I work at a university (Brandeis) part time. Full time employees get to take one free class per semester. Part time employees like me get to take one class per semester at half price.
There was a digital photography class that I would have been interested in taking, so I called the benefits office and asked what the cost would be to take it at half price.
$2500.
For one class.
Guess who isn’t using that particular work benefit?
I also don’t buy the employer offered health insurance because I get better insurance through my husband. I did get my free flu shot on campus during the health fair, though!
So what about you? Do you have benefits at work that you don’t use?
Free screenings of new movies on the Sony Pictures lot. I did it once, but the hassle of driving down to Culver City and going through security outweighs seeing the movie for free.
I work for a large brokerage firm and don’t take advantage of the many free financial education workshops that are offered. I’m very glad they’re offered for non brokers, however.
My job has only one perk, and I use the hell out of it: cut-rate hotel rooms for my immediate family, and a lesser discount for friends and family.
I guess I don’t really use the unofficial perk: many nearby restaurants and food deliveries offer discounts to us hotel employees. I seldom get delivery at work, and don’t go out and about in uniform, so there’s that.
My work offers health insurance, but I won’t take it because using private health care would conflict with my principles. Think I use all the other benefits, though.
During one of my teenage vacations we stopped at one of my dads retired military buddies. He was a assistant manager or something at a bowling alley. He thought his employment benefits included letting us bowl for free.
Well, the folks at the bowling alley weren’t thrilled at not billing us for a couple hours bowling. This poor guy had to do quite a bit of fast talking to pull it off. pretty embarrassing.
As an adult I’ve always been very leery of any employee discounts or perks.
This had me scratching my head until I viewed your profile and it said your location is London. How lucky you are that you live in a place where you can afford to have such principles.
My primary client is an airline. Last year, for Christmas, they sent me vouchers for 2 round-trip business class tickets anywhere in the US.
Problem is, they don’t fly everywhere in the US, and the closest city they fly to from where I live is a 5 hour drive. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it was the same deal for everywhere I kind of wanted to go - I’d drive 5 hours to get to a city they served, fly someplace, then drive several hours to get where I wanted to go.
I kept trying to convince myself to go somewhere with those vouchers, but eventually, they just expired and I never used them.
Our corporate HQ is in Manhattan. Apparently, all one needs to do is wave our company badge around in the city and many great things are free, for example we get into museums such as MOMA or the Metropolitan Museum of Art for free.
I live within commuting distance of Manhattan, so it would make sense if I were to take my family to such events at least monthly. I have never redeemed my freebies.
I also work at a university and never use my staff educational benefit. We also have an employee discount program, but I’ve only used the discount on my cell phone.
We have minor discounts for companies like Apple (8% ?) and Dell that I’ve never used. We also share a small gym facility with our parent company – I’ve used it less than 5 times, but really wish I used it more.
There are no real perks to my job except a free meal and drinking for free at the end of my shift. I usually have dinner but very seldom have more than 1-3 drinks after we’ve gotten rid of all the customers. Although there were occasions a few years ago when I was known to take serious advantage of this.
Huh…this seems odd to me. I also work for a university, and have unlimited free classes, though obviously it has to work around your work schedule ( though we have several evening and online classes.) We even have an MBA program designed for people employed for the university. All evening and night classes, two or three per semester.
How does your free/reduced tuition work with spouses/dependents? For us, they get free tuition for up to one degree, or a certain number of credit hours if no degree is wanted or obtained.
Though there have been many a rumbling about changing this policy because it costs too much money…for the paltry salary they pay us, I think they can leave this intact, especially since it’s not that much lost money. Most people are only taking the classes BECAUSE they’re free, it’s not like they’d shell out a few thousand if they had to. Maybe some of the kids that get to go here for free would still go if they had to pay, but most would go to another school. As anyone who is a kid of a university employee will tell you, there’s often a lot of pressure and pushing to go to that school if it’s free/reduced, it’s rarely their first or even second choice.
But anyone, the university I work for gives out an actual “Perks Card.” It’s some third-party run thing that gets us discounts at places of some sort. I’ve never used it, don’t even know where it can be used, and I suspect if I did use it, the clerk/salesperson/whoever helping me would be confused and wonder what it is, and how to use it.
I could get things like free yoga classes, but it would involve getting up at 5 a.m. and extending my work day to 12 hours rather than the 11 hours it already is. They can stuff it.
From the retail job: discount membership at a related warehouse club chain, subsidized stock purchases, free mental health/counseling services, discounts from various auto manufacturers, phone companies (I do use the AT&T discount, but have no need for the T Mobile or Verizon discounts, obviously), discount gym memberships, free smoking cessation products (stopped smoking on my own years ago), tuition assistance/scholarships, subsidized HSA, various insurance boosters, discounted haircare, discounted glasses/contacts. I do use my four weeks of vacation each year, but hate it, and have maxed out my store of sick time, since I’m never sick long enough to use it up. With accrued vacation, personal, and sick time, I could take nearly 16 weeks off of work with pay right now.
