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Doc Kelso

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,157
NYC
Yes, I know I make a lot of threads about the office/work. It's where I get to do most of my posting (secretly). Shush.

It's no mystery that the workplace can be a vile, inhospitable place.

Trapped within spitting distance of your coworkers that refuse to take any bodily odors. Stuck in an office where someone has microwaved spicy, red candy. Suffering when someone inevitably brings fish for lunch, utterly demolishing the air quality in your capitalistic cage.

But let's talk about the nice things. Maybe they're small, maybe they're on a larger scale. But these are the things that make the day a little better, a little nicer; Something that helps you get through each day.

At my place of work there's this unnamed hero that brings nice, lightly scented soaps into the men's bathroom for everyone to use. This week it's a delicate vanilla scent that leaves your hands feeling nice and soft. A few weeks ago it was a pleasant apple cinnamon with a hint of spice to it. And most importantly, the soaps aren't strong enough to be smelled unless you/someone else are all up in your hands so they aren't stinking up the office. The normal soap still exists for people that don't want to use the fancier stuff.

So, Era. Does anything like this exist in your office? A small kindness, anything!
 

Survivortype

Member
May 2, 2018
597
Van City
We're not suppose to drink anything on the lab floor, but the supervisor turns a blind eye. I think we're the only lab that allows this in the lower mainland.
 

Deleted member 4452

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,377
I often see small curly hairs - I can only assume pubic - on the toilet seat. Probably from the same person all the time.
 

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,894
One of the secretaries carries a mini pharmacy of medicines behind her desk. Nothing heavy but a lot of stuff for colds, flus and headaches.

Always pretty convenient to just grab an Advil from her when I have a headache.
 

Deleted member 12129

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,021
My previous employer put a "videogames are ok as long as you are on top of your work" provision into our bylaws, which was pretty cool.
 
Apr 24, 2018
3,608
I suddenly became a remote employee a few months ago. My boss didn't let me tell anyone I was going to be remote until my last day.

Two of the women I worked with immediately set up a mini farewell , buying a bunch of snacks/soda within a couple of hours of me telling them that I'd be remote. They also got me gift cards! I was really floored and was not expecting that at all.
 

scottbeowulf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,374
United States
Free snacks, free breakfast once a month, beer Fridays about twice a month, gain PTO by giving blood, lots of holiday PTO and the year end bonus is always larger than expected.
 

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,536
Portland, OR
None of these things are really 'weird', per se, unless you worked at my old company, but we have free drinks, free fruit, free coffee, Twitch streams on the TVs (I actually watched some of AGDQ this way), Nerf guns everywhere, and none of the 'excessive hours/always on call' work ethic that normally goes with that kind of environment.

Compared to my last job, which had literally none of those things (except for the 'always on call' part - there was plenty of that), I feel a lot less stress these days. It's not even like things like free soda cost all that much - my former company was just so damn cheap about everything.
 

finalflame

Product Management
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,538
Free breakfast/lunch/dinner/immense selection of snacks. Barista service in the office twice weekly. Some pretty nice coffee options otherwise, barista classes monthly to learn to use the espresso machines. Some other stuff too.
 

Oozer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,831
A couple of weeks after I started at my current work, a team meeting was interrupted by two people from HR wheeling a keg into the room as part of a celebration for being named a "Best Place to Work" for the year.

I saw the director of my department weaving through pods having a lightsaber battle with his young son a couple of years ago.

The day the Switch released, someone brought there's to work and was playing Breath of the Wild in a conference room during downtime.

We have a game room with a couple arcade machines, ping-pong, air hockey, and two TVs with a PS4 and Xbox One and several games. A Switch was added at some point last year so now there's almost always a Smash Bros. game going.
 

SliceSabre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,556
Once a month my regional team has a food day where we all bring in something or our supervisor orders something like pizza in addition to what we bring in.
 

djplaeskool

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,747
Boss took a joke-ish office feedback campaign seriously, so we got beer on tap in rec room after 4pm.
One of my coworkers was sitting on an old NeoGeo 4-slot cab and donated it too.
 

Pankratous

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,256
There's a guy who runs a black market can shop.

Our vending machines are expensive at 90p for a single can of juice, but this dude can hook you up for 50p no questions asked.
 
Oct 30, 2017
393
We moved to a new shiny office last month, and they installed glassboards in every breakroom. People have been having fun with them:

thumbnail
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Also, napping rooms.
 
Apr 24, 2018
3,608
Free breakfast/lunch/dinner/immense selection of snacks. Barista service in the office twice weekly. Some pretty nice coffee options otherwise, barista classes monthly to learn to use the espresso machines. Some other stuff too.
A couple of weeks after I started at my current work, a team meeting was interrupted by two people from HR wheeling a keg into the room as part of a celebration for being named a "Best Place to Work" for the year.

I saw the director of my department weaving through pods having a lightsaber battle with his young son a couple of years ago.

The day the Switch released, someone brought there's to work and was playing Breath of the Wild in a conference room during downtime.

We have a game room with a couple arcade machines, ping-pong, air hockey, and two TVs with a PS4 and Xbox One and several games. A Switch was added at some point last year so now there's almost always a Smash Bros. game going.
Boss took a joke-ish office feedback campaign seriously, so we got beer on tap in rec room after 4pm.
One of my coworkers was sitting on an old NeoGeo 4-slot cab and donated it too.

These all sound like incredible places to work. I've always dreamed of working at a place where if you basically live at work, you at least get some cool amenities. I've long wanted to work at Amazon/Google not just for the obvious reasons, but for the fact that both of their campuses have (or at least had) DDR arcade machines!
 

Eros

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,663
Free snacks and coffee
Often times free lunch
Every Friday we get paid for an extra hour of work, and they let us leave an hour early. So we can work 7 and get 8, or work the full 8 and get 9 etc.
 

Brandino

Banned
Jan 9, 2018
2,098
I have the freedom to work from home whenever I need/want to.

They got us 34-inch Dell Ultrawide monitors
 
Nov 27, 2019
225
Every once in a while, a unicorn/unicorn-themed item will appear at my desk to join my herd. Don't know if it's just one person or if this is something multiple people are doing.

🦄
 
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Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,536
Portland, OR
These all sound like incredible places to work. I've always dreamed of working at a place where if you basically live at work, you at least get some cool amenities. I've long wanted to work at Amazon/Google not just for the obvious reasons, but for the fact that both of their campuses have (or at least had) DDR arcade machines!

And the thing is that a lot of these things don't even cost that much money but contribute greatly to employee morale. I can't imagine that it costs my office more than a couple thousand bucks a year to keep the fridge stocked with soda and fruit for a few dozen people - maybe a few thousand when you add the coffee machines. Catered lunches are another matter, but it doesn't really cost that much to make your employees feel like they matter.
 

TitanicFall

Member
Nov 12, 2017
8,273
Our directors are always interested in how they can make the workplace better as long as it doesn't involve spending money.
 

Papa Satanás

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
863
no
My boss goes to conferences and doesn't care if I come into the office on those days he's away. I still get paid. That's pretty nice. I like finding conferences to send him away to.
 

Slappy White

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,205
Free coffee, free breakfast once a month, free lunches a couple times a month, tickets to mlb, nba, nhl, and the occasional nfl game offered all the time, paid trips to visit vendors for learning opportunities that really are just mini vacations, they changed our vacation policy which gives me almost double the time off I used to get, getting a laptop soon to work from home as needed, allowed to work with very minimal direction. I actually like my job most of the time now.
 

Shoon

Member
Dec 25, 2017
106
-Free, fresh pastries like danishes, croissants, etc every 2nd week

-Unlimited Sick Days

-Switchable automatic Sit/Stand desks

And much more!

I'm very thankful for all of these wonderful things that are provided!
 

FaceHugger

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,949
USA
There's a woman who randomly makes gigantic trays of nachos and brings them in. That's pretty much it. Everyone else I work with are rich assholes who'd rather shit on you than give you the time of day.
 

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,536
Portland, OR
Free coffee, free breakfast once a month, free lunches a couple times a month, tickets to mlb, nba, nhl, and the occasional nfl game offered all the time, paid trips to visit vendors for learning opportunities that really are just mini vacations, they changed our vacation policy which gives me almost double the time off I used to get, getting a laptop soon to work from home as needed, allowed to work with very minimal direction. I actually like my job most of the time now.

I forgot about that part too. They issued me a laptop that is more powerful than my home PC and gave me a spare charger that I can keep at home if I ever want to bring my laptop and work from home. At my old job, I had to use a clunky VPN solution on my home PC to access work stuff, and my responsibilities meant I pretty much had to physically be in the office most days. I personally prefer to be in the office most of the time, but it's nice to have the option.
 
Dec 19, 2018
110
My office orders fresh fruit for the the staff to munch on in the office kitchen every week! Bananas, apples, oranges, kiwi, grapes, avocados, and some seasonal stuff too! It's a small gesture but really nice! We also all eat lunch together family style around a nice table in the office kitchen too. Everyone from the president of the company, to the VP of Operations, sales, marketing, support, finance, accounts to the interns. It really makes a difference to be able to interact with everyone in a comfortable setting.
 

Poltergust

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,831
Orlando, FL
When I was suffering from lower back pain, I was able to put in a request to get lumbar support installed into my office chair. They managed to give that to me within days, and absolutely free! Still use that to this day.

Oh, and we have lots of different free teas and coffee flavors to choose from, with an extremely simple to use coffee machine that honestly works like magic.
 

amoy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,230
I got a rock.

Actually, a co-worker probably saw me stock-piling blue monster drinks in the fridge... now every once in a while I get 5 cans and a note saying good work.

It's pretty sweet.
 

aett

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,027
Northern California
Most of the bathroom stall doors close on their own, so people used to have to try and open them or (sigh) try to look through the gaps to see if they were occupied. One hero took a sharpie and wrote LOCKED on the doors with an arrow so you can see at a glance if the door is locked or not. They got erased by the custodians, but the next day someone did it again, and they've stayed there for months now. I haven't heard (or had to say) "OCCUPIED" for a long time and it's so nice.
 

Wood Man

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,449
Sometimes we have to work a major holiday like Thanksgiving or X-Mas. If that happens my work caters some nice food. And if we have big news going on like a presidential Election, hurricane, etc then they'll cater food so we can't leave and stay on standby.