it will probably be something I don't want and I'll have to pretend that I like the gift. I don't celebrate Christmas either. I'm so glad I don't get unwanted gifts every year like everyone else.
Money is nice. It gives me comfort. I work in the private sector so I don't know if I'll have a job tomorrow. They can terminate me at any time for no reason at all. Keeping a stash of money in the bank is a nice buffer should something like that happen. Besides, we all need to save for our retirement anyway.
I cannot think of a single item that I would want my company to give me instead of the equivalent monetary value. If they gave me the cash, I could still buy the same item but that would then be my choice.
April 17, 2010 at 10:22 am
A thank-you would be nice.
A personal training budget would be fantastic especially if I actually got to use what I learnt on the course.
I've just attended SQLBits 6 in London and on one hand I'm all fired up by the possibilities but on the other hand the probabilities of getting to use what I've just seen are pretty slim.
April 18, 2010 at 4:25 am
mark.pleasance (4/16/2010)
I work for a SMB beverage alcohol import agency . . .(much removed)
Now - mind you . . .
It is fully expected that (if needed) you will work weekends / stay late / etc.
You & your spouse / significant other will attend after hours galas / functions / events / etc.
It is a business and the work needs to get done . . .
(but you are allowed to enjoy yourself while you're doing it!)
I guess SMB is what on this side of the pond we call SME?
Anyway, it sounds like an extremely good outfit to work for. Better than most of the rest I've read about in this thread.
Tom
April 18, 2010 at 5:24 am
All sorts of things are good if they are handled properly, and utterly demotivating if they are not. Someone could give me a cheap and nasty plonk, doing it in such a way that made it clear that they were doing it because they valued me and appreciated something particular I had done, and that would be motivational; someone else could give me a large cash bonus making it clear that it was just because company policy said give everyone a bonus this year whether they deserved it or not and that would be demotivating - the reaction "why am I working for these idiots for" comes to mind.
In the UK the tax rules are a bit odd: perks are taxable if they are contractual, also if they are habitual/customary, but not if they are spontaneous ad-hoc non-contractual perks (I'm not a tax lawyer so that might be expressing it wrongly, but it's somewhere near right). So the kind of genuine gesture of appreciation that I prefer to the handle-turning imitation is tax free.
I like my colleagues/managers to have a concern for my welfare and that of my family - if there are issues about time off when a close relative is seriously ill it's not a company I want to work for. I like being able to talk to anyone in the company when I feel the need (had this in one really big company I worked for despite being a young and very junior employee amongst more than 20000; unfortunately that company lost that culture in later years; and have had it in all the small companies I've worked for). I like to be able to work from home for long stretches (working a home for the odd day here and there can be useful, but doing it for a few weeks at a time is much better) - that's sometimes been available to me.
Generally I find that non-monetary bonuses are better than monetary ones unless the monetary bonus is really big.
Travel is something I get enough of when working. I've spent quite a bit of time in France, Germany, India, Belgium, and the USA working, brief visits to several other countries, and had some stays in some really nice hotels including Sandy Lane in Barbados, Arabella in Munich, Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, Charles in Boston, in lesser but still excellent hotels, in a real dump hotels (that was in Menlo Park) and of course for long stays I've been in company owned houses or in rented appartments. I like travelling, but when I was in jobs that entailed much travelling I would probably not have appreciated a travel bonus (although I did think of the working travel as a perk, because I would not be working 24 hours a day 7 days a week in the places I travelled to).
Some team/group/whole company celebrations can be quite good provided they are presented as a reward to the group for what it has achieved rather than as something that happens automatically because teh CEO learnt it parrot-fashion in Managing Staff 101 - a day doing something crazy (like driving formula 4 cars on a race track, ORVs in a hellish terrain, big fast saloons back on the race track) is a nice change from work; so are evening dos with spouse/so invited too (taking over a night club for 8 hours; a Burns supper; run of the mill dinner dance even).
Tom
April 18, 2010 at 10:18 am
Veronica Brown (4/16/2010)
Time off....definitely!After a long winter or especially rainy spring, the first beautiful day, come in and say, "for a job well done or for your committment....go ahead and take the afternoon off".
Most everyone gets a bout of "spring fever"....
I have several outdoor hobbies and getting an afternoon off or a whole day every now and then to enjoy them means the world to me!
One that works pretty well for my company seem to be having season tickets to various sporting events. A certain number of tickets are made available to each senior exec to give out as he/she pleases. Every couple of sets the CIO gets seem to be handed to those who have been working particularly hard in the current cycle. Not everybody goes, but it's alwyas nice to be asked.
Like someone said - if it shows thought and consideration for your efforts, a lot of things can be made to work. Knowing the crowd you're playing to is a definite plus.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
April 18, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Hmmm, good question. I'm pretty much at Level 1 on Maslow's pyramid. I'd be happy with being treated like a valuable contributor rather than a cost center ready to be outsourced at any moment.
James Stover, McDBA
April 19, 2010 at 7:45 am
Carolyn Stern (4/15/2010)
I would like my employer to sponsor a mobile pet spay/neuter event, focusing on pets and petowners from the neighboring community, as well as employees.
I'd just focus on the pets!
In principle a commendable altruistic wish.
April 19, 2010 at 8:33 am
Cash, although important is not everything. I stayed at a job where I was clearly underpaid for many years because I found the work challenging, and I had a clear impact on my company and our clients. As long as I can pay my bills, job satisfaction and personal respect are high on my list. There are lots of ways companies incent and motivate employees. But I agree with some of the other posts indicating that the way perks and atta - boys are handled are as important (more) as the perks themselves. I recently began working for a very large corp that seems to get it. Lots of little incentives, and even a few big ones and a very competitive compensation package. In spite of its size, there is a genuine and personal touch to the way they approach their work and their people.
I have known so many companies that chew people up and then spit them out, and people that put up with it. However, I think most companies try to do the right things with regard to the work environment and their employees, but they simply fail or fall short in execution.
In the big picture, pay is more of a dissatisfier than a satisfier. If you are poorly paid you are frequently dissatisfied with the job, but if you are exceptionally paid and the job is a grind you are not going to be satisfied with the job. So it is clearly the little things that make the difference. The key, at least for me, is the intangibles. The companies I have made a long part of my personal history were the ones that really made a point of the little things.
April 19, 2010 at 10:05 am
kennydevries (4/16/2010)
RalphWilson (4/16/2010)
...Needless to say, one of the ngs I do NOT want to hear offered is a "Team T-shirt". 😉However, after reviewing some of the other responses, I'm torn between my original (new, really nice laptop) answer and "being able to work from home at least 50% of the time.
As for our mercenary friend who just wants to be shown the money . . . I, too, have been a Road Warrior/Mercenary/Hired Gun and I can symptahize. If I were working as a 1099, I'd want my clients to show their apprecion mostly with money (my company would handle the other perks ;-). However, I did a gig where I developed a Wine and Liquor Wholsealer Order Entry, Invoicing, nventory Management, and Tax Reporting system and one of the really nice perks while I was working on that was the odd sample bottles of wine that I was given. (In fact, I was told to destory 42 cases of damaged bottles of a particular chardoney . . . no matter how long it took. 😉
I have only worked for a couple of large corporations. Most of my experience has been with startups or small firms. By far, the large corporation IT positions I have had were the lowest paid with the least respect shown to employees. I felt like No. 6 in "The Village" trying to get anything accomplished. However, nothing I can remember was as lame and insulting as your story. If a company had done that to me, I would have donned my walking shoes the next day and I would tell them exactly why.
Actually, the whole team wound up departing a short time later when we were told that we would "get" to repeat that performance "but this time you'll actually get the extra week off." Within a 45 day period, we all had found new jobs. (I told the other two, when they said they would rather leave than go through that stress again that I would stay until they had found new gigs and then, after the last guy left, I turned in my notice and left. 😉
Ralph D. Wilson II
Development DBA
"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the ax."
A. Lincoln
April 20, 2010 at 9:18 am
For me - Give me the Time!
Two great perks in the past...
A company labeled satchel. Been using this for over a year and a half - Love It!
A good set of pens!
And for company events.... Love the BBQs and Ice Cream Socials. I agree with prior postings that these are great for Esprit De Corps. They are a great way close out a Friday afternoon. 😀
Joe
May 27, 2010 at 2:33 pm
I think time off would be the best bonus ever. It could even be unpaid, I wouldn't care. Time off work is just plain good for mental health. Also, far too often I am "penalized" (with more work) for doing a good job. Other employees don't have the same confidence in my peers, so they come to me for important tasks. It's great for job security, but every once in a while, I'd like to actually get a little *less* work for doing a good job.
Beyond that, I'd personally like to see facility improvements. They wouldn't really apply to just one person, but many people at our company would really like a gym and a shower.
--J
August 11, 2011 at 10:28 am
The best one I ever had was a retreat to Vegas with my wife. They paid airfare, hotel, two tickets to the Blue Man Group, and a dinner at the Mirage....that was 10 years ago and I still can't believe that they did it....AWESOME!
Ed Watson aka SQLGator
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
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Go Gators!
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