Work with Perks #1

What is Work with Perks?

A fun side project looking into workplaces with jaw-dropping perks.

Once a week, we’ll send an email highlighting 2-3 companies with extraordinary perks. It’ll take you less than 3 minutes to read!

I’ve always been interested in other people’s workplace perks because:

• My ex-housemate works at Uber. He got US$400 to spend on Uber / UberEats. At the end of the month, he would have leftover credits and we would get a Maccas feast (cheering). We also would never walk more than 5 minutes.

• It’s fun to dream about our lives if I had free lunches, a barista, climbing walls and/or 3pm hand-stand clubs (yes these exist)

• I can complain to my manager / HR team.

• Wallow in my sorrows about why I don’t have a cool job with perks.

• It’s just a good conversation

Let’s go get it!

Blue-chip companies

British Airways

Staff Travel Discounts (Fly the World)

There are two types of discounts 1) Hotline 2) StandBy.

Hotline

Hotline tickets are ~10-20% discount on retail prices and can be booked in advance. These tickets are available to employees and their nominated friends/families. BA employees must be an absolute hit at family gatherings.

StandBy

StandBy tickets are ~50-60% discount on retail prices (airport charges and taxes still apply). These tickets are available to employees and 3 nominated friends/families.

As the name suggests, these tickets aren’t confirmed up to ~1 hour before the flight. Yep, you read that right. That means - going to the airport, checking in without a seat number, going to the gate and asking if there are any seats for you.

We acknowledge that it’s difficult to plan and you run the risk of being stuck on the other side of the world BUT how exciting is the idea of packing a carry-on bag, turning up the airport and landing in an exotic country for cheap.

Ok…maybe not for all personality types… this is the type of gamble / excitement that gets me out of bed.

ASOS

Employee Discount Employee + nominated friend/family get discounts on ASOS.

Summer Hours During summer, Friday office hours end at 3pm! Let’s be honest, Friday’s a write-off for most people but official hours ending at 3pm do make a difference.

Monthly Friday Drinks Celebrate the end of the month with drinks on ASOS. I’ve had this before at my previous company, and it was great!

Birthday Leave Not bad.

Relatively unknown companies

What does the company do? Ecosia is a search engine based in Berlin, Germany. ~80% of company profits are used to support tree-planting projects. The company has planted +170 million trees since launching. A very cool mission that proves that social enterprises can exist in the hyper-capitalistic society we find ourselves in today.

4-day work weeks @ 80% of full-time salary Look there are companies that offer 4-day work weeks @ 100% of a full-time salary. Let’s be honest though, some of us would jump at the chance at a 4-day work week (I can spend more time working on fun useless side projects like Work With Perks). Weirdly, I find that traditional companies are resistant to the idea of employees working 4-day weeks (you’re at risk of being labelled with a not fully committed tag). It’s classic group-think in my opinion.

Until next time!