Tell me about your Professional Courtesy.

In My Humble Opinion
41

Professionally I don’t get anything at all and if I did accept anything it could very well be considered a bribe. The stuff I do get is limited to pens and the like at conferences.

Outside my work I am on the board for a museum. This gives me a card with free entry to all museums in Sweden. I am also on the commity for culture under the city council so I get a lot of invitations to art gallery openings, theaters and the like. I don’t go to those very often though and I wouldn’t go to one where I was about to participate on a decision about giving money to that particular theater etc.

42

My mom works at a clinic, so I get most of my meds in sample form, but they are free :slight_smile:

When I worked at the beauty supply I used to get samples of all of the new launch shampoos and conditioners, plus when we broke down the gift packs (pedicure set for summer in a beach bag with thong sandals) we got the sandals and bags. I also get to help out at the ABA (beauty show) every year and get paid in product :slight_smile: (my choice)

As a soldier when in uniform we often get stuff like coffee and lunch bought for us and we do our best to watch out for each other (give a ride in a LAV etc).

When I managed a nightclub I got a ton of stuff (movie tix, promo clothes) from liquor reps

When I used to go to aerospace tradeshows we got all of the trinkets and trash from the shows - some of it was pretty good. As one of the few females I usually got the “primo” stuff (golf shirts, swiss army stuff), not the little crap stuff

43

Well, that’s fuckin’ rude.

Anyway, I’ve been known not to charge other translators for short jobs for their own needs (i.e. not outsourced contracts for other clients).

44

Perks of a few jobs I’ve had:

Carny – OK, not exactly the stereotypical scamming Carny seen in the movies, but I did work a food booth at the Interstate fair for a few years when I was a teenager. Of course I got free food from the place I worked (all the corn dogs you wanted) but there was an informal agreement among other booths that food workers could eat free at any of them. That worked out, because five or six days of corn dogs and curly fries got old. Also, if other workers recognized you as a fellow Carny, you could sometimes get free stuff or discounts from them, too.

Senate Aide – yep, from Carny all the way to working in the U.S. Senate. The free stuff there were tickets to sporting events and concerts (as long as the tickets were under $50), free lunches, and free trips. I also got an assload of free t-shirts, hats, and coffee mugs, and occasionally some free books.

It’s not quite the sweet deal it seems, though. As they always say, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and all these freebies came with an “educational” (or lobbying) effort. Sure, you may get a free trip, but it’s to Pendelton, Oregon, to tour woodland for three days. Up at 6:30, out in the woods all day, dinner at 7:00, and back at it the next day. It’s not like we were going to Club Med and sitting by the pool all day; these trips were educational. Similarly, free tickets to sporting events were usually in luxury boxes where the lobbyist would have plenty of time to talk to you about his or her latest project. Lunches involved the same. A lot of staff I know turned down more of these offers than they accepted. Most didn’t want the hassle that came with them.

A sweet perk that came with that job was the complete freedom you had to wander around the Capitol. This was especially nice after 9/11, when security became very tight. You could go pretty much anywhere. I was able to go up in the dome and on the Senate floor while in session, both of which were quite cool.

Freelance writer – the only perks I get now is the occasional free book and trip to a conference.

45

Not the least of which is that nobody has realized that you retired from the Philadelphia 76’ers a few decades ago. :smiley:

46

Nuts. I forgot about this one. I used to write for quite a few magazines, so I used to get lots of free subscriptions and courtesy copies.

Also while I was at the law firm, since I was in the marketing department and we did client entertainment, I’d get hockey tickets on the ice, VP baseball and football tickets. I was never really into sports except for basketball & volleyball, so those slipped my mind. It was a much bigger deal to everyone in my department than it ever was to me.

47

Textbooks, readers, writing handbooks, etc comin’ out my ears. I swear Houghton-Mifflin sends a book a day to me. And our campus forbids profs to sell these books, so I give them away.

48

In the theatre world, there really isn’t much of a way to get the kinds of professional courtesy the OP is talking about because no one can tell you’re in the industry just by looking at you, and most of the equipment is too expensive to give a sample. My particular company, though, has a wonderful deal worked out with many of the local businesses that gives me discounts at everything from the local hardware store to restaurants.