Programmer Perks

[Kevin J Baird]

I know more than a few programmers and folks who work with computers are on these forums, and was curious about what people get as far as benefits from their job? We don't get anything at ours. Just the standard 2 weeks vacation, health care, some dentist, and free coffee. We don't have a pop-machine, and I brought in my own microwave for folks to use. Yet I often hear about people having cafeterias, and outings to amusement parks, and health club memberships, and daycare, etc. So is this true where you work or have worked? Or is it just fantasy?

[Kraaze]

I get three weeks vacation (due to seniority), and the microwave was company provided, but otherwise exactly the same as you. All of that other stuff you list is I think the domain of a few special case employers.

[TheTrunkDr]

I know more than a few programmers and folks who work with computers are on these forums, and was curious about what people get as far as benefits from their job? We don't get anything at ours. Just the standard 2 weeks vacation, health care, some dentist, and free coffee. We don't have a pop-machine, and I brought in my own microwave for folks to use. Yet I often hear about people having cafeterias, and outings to amusement parks, and health club memberships, and daycare, etc. So is this true where you work or have worked? Or is it just fantasy?
We have a kitchen area with two fridges, a coffee machine and some donated microwaves and plates/cutlery. There are some snacks and occasionally beer in there. That's about it, there's a MAME machine but that belongs to someone that works here, it's not owned by the company.

edit: additional details, 2 weeks vacation standard, health/dental/vision, 401k matching, bonuses and a newly introduced employee stock purchase plan.

[Charles]

Ubi Montreal offers health/dental, vacation + a free week at xmas, a bonus incentive plan (which is, unfortunately more subjective than objective), and some RRSP matching. On site they have a small gym that's overcrowded (a tiny room for 1800 potential people isn't much). Other than that, there's lunch rooms with vending machines, but nothing's free. The big perk, as I see it, is that they will never outright tell you to work overtime. And when people are working late, they will bring in free dinner.

At my last job, they kept a stocked fridge and drink cooler, complete free, but there were only 20 employees. They'd pay parking if you had to drive in to the city. That was about it.

At Bioware, when I was there, they had monthly outings which ranged from go-karting to just renting a whole theatre for a big new release. They had yearly christmas bonuses based on the company's performance as a whole, and decent vacation, health/dental. But they pretty much forced absurd crunch, which completely outweighed the benefits of any of the fun.

[Lunch of Kong]

I get bananas, tangerines, apples, and a sliding door fridge stacked with many kinds of sodas and juices. I also have access to six kinds of Bigelow tea bags, of which I drink at least 2 or 3 cups in the afternoon.

The developer snack cart mostly contains granola and energy bars, pudding snacks, fruit rollups, crackers and cheese, cookies, and potato chips. The executive snack cart, though, is rumored to contain Sun Chips.

3 weeks vacation standard for new employees + 401k and dental/medical. No 401k matching, but we do get bonuses with funding that depends on our personal quarterly performance.

Also, we filed for IPO a couple weeks ago, and there is still some excitement around that.

[Rward]

Don't know if these atually qualify as perks in the way you mean:

I get to go to work in baggie, a T and some slops.
About twice a month i can phone my boos andcheck if he needs me in the office or if its ok for me to work from home (I could probablt do it a lot more but I don't feel I'm as productive).
After significant milestones, launching new website, upgrading capacity by adding more servers to the service, etc, we go have a lunch and a couple of drinks.
I don't have fixed hours, as long as I get my 8 hours done.
Free coffee, bread and peanut butter/jam (basic lunch stuff).
Last time I stuck in a bit of overtime he popped me an extra R500 (enought for a really good meal and 2 bottles of wine) to take my girl out as a "thanks for dgoing the extra yard" thing.

Besides those I'm about the same, 2 weeks leave, etc, etc..


My previous job I was at the Cape Technicon, a "college" in Cape Town.
There we got 14 days leave plus 5 days over any of the standard college holidays, plus from the 14 December until the 12 January off, plus a half day a month for doctor/dentist/whatever and 13th cheque.
If we did any of the full time courses offered (we had to do them after hours (part time) and not too many subjects at a time) we would get 90% discount on the fees and 75% discount on the short courses.
We also got to use most microsoft, and some other products at home as part of their campus license agreements.
plus all the pretty girls you could shake a stick at....

Not quite the "Free soda machinesa nd days out" but not "here is your des kand here is your PC" either..

[Fugitive]

We used to have a free pop machine, but that only lasted about a year. Other than that, we just have the occasional pizza lunch, or blow an afternoon to go catch a movie for a post-release celebration.

I think there's a gym we can use a few floors down, but that's a general office building thing, not specifically for us.

Edit: Oh yeah, for other minor stuff, dress code is pretty casual (T-shirt and jeans is fine, and I've *never* had to wear a suit or tie), hours are also pretty flexible as long as you've got a decent amount of overlap with coworkers, and you can telecommute one day a week if you want, though not many people do.

[Jazar]

Bagel Friday. That is the highlight of my life (especially when they bring Honey Almond cream cheese).

[Rimbo]

The knowledge of the inner workings of computing and the internet is itself the biggest perk, and the more we automate our lives with technology, the more powerful that knowledge becomes.

Outside of that... well, we only have to pay $.30 in the coke machines. That's about it.

[WarrenM]

We have a fully stocked kitchen (fridge, freezer, pantry, appliances), break room with arcade machines, gym, awesome bonus plan and 401k match, top shelf health plan, no dress code (within reason), top of the line equipment, etc.

Not much to not like here.

[EvilIdler]

Waffles (at least Fridays, and as often as possible), warm lunch, insurance. Plus all the perks you expect in Scandinavia.

[Adam Altmann]

I'm no game-industry rockstar, just a consultant with a global IT company...

I get three weeks of vacation (and three personal holidays) and pretty good health/dental, a parking pass for a nearby garage (I'm way more excited about this than I should be), 401K matching and also stock purchase matching. If they make me work over X hours of overtime per a pay period (which they never have), I get that back as comp time. If they ask us to stay late they buy us dinner. I'm pretty sure they'll reimburse me if I want to take some training or whatever... That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I can't complain.

*Oh! I also get reimbursed some for my gym membership, which is awesome since it makes my gym membership cheaper than WoW...

[idrisz]

I currently working as a level designer not a programmer, but I think we get around the same perk, break room with coffee, tea, 2 fridge, chips, power bar other assorted food.
Free bagel one day of the week and free donut on another day, when working overtime, they have cater also since I'm new so I'm still on hourly and get OT pay as well.


Benefit is good I think, free health/dental hmo, but I pay just a little more for ppo on my dental, company also match my 401k up to 20%, offer stock plans as well.

There is other perks like cheaper price from dell, tickets for sport games and discount on 24 hour fitness subscription.

3 weeks of vacation + 5 sick days and whenever comp time we get after a project.

[espressojim]

I get three weeks vacation (due to seniority), and the microwave was company provided, but otherwise exactly the same as you. All of that other stuff you list is I think the domain of a few special case employers.

I get that, plus a 40 hour work week. Also, I have very flex hours (I come in between 10-11AM), and often work from home on Fridays. We also have the opportunity to go to lots of talks and events, so I spend 15-25% of my week learning nifty new stuff - usually medical genetics or population biology, though there's always some new use of HMM or some esoteric statistics thrown in. I guess we're not payed as well as business people since we're in academia, but my salary is still very pretty decent. But, to balance the salary out we get both 401K with matching for the first 5%, and a pension on top of that. Yeah...a pension. MIT has some decent perks.

[Dravalen]

I get no overtime pay, crappy medical and long hours. Did I mention the long hours?

Oh you mean benefits, I work in games, or something like that.

[idrisz]

I get no overtime pay, crappy medical and long hours. Did I mention the long hours?

Oh you mean benefits, I work in games, or something like that.

I think I'd trade the benefit for a chance to work on some awesome mmo... or non-fps game.

[Alan Dunkin]

Hmm let's see... 40 hr/weeks are standard here, and depending on how you're employed you can get OT. If not, well, depends on the project anyway. Medical/dentist/life is fairly cheap, there's Plan 125 too. 401(k) has a small percentage matching after X time vested (I forget how much). Company will also pay for related-field higher-level education (ie. college classes) for after hours learning. Bonus is supposed to work on profitability and/or product success currently, depending on what department you're in.

Vacation: PTO days are 15 per year (0-2 yrs employed), then goes to 20 (2-4 yrs) and ends in 25 days (4+ years). Max accumulated is 200 hrs I think. Sick is rolled into this, but they are fairly flexible. Also depending on your boss working from home is generally not a problem when necessary.

Vending machines are a quarter for everything, the kitchens have large fridges, ice machines, dishwashers, sinks, numerous coffee brewstations, microwaves, toasters, etc. 1st floor restrooms have a shower. There's a small gym. 2nd floor has a wide variety of arcade game cabinets (Tron, Zaxxon, Choplifter, Joust, Moon Lander, Robotron, etc.) and even a few sitdown cabinets.

--- Alan

[AaronSofaer]

We have a fully stocked kitchen (fridge, freezer, pantry, appliances), break room with arcade machines, gym, awesome bonus plan and 401k match, top shelf health plan, no dress code (within reason), top of the line equipment, etc.

Not much to not like here.


If I end up working in the games industry, I want to work for a company like that. Heh.


When I worked with Compedia in Israel, there was nothing. Not even a kitchen, just a microwave, a dinky little table, and two chairs. No fridge. And as a contractor, I of course got absolutely nothing in the way of benefits, just a flat fee for the work I did.

[Jon Rowe]

Well, the company that I was just hired at (Epic Systems)(a medical software company) for a QA tester.
Have full medical/Dental/Optical plans, 2 weeks paid vacation, (for the first 2 years, then 3 weeks in following years), 401k with some matching, Great food (at the verona "campus) free coffee, snacks, etc. Casual dress (within reason), the main campus itself is state of the art, and full of some great landscaping and outdoor areas to relax in, personal computer loans (interest free computer loan for personal computers, through payroll deduction), various picnics and holiday celebrations.

Overall, I am very excited to work at such a cool place.

[Alan Au]

I miss the dot-com boom days...

- Alan

[MonkeyPunky]

I'm a java programmer at an online travel website.
We get 3 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick leave, stock grants, bonuses, and health and stuff. Our Dallas office has a break room, with free bad coffee, tea, filtered water/ice, and 25 cent cokes.
The office in Bellevue is like pre bust dot com, they've got a cafeteria, with a Starbucks inside, and free cokes, juice, milk.
We also get travel discounts.

[Siren]

I'm not a programmer, but I get to go to Google on a semi-regular basis. And let me tell you, if I ever get half a chance, I'd work for them in a heartbeat.

[bigdruid]

I've been fortunate enough to work at Google for the last 6 months or so.

Perks include:
A comfy chair, adjustable desk, fast linux machine and a big LCD monitor (basic stuff matters, honestly)
Matching 401K, 100% matching charitable donations too.
Subsidized massages ($5 for a 30 min chair massage, $10 for a full hour table massage)
Free breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, espresso machine.
Dogs in the office.
Paid ski trips (went to Whistler this year)
Some ungodly number of days of vacation and holidays, that go up as you gain seniority.
Fully stocked gameroom, including a Wii and 360 (with Rock Band!) - the 360 is kept stocked with points so people can buy stuff on XBLA
Tech talks and internal classes and training, given by either in-house experts or visiting professors/PhD students/authors (like over a dozen every week)
Paid gym membership
Paid ISP
Cash bonuses, stock options, and stock grants
20% time (where you work on your own project) - last month I taught myself Python and wrote a Chess app.
Absolutely the best engineering staff of any large company in the world. I'm surrounded by brilliant people, and it's incredible the stuff I'm learning.
The main office has on-site childcare, and over a dozen restaurant-quality cafes with free food. Our cafe up here in Seattle is right on the canal and is just incredible.

So, I'm way high on Google. It's the best job I've ever had, bar none. The perks are amazing.

[rottengeek]

hmm.
Well, i work for a consulting firm...
I get to pick my gigs, paid overtime, bench time, standard bonuses...the standard benefits.
I like being able to pick where i go next, which project i take.

Some places i've been have lunch provided, some have cafeterias, the place i'm at now has a soda machine (!!) with all the pop you'd ever dream of.

I think it varies. The IPs i've worked for were crazy - booze, gaming, whatever you wanted whenever you wanted it.

Corporate environments are more dependable, with less freedom.

[Omniscia]

Wow, you tech people have it good.

I work at a small law firm. We have a microwave that's quite possibly older than I am, and a small, cubic refrigerator. Last year we got a water cooler; before then, you had to bring a coffee mug to the bathroom tap.

[bago]

Beer fridge!

[Bill Dungsroman]

I get to go to work in baggie, a T and some slops.

You what now?

[XPav]

9/80 workweek (9 hours a day, so we get every other Friday off)
40 hour work week usually (sometimes people go over, but it's not forced), with paid OT, even for salaried employees, assuming manager approves it.
Bagel Thursday (because we don't work on every Friday)
Free Soda in the fridge (not always the best selection though, there's constant discussion about the algorithm used to select the purchases)
2 microwaves in the break room (ok, I donated my old one back in startup days)
3 varieties of non-crap coffee.
Aeron chairs (assuming you're assertive enough to keep asking for them)
They usually rearrange the holidays to get the last week of the year as paid vacation.
Large company "perks" website to get some discounts
Good large company stock purchase plan and 401k matching
Discounts at the next door health club
Software engineers get to work for me. :)

[CounterMeasure]

Started a new job a few months back, and of course we get all the regular health plan and 401k stuff like other places. The awesome part is the food! The big office in Cali has a huge cafeteria where the company cover's the first 5 bucks of lunch and dinner. And the food is good too. Here at my office, we don't have that, but we have two large fully stocked kitchen areas. Fridges full of Hotpockets and TV Dinners and salads. Shelves of snacks and machines full of soda and juice and even little cartons of chocolate milk! And all of it free. They even cater in lunch and breakfast on certain days of the week. I gained so much weight since starting that I have had to start exercising more.

On top of that, they are not cheap like some places when it comes to get employees what they need to work. If you need it, it gets approved quickly. I have some absolutely monster machines for development and testing. Coming from a place where it took months to get a new machine because of all the quotes for the best prices and haggling, this was definitely a culture shock for me.

Of all the jobs I had where I thought they took care of employees, this place by far puts them all to shame. Highly recommended A++++ would buy from again.

[Kraaze]

Oops, I totally forgot one perk. I don't pay for my cell phone. It's a company phone that I can use for whatever I like. I probably wouldn't get questioned if I ran up a $600 bill one month.

I really don't consider that a super awesome perk because my employer uses it like a leash. In exchange for them paying it all no questions asked I'm expected to keep it charged and on my person and ready to react at any odd time of day. Plus since it's company equipment and they don't spring for a insurance plan if I lose/damage my phone the cost of a new one is deducted from my next paycheck. I take good care of my phone, these damn things are expensive.

[DavidKaye]

We provide:

Boring stuff

Ergonomic chairs + dual monitor setups for everyone
3 weeks vacation
Stock options
Fully paid (and decent) medical + dental
No dress code

Fun stuff

Rock Band room (after 6pm only)
Free soda, snacks, fruit and cereal
An antique globe stocked with booze (after hours only)

[Demon G Sides]

3 hour work weeks.
Every other day is a vacation.
Cheap health care (relatively)
Free water
$1,500 sign on bonus

Yeah, my job is to video tape an 1 1/2 hour lecture. Its easy, and it gets me work study.

[NoWayJose]

Hookers and blow

[Brendan]

Pension fund, they pay one third of my medical insurance, we have a daycare centre (Which we have to pay for.), kitchen with microwaves, free fizzy drinks, tea and filter coffee, on Wednesdays we get tea snacks and Fridays we get free drinks and once a month we get a themed dinner evening. We get 15 days leave a year. Also, there is a profit sharing scheme that kicks in after 3 years.

[Elton]

Heh. I work for a tiny software company in the Netherlands. On the plus side I get five weeks of vacation and flexible working hours and don't get overworked -- all great stuff. (And we get coffee, but I don't drink coffee.) But that's ... it. There is a microwave in the building's kitchen but I never use it any more after twice being scolded by Dutch people for making the building "smell like a restaurant". (They only ever eat cold lunches.) I hadn't thought about it before, but wherever I work next is guaranteed to be more luxurious than where I am now.

Oh, and health care isn't provided by the company -- Dutch law says everybody has to buy their own insurance (and the government reimburses unemployed/poor people). I'm sure it's a much sounder system than in the U.S., but it makes the wage disparity between America and Holland even larger than it appears.

[WarrenM]

3 hour work weeks.
Every other day is a vacation.
Cheap health care (relatively)
Free water
$1,500 sign on bonus

Yeah, my job is to video tape an 1 1/2 hour lecture. Its easy, and it gets me work study.
I'm unclear as to how that's a programming job.

[Brendan]

I'm unclear as to how that's a programming job.

At some stage in his career he has probably attempted to write a VB macro in Excel.

Har. Har.

[Adam Altmann]

Well, the company that I was just hired at (Epic Systems)(a medical software company) for a QA tester.
Have full medical/Dental/Optical plans, 2 weeks paid vacation, (for the first 2 years, then 3 weeks in following years), 401k with some matching, Great food (at the verona "campus) free coffee, snacks, etc. Casual dress (within reason), the main campus itself is state of the art, and full of some great landscaping and outdoor areas to relax in, personal computer loans (interest free computer loan for personal computers, through payroll deduction), various picnics and holiday celebrations.

Overall, I am very excited to work at such a cool place.

I've heard mixed reports about Epic. I know some people love it there, while others say they work you into the ground until you burn out. I suppose it depends on what you do. Anyway, congratulations, you got a good one.

Every time I go to the Dean Clinic in Stoughton, my doctor bitches to me about what he'd like changed in the Epic software. You know, things like "Why can't it just do what I want without me having to tell it to?!" From now on, I'll just send him to you.

[Charles]

I'm unclear as to how that's a programming job.

Surely you don't expect people to read the thread? For shame.

edit: Or even the title.

[ElGuapo]

For me:

No vacation
No dental
No health insurance
No sick time
No deferred savings plan of any sort

(Ok, I'm self employed, so I have to pony all that up myself)

Coffee makers are labelled things like "CLERK'S OFFICE ONLY!!!!" or "JUSTICE GINSBERG'S CHAMBERS". Nothing free or perky of any sort. Just serious cat business, I guess.

I guess there is a water cooler in the kitchen. So free water.

[Acoustic Rob]

Physicist perks:










OK, I got nothing.

[WarrenM]

Guapo

I didn't know you were a programmer. I thought you were a lawyer or something.

[Hanzii]

Guapo

I didn't know you were a programmer. I thought you were a lawyer or something.


He programs the US Supreme Court... or the robojudges or something.

[ElGuapo]

Well, I'm kind of ... I have a weird kind of job, but I do some coding occasionally, so yeah, I'm in there. I do more ... "consulting" than programming, usually.

[Mike O'Malley]

The mystery continues...

[Demon G Sides]

SO EpicBoy is looking to single out a person, as I'm not the only person who posted their job 'perks' without being a programmer.

Real good job asshole. Maybe you too should read the thread, because I certainly wasn't the first person.

[fuzzyslug]

(mostly copied from DavidKaye)

Ergonomic chairs + dual monitor setups for everyone
5 1/2 weeks PTO (vacation and sick time is one bucket)
Stock options
No dress code

[ElGuapo]

SO EpicBoy is looking to single out a person, as I'm not the only person who posted their job 'perks' without being a programmer.

Real good job asshole. Maybe you too should read the thread, because I certainly wasn't the first person.

Who is this addressed to?

[jeffd]

So this is a good threat to bring this up - who gets "Paid time off" that encompasses sick time & vacation, and who has them seperated out?

Me? I get 4 weeks vacation, and 2 weeks sick time.

[Fugitive]

Vacation and paid sick time are separate for me, with five weeks vacation and sick time is "as needed", though a doctor's note is needed for absences of three or more consecutive days. There doesn't seem to be a formal limit on sick days, though I imagine your manager will want to have a chat if it gets rather excessive...

[Slainte Mhath]

I get to go to work in baggie, a T and some slops.

You what now?

I believe that's South African for assless chaps. I could be wrong though.

[Ergo]

I'm not a programmer, but I work for a software development company. Perks:

5 weeks vacation (not including holidays)
Medical/dental
401k
Stock options
Fully stocked snack/beverage area (including beer)
Gym and cafeteria
Barbershop and massage therapy
Profit sharing
No dress code

Yeah, our turnover rate is very, very low. I've been here 8 years.

[jeffd]

So here's a list of my perks/bennies:

- 4 weeks paid vacation, 2 weeks sick time, 2 floating holidays.
- medical/dental/vision. Basically best bennies in the industry.
- 401k
- stock awards
- stock purchase plan
- Free soda / juice / milk
- Gym membership.
- Company-run commuter buses (this one is awesome)
- Flexible hours, telecommuting opportunities

Uhh I'm sure there are tons of others I'm not thinking of cuz I don't use 'em.

[IndieInIndy]

He programs the US Supreme Court... or the robojudges or something.

So he's the one that forgot to link in Clarence's dialog tree. For shame.


So this is a good threat to bring this up - who gets "Paid time off" that encompasses sick time & vacation, and who has them seperated out?

Me? I get 4 weeks vacation, and 2 weeks sick time.

I think at my current job, they're all one pool. Which is a change from my previous job, where time off had separate pools for PTO (80 hrs), comp time (24 hrs), floating holidays (16 hrs), sick days (48 hrs), and... something else I've forgotten. And the sick time was split in half, so you could take three days without notice, but had to schedule the other three sick days in advance. Whenever I wanted to take time off, it was pretty much a dart-throw to decide which pool of time off to use.

Oh, and current perks:

15 days PTO/sick
401k + 100% match
all the HD equipment I can fit on my office (need bigger desk)
and a job where I don't actually care what the perks are, cause it's so much better than the last one

[JPR]

I am an entry level software developer working for a subsidiary of a large consulting firm.

Every salaried employee gets pretty much the same vacation deal -- between 6 and 7 weeks of personal time, which must be divided between vacation, sick days, etc. We also get 6 or so holidays per year.

Benefits are fine -- optional medical, vision, and dental.
401k (including Roth) matching 100% up to 4%.
Employee stock purchase plan and twice-yearly bonuses
We have a legal benefit, so you can get legal representation for family law and other things like that for about $400 a year.
We have historically had a 3 day retreat per year (light on the team building), but this year they did away with that and gave everybody $300 instead.

Our office has a fridge with various beverages, a pantry with tea, chips, peanut butter, energy bars, granola, Ramen noodles, Chef Boyarde, and a bunch of other stuff. Free coffee, of course. There are usually bagels on Friday, though it's not a steadfast rule. We also have frequent catering for meetings (several times a week), and if you weren't invited, there are always leftovers.

Several people more senior than I am work from home at least 1 day a week, and they are open to letting people do that whenever they need to. No dress code unless there are clients in the office, in which case it's just "no shorts".

[Hanzii]

So this is a good threat to bring this up - who gets "Paid time off" that encompasses sick time & vacation, and who has them seperated out?

Me? I get 4 weeks vacation, and 2 weeks sick time.

Doesn't this system of numbered sick/personal days or having them come out of your holidays encourage people to come to work sick if at all possible?

Ie you don't really get much done and you infect your co-workers possibly costing the company more in slowdowns than if you just stayed home?

I'm asking because I'm curious and this system obviously very common in the US is utterly alien to me.

[WarrenM]

Ie you don't really get much done and you infect your co-workers possibly costing the company more in slowdowns than if you just stayed home?
Epic routinely reminds everyone to stay the hell home if you're feeling sick. It's worth losing you for a day or two in order to avoid losing 10 people because you came in and spread the plague around the office.

[Kraaze]

Doesn't this system of numbered sick/personal days or having them come out of your holidays encourage people to come to work sick if at all possible?


Ironically, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing today. At work with a 101 temperature and spreading the germs merrily. I get 4 paid sick/personal days a year and after that it eats into my vacation so regardless of what my management says about the need to stay home when sick they can fuck off. They've set the system up so I'm strongly incentivized to be at work while sick and that's what I'm going to do.

[jeffd]

Doesn't this system of numbered sick/personal days or having them come out of your holidays encourage people to come to work sick if at all possible?

Ie you don't really get much done and you infect your co-workers possibly costing the company more in slowdowns than if you just stayed home?

I'm asking because I'm curious and this system obviously very common in the US is utterly alien to me.

Basically you're 100% right. For some reason more and more firms have instituted it as some bizarre cost savings mechanism, but from what I understand research indicates that they end up losing more when sick employees come in and infect the whole office because they don't want to lose a day off their Europe trip.

[jeffd]

Epic routinely reminds everyone to stay the hell home if you're feeling sick. It's worth losing you for a day or two in order to avoid losing 10 people because you came in and spread the plague around the office.

Do you guys seperate sick leave & vacation?

[WarrenM]

Do you guys seperate sick leave & vacation?
Yeah, we have sick days but no specific limit. As someone else mentioned, if you take too many you'll probably be called down to HR for a talk.

[LionelThompson]

I mentioned in another thread that I just hit 10 years at the IT company I work for. With that I now get 4 weeks of vacation plus 1 diversity day. Sick time is unlimited with the caveat that you get your billable hours in.

Free coffee and tea.
Three microwaves at our disposal.
Ability to work from home when needed.
Dental/medical/vision, your choice of five or so plans.
Employer match up to 5% in your 401k.
Adoption leave as well as a stipend to help pay for it.
Employee discount on GM vehicles (which is how I could afford my Saab convertible).
Blue jeans on Fridays (and sometimes a whole week) when we land large clients.

[AndrewM]

I have finite sick days, but I earn one additional one per month, so there's no real danger in running out of them.

[nKoan]

Every day I get a big bag of "We didn't fire you today" and I appreciate it.

[Shadarr]

I mentioned in another thread that I just hit 10 years at the IT company I work for. With that I now get 4 weeks of vacation plus 1 diversity day.
Very similar to me, I'll hit 10 years in August so I get 18 vacation days this year. But what the heck is a diversity day? Come to work in blackface?

As for bennies, we get:

Defined contribution pension plan (like an RRSP except 100% employer paid)
Adjustable medical/dental plan. I have no dependents, so I took the minimum life insurance and 90% dental.
Flexible hours
Ability to work from home
Lunch room with microwaves, coffee, fridge, toaster oven
Free snacks and drinks (no alcohol)
Excercise room
No dress code
Foosball table that nobody uses anymore
Occasional free lunches, afternoon BBQs and team outings (paintball, kayaking)
Free stuff: jacket, shirts, $100 Future Shop gift card, USB thumbdrive
Thanks Award program: employees can give each other company swag as thank you presents paid for by the company. I've gotten two shirts, a duffle bag and a pair of binoculars out of it.

[Kunikos]

Every day I get a big bag of "We didn't fire you today" and I appreciate it.

Yeah, that's pretty keen. Also, I like the free sodas and dinner if people are staying late. And the occasional comp time.

[Rward]

[/I]



I believe that's South African for assless chaps. I could be wrong though.

bastards.

ok, heres the missing 'S'. BaggieS.
Or you guys being serious and don't use 'baggies' over there?
in that case, they're boardshorts


"So Billy, why'd you kill a man?"
"He was ragging on me.."

[Demon G Sides]

I was more or less wondering what slops were.

[Kunikos]

ok, heres the missing 'S'. BaggieS.
Or you guys being serious and don't use 'baggies' over there?
in that case, they're boardshorts

over here baggies are things you stick your weed^H^H^H^Horegano in.

i'm hoping slops are flip-flops

[Allagash]

We have

- a fridge with soda, fizzy water, ice tea, juice boxes
- coffee machine
- great health plan
- couple of company outings each year - bowling, picnic
- 2 Rock Band rooms
- practice room for bands
- catered lunch every Friday
- smart co-workers who are also very cool

I think the last perk is the best.

[Trey]

free soda and snacks
2 free coffee machines (one is starbucks, one is non-starbucks and does hot chocolate as well)
free lunch every day ($45/week budget, 2 restaurant choices per day, delivered usually around noon)
small gym in the building
gym membership
flexible hours
no dress code
foosball table
Xbox 360
401K no matching (yet)
15 days combined PTO to start with limit 5 days rollover from one year to the next
dental/medical/vision
employee stock purchase plan
quarterly 5% bonus that you/your team earn some or all of by meeting objectives that you and your supervisor agree on (generally 2 gimmes, 2 moderate ones, 1 hard one)
pretty good Dell desktops (the new hires are getting dual-processor dual-core systems with 4Gig RAM!) - run any OS you want on it

[bago]

Yeah, smart co-workers you can show the hand bananna episode and blow their mind is pretty kick ass.

[Vesper]

I work for a large financial company, and we get (starting):

-5 weeks time off (vacation + sick time + personal time)
-7 holidays
-Free hot lunch/Soda/Coffee (no money involved, it's just take as much as you want)
-6% 401k matched as company stock
-Decent health/vision/dental
-Incentive bonus based on company/department/personal performance. The starting percentage is based on your job title and level (ranges from 5-15%). Bonus is not guaranteed of course.
- Underground parking... eventually (based on seniority). It's in the burbs though so there's plenty of parking in outdoor lots.
- Flexible hours, ability to work from home if needed due to illness/weather/etc.


Being a large company gets you these other benefits:

- Bureaucracy
- Red Tape
- Business casual dress
- More red tape

Overall, I'm very happy with the perks & compensation.

[Rward]

over here baggies are things you stick your weed^H^H^H^Horegano in.

i'm hoping slops are flip-flops

Yup - slops, flip-flops, same thing.

[bago]

Medical companies hate it when you don't wear shoes.

[dfs]

On the plus...
5 weeks vacation
5 weeks sick leave
12 regular holidays
bulletproof medical/dental/vision
phat Bismarkian retirement system
access to Gym
hours of my own making
if the cops won't stop you for wearing it, you can wear it to the office
Work that I can believe in
12 minute commute

On the minus
Pay sucks

I'm not leaving anytime soon.