What Freebies Do You Get At Work (Poll)? (Sodas/Coffee/Samples etc.)

Tickets to my college’s basketball or hockey games.

If I had a kid, he/she could go to my college at a vastly reduced rate. If I became a priest :eek: my niece or nephew could go at that rate.

<B>Jetgirl</b> - I work for Ingram! :slight_smile:

StG

Software company:

Wide variety of soft drinks, coffe, bottled water, microwave meals or sandwich fixings every day, fruit, cookies, crackers and an assortment of candy PLUS the occasional Friday afternoon beer.

Major holidays we have company get together with much nicer meals, free flowing alcohol, soft drinks and munchies.

Very flexible work schedule which saves on sick/vacation time; very casual dress code which saves $$ on professional clothing.

I like my company!

I work for a car maker. Besides coffee, I get an (almost) free car. I have to pay taxes on the “ecomonic benefit” of having a company car. That’s lots less then a car payment would be.
I also get to keep my frequent flyer miles.

I work in television broadcasting, so we get a range of things:

Always - coffee
Most days - leftover snacks from staff meetings (which is cool when the NYC born Sales Manager brings REALLY good bagels :D)
Often - movie passes, theater tickets, promotional concert tickets, etc. - this may sound good, but the REALLY great stuff goes to sales clients.
Fairly often - food from the morning show when they do a food segment. It’s kinda wierd to be eating barbeque at 8:30 in the morning, but hell, we’re in broadcasting - if the coffee don’t kill us …
Once in a while - leftover props from commercials like bottles of wine, T-Shirts, etc.
Since our parent company is a large national publishing house, we can sign up for free magazines and we get free or deeply discounted books and stuff. We also get occasional CD’s, DVD’s, and assorted chatchkis

We also get the normal SWAG that vendors have like logo’d polo shirts, baseball hats, key rings, yada yada yada…

At school–which I think of as my primary job these days–I get free condoms, and occassionally I get free pizza, cold medicine, antibiotics, and tee-shirts. Last semester I could get free pencils from the math department, but the gratis #2’s are gone now thanks to the new budget.

The best free stuff I got was when I worked for Uncle Sam . . .

Or perhaps it was all the free books I got when I worked for the library (no, really, I could keep any book I wanted for as long as I wanted so long as nobody else wanted it . . . and some of the books they just let me have forever).

I work for a newspaper:

Free coffee everyday (Which I never drank until I worked here, but, hey, free is free).

Cake every month.

PR promotional items like t-shirts, hats, frisbees, mugs, etc.

Press pass to the Ford Seniors Championship golf tourney for me and guest.

All the movie press screenings I can stomach.

Free tickets to plays and concerts.

The occasional prime rib lunches with the local Board of Realtors/ Chamber of Commerce/ business association.

Lots of pictures of me with local, state and national politicians (that impress my friends and family :)).

Plus, the annual Chamber of Commerce Presidential Ball (which usually falls on my birthday weekend) that includes dinner, drinks, tux and an extra ticket for my girlfriend.

Internet access. :slight_smile:
So while journalism doesn’t pay jack crap, the perks satisfy me-- for now.

Happy

When I worked in marketing at a ski resort:

Free seasons lift pass
Coffee (mud)
Unlimited Jolly Ranchers
Assorted SWAG- ski wax, headbands, goggle cleaners, Powerbars, snowboard leashes, stomp pads, pole baskets, sunblock…
Occasional adult beverages

At the record company:

Unlimited CDs
T-shirts, t-shirts, t-shirts!
Maceo Parker Paperdolls (just may be the coolest item in the world!)
Backstage passes and concert tix
Assorted useless SWAG (Ugly Kid Joe pencilbox, anyone?)
the almighty BAR TAB!

Seconding D-Bear here, which is: free flying.

I see my relatives now more than I ever have, and I get to visit my friends for anything - I went to Colorado for an afternoon of hiking and my SO and I went to Paris for a weekend.

Seeing your relatives may be a mixed blessing for some people, but I love visiting my sister in NYC! :slight_smile:

Nothing of note. Free coffee. I don’t drink coffee. Free flu shots, I think (it’s a hospital).

Books. I mean, tons of books. Most unsolicited, but I can request just about any book I want and get a free copy.

The only catch: they’ve got to be usable in one of my classes (but I teach English, so I can get all kinds of great lit gratis).

Fringe benefit: I can sell off the surplus to used book dealers to supplement my income. Last time, I got $180 in cash for a shelful of stuff I didn’t want in the first place.

I work for a big computer company. I get free coffee. Most of the stuff I get now are gifts (like shirts, coats) from a conference I’m involved with.

During the bubble though, we got doughnuts every week, lots of logo shirts, sweatshirts, dinners, lunches, and other good stuff. All gone now, but better to save money than have more layoffs.

Where I worked this summer:

Coffee, soda, juice, milk
Mini Hershey bars/york patties/peanut butter cups
Rice Krispy treats/Granola bars
Dinner every night
Pizza once a week
Microwave popcorn

Coffee, tea and mineral water, cheap Pepsi and Coke and Sprite, plus whenever it is somebody’s birthday (which seems to be every other day) a big, gooey birthday cake, plus random but regular pizza lunches and doughnuts/cakey things. Not at all bad for a telemarketing operation in an industry that is not renowned for treating its employees well.

I like my boss. [suck-job] Hey, Lenny, if you’re reading this I know my targets have been pretty lousy this week (and last week, and the week before…), but I really like working for you.[/suck-job] :smiley:

We used to get free shares ( stocks ) as part of a profit sharing scheme but our company have just merged with another and this scheme as been ended. In return all the drink vending machines are now free (big deal! ) which does not help me much because I work outside most of the time away from the office. We also get free flue jabs and a lease car for which we have to pay a small amount for private use. In return all taxes , insurance and servicing is paid for by to company. We are even allowed to take the car abroad on holiday.

When I first got employed: 6 t-shirts, a mug, and a copy of our main software package (not a small thing).

On a daily basis: coffee, tea, hot chocolate, water, juice, frappucino, sodas, and espresso.

Once a month - some kind of freebie thing for the monthly birthdays celebration (sometimes it’s bagels, sometimes pie, sometimes ice cream, whatever).

Also, I pretty much post to the SDMB all day, so bandwidth is nice. I can stream music if I want.

Not free but incredibly cheap - for $6 a month you can join up with the local health club. We also have a very nice library with a lot of good reference materials and magazines.

Not a bad place, all in all. All this, and yet when they stopped getting the bottled water, people were outraged.

I get to turn around and grab my ankles…

and coffee…

We get the coffee, tea, and soft drinks.

I also work for a movie studio but I don’t get free dvd from my company. I get a discount but not free. But other studios sometimes send me free dvds. I’m also over run by promo t-shirts, hats, and cds of the soundtracks. I also never pay to see a movie in a theatre.

Also through my company I get free or discounted admission to the museums in my city. Since I live in NYC this is a pretty good deal.

Oh man, now I get nothing. But back in the days…, I worked for a bank in downtown Miami, the building had a penthouse bar, and at 5 o’clock the bar was open to bank employees. And when I say open, I mean open, no charge for drinks, food, nothing. Every single day.

The downside, of course, was that this was a savings and loan, and in 1989 the free ride ended. Most of the staff was moved to sticks, and in 1991 the RTC took over the bank. Amerifirst, may you rest in peace.

Man, I miss the 80’s.

I get some free review copies of books I’m reviewing/authors I’m interviewing for the website I write for. Other than that, not much.

My husband, on the other hand, works for a small mail-order company that produces and distributes learning aids for speech and OT therapists and schools. We can get all the free speech/OT therapy stuff we need which really comes in handy since my son has therapy himself.

His therapists love us. :slight_smile: