
Are These The Most Ridiculous/Awesome Startup Perks Ever? - KMinshew
http://www.thedailymuse.com/job-search/free-food-free-travel-10-corporate-perks-we-love/
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bherms
My last job offered each employee two "Sunday fundays" a month... Basically we
could pick up to two Sundays each month to go have fun on the company's dime,
up to $250 (each sunday). You couldn't buy any goods with it, but you could go
do whatever you wanted: nice restaurant, skydiving, kayaking, take friends out
for drinks, etc. You just had to take pictures and were expected to write a
few paragraphs about what you did.

~~~
KMinshew
This is a brilliant idea and I now want to do this for my company when we get
bigger. Thanks!

~~~
bherms
It was a great perk. Essentially nobody really made full use of it (the full
$500/mo per employee), but it was always great to have the ability to do so...
Sometimes you'd just be out with friends for a big brunch and realize, "oh,
hey, it's sunday" and pick up the tab for everyone or list all your meals on a
Sunday while out hiking the Bay Area with friends.

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kenko
A few of these would be big turnoffs for me:

\- everything at the office (both nine and ten): how about reasonable work
hours so I can do things outside the office?

\- $500 if I live nearby: if this is just out of respect for the deleterious
effects of a long commute, it strikes me as weirdly paternalistic, and
actually kind of backwards; people who for whatever reason (spouse's
employment, family, whatever) can't live within five miles and thus have a
longer commute have _both_ a long commute _and_ $500/month less. Why not just
subsidize transit for everyone? Or (and this is a bit tinfoil-hat-like, I
admit) it's a way to get people to live near the office ... so it's less
burdensome to spend a lot of time at the office.

~~~
crazygringo
Indeed, when you look at these in reverse, they really take on a different
meaning. Essentially: you salary _would_ be X, except it's less because we're
spending it on perks, except that you might not want some of them or qualify
for them...

What business is it of the employer's, where I live? Viewed in this light,
it's actually _discrimination_ against employees who don't live nearby, a
salary cut in fact. It's almost amazing that it's even legal to do something
like that.

Imagine if a company said, an extra $500/mo for everyone who doesn't own a
car, or everyone who is vegan, or everyone who volunteers 10 hrs/mo, or
everyone who votes Republican.

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res0nat0r
My all time favorite work perk after doing the corporate drone gig +
pager/oncall, followed by fast paced SV type gig + pager/oncall and the
pluses/minuses that come with those companies?

Nights and weekends off, and a respect for my downtime + work/life balance.

~~~
jroll
Yet another perk we live by at ZeroCater. Email jim at zerocater dot com or
the address in my profile to learn more.

~~~
sillysaurus
I'm skeptical. If someone comes in at 9 and leaves at 5 sharp M-F, there's no
way they'd fit in at most SV startups. You're saying they'd fit in at
ZeroCater?

~~~
jroll
If you're getting shit done, I'm cool with that.

~~~
famousactress
I'm sure you're being genuine, but this seems naive. Startups are small teams,
building relatively unproven products. There are a lot of lean times and
challenges that test everyone's mettle. I don't think it's very likely someone
can do their 9-5, even if they're massively productive in that timespan, and
not be looked at funny if the cultural norm is for everyone to work crazy
hours. I think the way for reasonable hours to actually work at a startup is
for the founders to actively make that the culture.

 _Unless_ the company works asynchronously/remotely which has an awesome side-
effect of making it feasible to value output over effort.

~~~
jroll
For one, I agree with lsc's response. Our employees are definitely in the
office more than 40 hours a week, but that includes hanging around after work
for dinner or a couple of beers.

That said, I generally work eight hour days, and I don't feel like I'm being
judged when I walk out of the office at the end of the day. It's a solid part
of our culture - that's why I said it's one of the perks we live by.

edited for spelling.

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famousactress
The commute stipend (#6, imo) is genius. 500$ (monthly, presumably) if you
work w/in 5 miles of the office. People pathologically underestimate the
negative affects their commutes have on their lives. When mine disappeared I
got massively happier immediately, and the time I would have spent commuting
shifted mostly to work.

~~~
brandonheato
This is actually quite a common perk offered by Japanese companies in Tokyo
(GREE, CyberAgent, etc).

~~~
patio11
Interestingly, my former employers had what I believe to be a more common
system in Japan: they paid you more to live farther away from the office, by
subsidizing your monthly train pass. (One could actually turn this into an
untaxed wage increase by buying the 6 month pass at the standard discount,
rather than six 1 month passes, and pocketing the 6th month's subsidy.
Eventually HR realized this, cut the subsidy, and directed everyone to buy the
6 month pass. HR was surprised that this decision was unpopular.)

One of the reasons for subsidizing commute expenses in Japan is that they're
typically both high relative to employee salaries and the benefits are not
taxable as earned income, whereas giving equivalent sums of money for other
purposes does make that money taxable. For example, my read of the relevant
regulations suggests that paying somebody to live close to the office
constitutes taxable income but subsidizing their commute is not.

In case it isn't obvious, I'm none of Japanese, a tax lawyer, a Japanese tax
lawyer, or your Japanese tax lawyer, but the regs are fairly straightforward
if interested parties want to look them up:

[http://www.nta.go.jp/taxanswer/gensen/2508.htm](http://www.nta.go.jp/taxanswer/gensen/2508.htm)

[Funny anecdote: My boss attempted to sell me once on moving next door to the
office, on the grounds that this would save the company money on my train pass
_and_ let me continue working without that pesky hard stop at 30 minutes past
midnight when the last train to Ogaki left. I think he was genuinely confused
when I told him "I consider that less a bug and more a feature." The joke was
on me, though, after crunch time happened and I had to buy hotel stays at my
own expense after staying until 3 to 4 AM.]

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seivan
One thing I never fully understood is putting monitors/hardware/computers
under perks.

How the heck did they imagine you would work?

~~~
patio11
It's marketing.

If you've never been treated as an adult before, "We will treat you like an
adult. You'll even be able to _spend money without asking for permission._ "
sounds like an outrageous perk. Many, many decisions about compensation and
working style at startups are optimized for an audience which has never been
treated as an adult before.

This is similar to how Google recruiters deploy their free food perk,
incidentally. Google has over-the-top food benefits and has since forever.
This is so widely publicized that people who are not in the tech industry know
about it. Everybody who would take a job at Google is aware of it.
Nonetheless, if you were to today ask a Google recruiter for a salary bump,
they would _as a matter of policy_ ask for a little time to think it over,
then come back with "Well, we give you all the free food you can eat. A meal
in Mountain View runs about $15 to $20 or so, and you could easily get 10 of
them a week from us, so that's worth something like $10k a year right there,
right? Boom, I just got you the extra $10k."

And this is standard policy because _it routinely works_ on _people who are
smart enough to work at Google_.

~~~
rmc
The food _is_ a bit of a actual perk. That's why it's common to be taxed
(benefit-in-kind). The tax man knows that employees/employers would be able to
pay money to employees without paying tax by giving many non-money benefits.

~~~
patio11
_That 's why it's common to be taxed (benefit-in-kind)_

It is not the practice of the United States to tax certain types of food
benefits, including (almost certainly) the way in which tech companies
customarily deliver food to their workers. You can read the test here:

[http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/ar02.html](http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/ar02.html)

Search for: [Meals on Your Business Premises]

I am not a tax accountant, I am not your tax accountant, etc, but I'm 99%+
sure that I'm right on this with regards to the IRS.

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cmer
For startups, it can be challenging to compete with Facebook and Google when
it comes to perks. Startup money needs to be invested wisely, at the same
time, we need to attract the best talent possible.

I'd be interested to hear what reasonable/not-out-of-this-world-crazy perks
motivate you to work for a startup.

~~~
7Figures2Commas
How about _no_ perks, or close-to-no-perks?

I like money, and I like spending my money on my own time. So I'd rather be
paid well, and no matter how good the company's financials look, I'd prefer to
work at a company that isn't spending money on catered lunches I probably
won't eat, ping pong tables I won't use and group events I'm not inclined to
attend.

There are plenty of talented people out there who don't need their jobs to
provide a social experience, lifestyle or free stuff. Startups that go crazy
on perks should consider that these can be just as much a turn-off as a turn-
on to prospective employees.

~~~
crazygringo
I actually agree completely. These kinds of perks are a big turn-off for me,
they almost feel like I'm still in school instead of at a job.

I'd much rather just have the higher salary, and not feel like the company was
trying to be anything except the place I work at. I can provide my own social
life and activities, and would rather work at work, than play ping-ping or
pool there.

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acslater00
SeatGeek started giving everyone $100 a month to spend on live event tickets.
It doesn't accrue -- use it or lose it. I think concert attendance in the
office has increased 5x since the new policy was started. Not quite a beach
vacation, but fun!

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axk
At Thumbtack, we brew our own beer. Currently making a Witbier and a Tripel ;)

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myuliyam
#5 is awesome! team build anywhere tropical :)

~~~
jtheory
Interestingly, that struck me as one of the worst ones.

Anyone with a family at SendGrid, or other responsibilities (like the need to
care for an elderly parent)? And can they actually leave them behind when they
go on vacation, or are they forced to forgo this benefit?

Mind you, skipping the trip means more than just "didn't get to play in the
exotic locale", it also means the team-building has solidified a team that no
longer includes you.

~~~
crazygringo
I agree completely. I think it can be a real problem, when the office
basically sends the strong signal that everything is basically geared towards
unmarried 20-somethings.

~~~
rmc
That might be the point... </cynical>

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KMinshew
My personal favorite is the travel perk (#4)... though I wouldn't say no to
having a company boat!

~~~
benologist
My personal fave is where thedailymuse has a _edit_ quartet, not trio, of HN
accounts, only one of whom discloses his role, dumping links and shill
commenting in each other's submissions including yourself, acav, nlow, and
elliotbell.

Plus 7 or 8 accounts created just to dump a few of your links.

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elliottbell
Company boat? Would be a better perk if everyone got a boat

~~~
furyofantares
That would be bad compensation rather than a great perk. It would just be
compensating people in a way they wouldn't spend the money given the choice.
The company boat takes advantage of it being easier to get value out of a
group "owned" boat than an individual boat, since a lot of overhead is shared
and the amount of time the boat sits there unused is minimized.

