<p>best perk I have, not to work at all.</p>
<p>I get no perks at all. Neither do I get benefits. The amount of work I get from month to month can vary widely at the will of my employer. I am also required to use my own telephone(s), and give out my number(s) to random members of the public, including leaving my business card with my name and home number on doors where anyone could see it. (THEIR privacy–even the fact that the address simply exists–is guarded religiously.) The process for being reimbursed for phone calls is so cumbersome that I’ve never bothered to do it. (Luckily, I have Tmobile at home, which is $10 per month for unlimited calling in the US.) I am also required to use my own car, although I am reimbursed for mileage. I also get to be abused by obnoxious, self-important people and anti-government nutcases on a regular basis. Oh, and I also have to work evenings and weekends, which are prime time for being able to reach people.</p>
<p>Such fun.</p>
<p>Many years ago, I worked for a software company where we would get free tickets to the Metropolitan Opera upon occasion, since the president was an opera buff with a parterre box. THAT was a great perk.</p>
<p>What do you do?</p>
<p>I am a field representative for the Census Bureau. (I also have my own business, but that’s another story.)</p>
<p>A tech story this weekend is on the Yahoo CEO requiring a few hundred employees to come into the office instead of working from home. In cities where Yahoo doesn’t have an office, this would presumably mean that they will have to relocate.</p>
<p>[Yahoo</a> CEO Mayer Now Requiring Remote Employees to Not Be (Remote) - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD](<a href=“Yahoo CEO Mayer Now Requiring Remote Employees to Not Be (Remote) - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD”>Yahoo CEO Mayer Now Requiring Remote Employees to Not Be (Remote) - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD)</p>
<p>I do come into the office every day and there are many that come in once a week or work in remote locations so that they come in a few times a year. There are also some that work from home two or three days a week. I think that the understanding is that there will always be someone in the office and groups are good if they have a few people that always come in.</p>
<p>One of the problems is where you have a lot of junior staff that need help from those that have been here for a while. The people that have been here for a while tend to be the people that work remotely a lot. So junior staff that need help have to resort to the phone or email or IM which isn’t as efficient for doing some things like a joint debugging session.</p>
<p>I wonder if things may head back in the opposite direction in the corporate world. We all run into the problem where we send an email to someone working remotely and we don’t get a reply for several hours and wonder if the person is really working.</p>
<p>@Consolation - S1’s first job was with the Census Bureau in Spring 2010. He’s worked for our park system and Kroger since then and is now sports editor of his college paper, which is a paying job.</p>
<p>I work for the state and while we don’t really have any perks, we do have excellent benefits and all state and national holidays off. For me, after being laid off from July 2010 to January 2012, simply having a job is a perk.</p>
<p>Footballmom104, that is a long time without a job.</p>
<p>It was … and I’m on my third job since then. I knew the one I started in January 2012wasn’t for me but it was the only suitable thing I’d been offered and I was afraid I wouldn’t get offered anything else before my unemployment ran out. I was there six months before getting on with the state. Suffice to say that was an even bigger nightmare - was accused of lying in my interview among other things. After I’d been there about three months a job opened up in my current department and I applied - I’d interviewed for it before, was not hired but got the nicest rejection letter I’d ever recieved. This time, since I was in the state system, I could transfer so I did in January, and it was definitely the right thing to do. I’m still not where I was before I was laid off pay-wise but I’ll get there eventually.</p>
<p>With that good attitude, you will get there.</p>
<p>BCEagle-your post really resonated with me.
Our staff all work ‘onsite’ but that means onsite at a half dozen different locations.
Email and conference calling are OK but sometimes it is SO much more efficient to be able to get everyone in one real life room to hash out an issue.</p>
<p>Sometimes I have trouble catching the right depth of detail on a technical email going out to a bunch of staffers at different technical knowledge levels.
Many no responses or responses that are off topic to the issue…
so much for time saving…</p>
<p>While for some "best perk I have, not to work at all.’, for others, it maybe be devastating. I hope that this transition will happen to me when I decided it is time. but most likely, I will be kicked out at some point and I am NOT looking forward to it at all. I have no idea what I do with my time as I have hard time to fill my hours after work bu I succeeded by adding a great hobby to my life, How to fill additional 9 hours is beyond me. I do not have “good attitude” about it, simply scared.</p>
<p>I work in the ER. My perks? Getting coughed on, sneezed on, puked on and pooped on! My job has given me a great immune system! lol Seriously, I work 11 days a month and it is considered full time! :)</p>
<p>I work for a small non-profit art museum, so not a lot of those fabulous perks as described above. Actually the work environment is the biggest perk (hard to complain about being around great art all day). I also have my professional association membership paid for, and great flexibility in scheduling, taking a little extra time off here and there, working at home, etc.</p>