Are Job Perks Coming into Vogue Again?

Pharmboy asks: "The Register is reporting on a company that was awarded 'Best Small Company to Work for in America' by the Detroit Free Press, in part, for providing Free beer to their employees. They offer free breakfast, lunch AND dinner, gym and snacks. This sounds similar to the late 90s, where companies were offering extreme benefits to attract extreme talent, before the bubble burst and most workers were just glad to have a job. As the job market gains strength, what are companies willing to do in order to attract the best talent? Are we about to enter another era where employers are willing to make work fun again, in order to attract and keep talent? Will this have any effect on other employers, forcing them to again offer benefits to keep pace and talent? How important are these kinds of perks to the average employee anyway? What kind of perks would you have to have to switch to a job that pay the same?"

Would want these employees?

[waynegoode]

Would you really want to hire employees who would be motivated by "free beer?"

I can understand how it could be to a company's advantage to offer free perks, but I can think of dozens (okay, thousands) that would be better for the company than free beer but still motivate employees.

Re:Are jobs coming into vogue again?

[Rei]

Thanks for saving me the time of having to mention that. If anyone doubts you, just redirect them to a news site so that they can notice that the dow just lost almost 150 points today. In the past two days, the Dow lost 3% of its value. Since June, it has dropped 6%, and Nasdaq about 12%.

For those who haven't been following it, the economy this year - the "big improvement" - has barely outpaced the number of new people entering the job market. And since June, it has been notably outpaced by the number of people entering the market. We not only have low job creation numbers for July (just over 30k), but they revised down the previous several months.

It's in pretty bad shape right now... lets hope we can some day recover. :(

But SW Engineering jobs dropped 15% last quarter!

[Cryofan]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its July 30 report: [vdare.com]
"There was no recession in the second quarter of this year, but BLS data show 131,000 fewer American computer software engineers employed in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2004--a decline of 15% in three months."

So, I seriously doubt that we are going to get anything at all like the late 90s going on for technical workers.

Flextime

[Shobimono]

Flextime is considered a perk at my company.

Re:Employement?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Also, note that with our current immigration rate- we need 300,000 jobs EVERY MONTH just for population expansion. 32,000 jobs is NOTHING.

Re:The only perks I get...

[Rick the Red]

That's how they do it where my wife works. Medical and Dental and the usual stock purchase and 401k programs are non-optional for everyone, but the rest is a-la-carte. She gets so many "points" to spend: Membership at a fitness center is x points, free legal services is y points, etc.

Re:Hello American IT geeks.

[DAldredge]

The IRS just laid off 219 of it's IT staff. ;->

Re:Are jobs coming into vogue again?

[Anonymous Coward]

The figures are seasonally adjusted.

Re:Are jobs coming into vogue again?

[twiddlingbits]

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/russia.html says Russia is the Worlds Second Largest Producer. Yukos, the company that the Russian Gov't is "investigating" itself is 2% of the Worlds Supply. The company accounts for about 20 percent of Russia's total oil production of 9.26 million barrels per day in June. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/ 2722653 Yukos produces about 2 percent of the world's oil, and fears that its exports could be disrupted have contributed to a spike in world oil prices. Below is a quote from http://www.ipaa.org/govtrelations/factsheets/Under standingWorldPetro.asp Russia's role has become a linchpin to the course of future crude oil supply politics. It is now the second largest oil producer in the world - trailing only Saudi Arabia. Its crude oil production has increased by more than 900,000 barrels per day since January 2000. This increase has essentially offset the reductions OPEC has made to stabilize crude oil supply. Without significant action by Russia to reduce its production, the world risks an oil price war that can result in adverse consequences to both global and national security. I also found a presentation from BP from 2001-2002 that showed a graph that Russa was supplying 10-12% at that time. Since then they have increased share, since they will sell at LOWER prices than the OPEC cartel. I think I have enough data to support my point.

Re:stronger?

[swissmonkey]

I paid my own college by working at McDonalds on weekends. I graduated with no Debt! Didn't cost my parents much either (dad paid my car insurance which was a nice benefit, but that is all) I could have paid for everything from loans if I wanted to, but I hate debt so I made the choice to not graduate with any. Your daughter could too if she put her mind

Well, I did the same, except that :
1) My dad was unemployed during most of my studies
2) I didn't have to work much during my studies
3) I actually got money left at the end

How did I do it ? Very simple...

I grew up in a country(Switzerland) where the education system is not targeted towards the rich(can afford to pay) , the athletes(get scholarship to play golf, lucky ones !) and the geniuses(get scholarship also). It's a country where every kid has a chance, no matter how rich his parents are.

And maybe the screwed up education system in this country could take a lesson out of that, so that we end up with less teenagers in the streets, homeless or joining gangs.
I can't believe how many of my friends here in Seattle are still paying the loans they got for their studies, they've been out of school for more than 5 years and have a decent job, but it's not sufficient !

How unemployment is arrived at.

[CaroKann]

Since so many people are going to mention the unemployment number, you should look at what that number actually means.

This site spells it out in detail. http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm [bls.gov]

I would like to point out that the government does not simply make use of those people applying for unemployment insurance to arrive at the unemployment figures. This is a survey.

Re:You pay for it, one way or the other

[tverbeek]

If you're getting taxed 50% on your income, you're either A) really really bad at figuring out a 1040 (in which case I pity you), or B) making way way more money than me to be in such a high tax bracket (in which case I don't). With such obviously hyperbolic rhetoric, I'd almost think you were running for public office or something.

Re:Are jobs coming into vogue again?

[foidulus]

Yes lets be fair and remember that the stats only count those requesting unemployment. So all those that has used all of their unemployment is thankfully not included.
That isn't how unemployment is counted, you have to be looking for work [wikipedia.org] in order to be counted as unemployed. That is really regardless of whether or not your benefits run out.
It's actually a bit more complicated, there is the underemployed catagory which rarely gets discussed but is still important. A person is considered underemployed if they are looking for full time but can only get part time, or if they are working at a job which is far below their abilities, ie a programmer working in retail.
You can have somewhat low unemployent(like we have now, actually the unemployment rate is not that far above what most economists consider the nominal 5%) but have large numbers of discouraged workers and underemployed. The effect on the economy and people's lives is still felt, but the politicians can gloat because they "lowered unemployment". This recovery is especially recovering jobs in the underemployed catagory. There are a lot of temps being hired, and whether or not they will ever get to full time is up in the air.

Re:Are jobs coming into vogue again?

[Nurf]

Assuming you are not a troll - dude, toss some of those jobs *my* way!

Nope. Not a troll. I can't really toss them your way though - they're a little specialised. I can tell you how I got into the position I am in, though.

This assumes you are in a place with a reasonable population. I live in Seattle, but any city will probably do. I prefer to work for small companies and do interesting stuff. In this space, word of mouth and referrals are everything.

These tips are for people who want to get into software or electronics hardware with a bit more of an emphasis on consumer stuff rather than IT stuff. It also assumes that you are reasonably good at what you do. Word of mouth comes from making people proud to recommend you. It has taken me three years to get to my current position, and I did it as a sort of freelance contractor.

Here are some hints:

1:

Join the local Audio Engineering Society chapter, or if nothing else, go to some of their meetings. They are happy to see new faces. I think the AES is a particularly good one to go to because they attract all sorts of people - musicians, people with home audio setups, hardcore analog design engineers, students, DJs, software engineers, etc.

Talk to people. Be friendly, ask them what they are doing. Ask them about stuff that they are obviously interested in. If someone mentions that they need a person that can do such-and-such, and you know someone that is a good fit, offer to connect them and then do so. Don't recommend people you don't think are a good fit. Being someone who knows people who can help is a good long term thing to be. Eventually it will affect you directly because a person you have helped will probably recommend you for something.

Don't push yourself, but be enthusiastic about the technical stuff you like doing. If someone needs you, they will tell you. You are not selling yourself, you are just being you. This is important.

2:

Be willing to do odd jobs that would otherwise be beneath you. I have done things like install SSH chroot environments to allow secure uploads. I charged $60/hour, and it only took a few hours. As a result, there are now five people that think of me first when they want something technical on unix done.

3:

Be willing to accept jobs that you know you can do, but that you know you haven't done before. Be honest about this to a potential client. It's a wonderful way to to learn new things, and keep food on the table. Keep track of your time, and estimate how much time it would have taken you if you were an expert. Only charge for that time. Your customers should get good value for money - they aren't subsidising your learning directly.

This leads to an important corollary: If people know you accept things you have never done before and then do them well, you get a reputation as a person who can do anything. This is priceless, and is the main reason I am turning away juicy offers. People phone me when they are in a jam, and say things like "We know you don't do this sort of stuff normally, but we also know you finish things. Please help".

4:

Dont be afraid to say "no". Saying no, when done right, increases your value. These are the conditions: You have to say no for a good reason, like "I'm sorry, but I'm busy working on another project" or "I'm sorry, but I cant allocate that much time to a project, and I wouldn't be providing the kind of service that I think is a minimum requirement". If you need the work, take it, but realise that saying "no" isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you refer as per 5:.

5:

Don't be afraid to refer. After a while, you will know a lot of people that can do different things, and you would have worked with many of them. If someone offers you work and you can't take it, pass it on - refer someone you know will make them happy. People will learn that even if they aren't sure you can do something, you probably know someone