What Swag Do You Get From Work?

Lots of free video games.

Free/really really cheap books - work-study job at a publishing company in town. We just cleaned out the warehouse for the ‘holiday sale’, lots of out-of-print or slightly damaged books. After the sale, my boss told me to take anything I wanted. This is a sweet deal: some of these books have, say, a slightly, barely noticable, damaged corner. Therefore, I get it free. :smiley:

Tips on how to launder money and layer payments.

You know, so we can identify it when it happens. At least I think that’s how they want us to use that sort of info.

At the community college, we get some nice eats n’ drinks for all sort of occasions: holidays, orientiatons, welcomes, farewells/retirements, etc.

Oh, and free flu shots if you happen to be in the targeted categories.

Well, I’ve been working there going on four years, and I finally got a company polo shirt with the stylized call letters logo embroidered on it. They have a pot-luck dinner every Thanksgiving, for a couple hundred of us who can come out of the control room long enough to eat it. We all got a special mug made up to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the station, with a printed (not signed) note from the GM of radio, and some mini-chocolate bars (probably left over from Hallowe’en) inside. Occasionally I’ll get offered free tickets to the opera or symphonic concerts, but I always graciously decline (I’d rather have hot needles poked in my eyes). I’ve occasionally got a CD that was decidedly not the kind of music in our format (some record companies will send their products to anyplace beginning with a W or K, regardless of the format). That’s about all at my workplace.

My wife, OTOH, works for a place where they get nice stuff all the time. They throw banquets for the supervisory staff to congratulate them for a job well done. Last summer they rented out a whole park, contracted rides and games and free sno-cones and cotton candy and drinks, and fed about 400 people. That was exceptionally nice of them. I don’t imagine I’ll ever see anything like it where I work.

SWAG stands for Stuff We All Get. I, however, like to pronounce it Schwag, just because I think it sounds cooler.

Textbooks. Lots and lots of textbooks. Like Manatee, I get stuff free if they are trying to get us to adopt a text. I’ve gotten the odd coffee mug from publishers, and I get whatever high-school gear I want (baseball caps, t-shirts, etc). Plus all the crap you get at trade shows. :smiley:

Is that an acronym or a backronym (i.e., a term that started out as a plain old word, but people thought it should be an acronym so they thought something appropriate up)?

I’d say Hyperelastic is the clear winner in the swag stakes so far, but I picked up a fair few little things in my time in the oil industry. From my own company, the best things so far have been a duffle bag and a gen-yu-wine Swiss Army Knife in blue w/ the company logo. I’ve also ended up with a few pens and golf balls and suchlike.

I’ve gotten a couple of leather portfolios and nylon shoulder bags from conferences I’ve attended. Also, if one is into such things, just a little tip here, a big oilfield trade show like the Offshore Technology Conference (Houston each year in May) is freakin’ swag central. Each time I attend, I come away with bags full of pens, keychains, posters, frisbees and God knows what else, much of which I later pass on to relatives and friends.

Still would be much cooler to see a large rocket engine being tested, though. Damn.

Swag has many meanings, including ‘stolen or pillaged loot’, and some think it’s a variation on that. Some think it’s the acronym. I know I’ve always called it that.

Other stuff I’ve thought of that I get: of course sunscreen and sunblock, coffee mugs and thermal car-mugs, the ubiquitous drug rep pen, clear plastic containers like for cotton balls and such, etc. At my former (internal medicine) office, we had big lavish lunches 3 days a week, and big hearty breakfasts a couple times a month at least. My current company does not allow it, and I can see their point in having that position towards drug reps, too. But I miss the food swag.
My office is mostly clinical dermatology and we do very little cosmetic work, or there’d be all kinds of swag for your skin and wrinkles if we did. A lot of people in my office have taken advantage of the Blue Light for acne, which is the latest in acne-fighting, and we have seen excellent results. It cost $600 unless you work there, then it just costs 20 minutes of your lunch hour.
I guess I get pretty good swag.

The only upside to working fo an airline is the free travel. The down side is, the pay is so bad, I can’t afford to take many trips. The day trips for lunch and shopping are a blast though. We also get 10 “buddy passes” to purchase each year, so the folks on my x-mas list get a nice gift.

Where I’m at now, I’ve gotten a coffee cup with the company’s logo (but it leaks), polo shirts with the logo, mouse pads from some of our suppliers, pens, markers, and various office toys that have the name of companies with represent or want us to represent them. One of the bosses will take a bunch of us out to lunch several times a month.

But my best swag job was when I wrote for a little magazine a couple of years ago. I reviewed concerts, movies, and CDs, so I got lots of free tickets, DVDs, and CDs. And some of them didn’t suck!

I got sent, addressed specifically to me, a plastic head massager from the Northern Irish Trade Board. Out of the blue, with no explanation. I had never had any contact with these people beforehand, and nor have I received anything else since. :confused:

I own two warm fleeces embroidered with the name of the show I work on (or have worked on), baseball caps, and t-shirts. Since I’m part of the writers guild (that’s how they spell it ) I also get movie companies sending me scriptbooks, invitations to movies, and DVDs (anyone wanna come over and watch In Good Company? Comes out this week in theatres…)

At my last company, I’d also get tickets to sporting events that we sponsored (NBA, lacrosse, hockey…), and concert tickets. We had a pretty good lottery system too, so freebies wouldn’t go to the same ‘in’ crowd every time.

Coffe mugs, pens (some, of very high quality), mouse pads, travel mugs, a pair of fleece jackets, a pair of fleece throws (small blankets), the occasional lunch at a four-star restaurant, and so on.

It’s a good place to work. :slight_smile:

I work for an OB GYN group and besides the normal pens, notepads, mugs, clocks, mouse pads, etc from the drug reps we get lots o’perks. Free exams, birth control, various pain relievers, free laser hair removal , and LOTS of free food from other offices, patients, and drug companies.

I loves my job.

We get free coffee.

A couple of times a year we get promotional items with the company’s name (T-shirts, fleece pullovers, beach towels). We also very rarely get swag from vendors trying to sell us stuff.

Biotech isn’t the industry to get a lot of free stuff, unless maybe you are in Purchasing.

When I worked at Kraft foods we were always getting left-over promotional items.
Like last year’s super bowl jackets, stadium blankets, hats and ice chests.

I work for an aerospace company, and we get boring junk.

Hats, coasters, glasses, paper weights… all with the company logo.

Otto, I think we work for the same company. One of my new staff members just got that same “Welcome” package sent to her from home office (where you are??)