A Little More on Company Perks

I decided to refer back to two of my previous posts with this week’s blog.  The two posts in question are the one about the Millenials, and the other was about the perks which companies offer their employees.  I was reading an online article the other day, which can be found here: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1690 which was quite interesting.

I found another article http://www.marketwatch.com/story/playful-perks-propel-google-to-top-of-fortunes-best-workplaces which stated that Google managed to make it into “Fortune’s list of “100 best companies to work for” in the company’s first year as an entrant.”  This article is dated 2007, but regardless, it’s still relevant.  Google is a remarkable company by almost all aspects.  Their stock price was around $100 per share during its IPO.  Currently, it trades around $610-$615 per share.  Google seems to be involved in almost everything.  My wife has a Google cell phone, and I just saw Google TV in Best Buy the other day.  I find myself wondering “How did this company do it?”

A big part of how all this was accomplished is because Google has been attracting top talent for years.  This was in part due to the laundry list of perks offered by the company, some of which seem a bit unorthodox, such as providing nap rooms and allowing employees to play video games via company-provided Xbox’s and Playstations during breaks.  There are quite a few other companies out there that offer perks like Google, two of which are Apple and Atari.  I imagine that these types of perks appear quite appealing to Millenials and this is why these companies attract the top talent in this age group. 

While these perks seem to make really good business sense in terms of the success of these companies, it also brings up some other issues that may not be apparent.  It was noted in one of the articles that these perks are often provided in order to get employees to spend more time at work.  More time at work means less time with family and loved ones.  It also means less time doing recreational activities which I think are essential to a productive work-life balance. 

I’ve always been the type of person who “turns the switch off” when he leaves work.  When I walk out that door, I don’t typically think about work until I arrive there the next morning.  Personally, I think that’s the perfect balance.  I don’t think I should be worrying about work when I’m at home with my loved ones nor when I’m out doing the activities I love, such as fly fishing.   This isn’t always the case, but I strive to make it so.  Not that I don’t enjoy my job, I certainly do.  I enjoy it when I tell someone what I do for a living and they genuinely find it interesting.  I find my job extremely rewarding.  But at the same time, I don’t think you can put a price on your personal time, nor your family time. 

Company Perks

As I was riding to work on Friday morning (I carpool with my friend Dave) I realized that I didn’t have anything for breakfast.  I usually have a box of cereal in my desk (since my company provides free milk to all of its employees) which I eat a bowl of every morning.  Typically I come into work sit down at my desk, do about an hour of computer work (mostly responding to e-mails and creating different Excel files for different projects) and while I’m doing this I enjoy a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal.  Today was going to be different because I didn’t have my cereal, so I had Dave drop me off at the building which has our cafeteria in it.
 I don’t frequent the cafeteria much since I also bring my lunch to work, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had Dunkin Donuts coffee brewing.  I grabbed a medium DD coffee and a prepackaged bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats and headed to my building to start my day.  As I was walking out, I noticed a few of my colleagues heading into the cafeteria, I said “Hi”, and that’s when it hit me.  We often take all of these little things for granted, but there are a LOT of perks that companies give us that make our work environment really rewarding.  And by making our work environment rewarding, they get increased productivity and value added to the job. 
 There are a lot of great incentives added by today’s companies that not only help the company, but help the individual employee as well.  One that I value a great deal and is available at my company is a fitness center.  Granted it isn’t the size of a normal gym, but the fitness center we have on campus has free weights, cardio equipment, and a few different types of weight machines.  It has enough equipment that you can get a decent workout in, feel good about it, and feel like you accomplished something. 
 Companies offer fitness programs for various reasons.  Exercise helps keep their employees in shape and also keeps them sharp.  Here is a website that lists some of the benefits of company sponsored fitness centers and fitness programs:

http://naturalhealthcare.ca/benefits_of_a_wellness_program.phtml

Not only does it help save the company money, but it increases employee productivity, and it helps give employees a healthier lifestyle.  At some point I would like to see these types of programs incorporated into all companies.  I know this most likely will not happen, but regardless, I think these programs are important, if not essential.  I often hear people saying that stress from work is taking years off of their life.  These types of programs not only increase productivity, but they can also potentially ADD years to an employee’s life.  What could be better than that?

The Millenials

In the last few classes we have touched on the different age groups and generations that make up today's workforce.  In our discussion last week the term "Millenials" was mentioned.  This topic was covered to a certain degree in my marketing class last semester and our professor showed us a video clip that was on the tv show 60 Minutes.  The text version of the video can be viewed at the following website:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml

You can click on the video link on the website and watch the full video also.  It really is a great article and it shows how the workplace is changing and what will be faced by managers in the future.

I'm not sure how I feel about this next generation of employees.  I'm still of the mentality that no one owes me anything in life, and no one is going to do things for me, so whatever I desire out of life, I have to accomplish myself.  It seems to me that the younger generation has a very selfish attitude and basically act rather spoiled.  Which pretty much makes sense.  There seem to be no consequences for kids anymore.  And its really not their fault.  I blame it on poor parenting.

My wife's a teacher and so are my brother and his wife.  All three of them have told me that when a student misbehaves or does poorly in class, the parents are called and they have this attitude of "oh no, not my little angel".  So either their child could not possibly have done anything wrong, or its not their child's fault, its the teacher's fault.  In all actuality, its the parents fault!  Parents make so many excuses for their kids anymore its ridiculous.  And now its beginning to create issues in the workplace.  There's this attitude of "if you don't give me what I want here, I'll go find someplace that will".  This isn't a sustainable attitude to have.  It seems self-defeating to me.  I don't see how any of these workers are ever going to be content or satisfied.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Weekend Events

This past weekend was quite an eventful one.  I got married!  They say your wedding day goes by so fast, but I had no idea how true that was.  It seemed like one minute I was watching Amy walk down the aisle, and the next I was looking at my watch and it was midnight!  It was such a great time, spent with such great people, our family and friends.  Here are some pics of the festivities:

My brothers Bob and Mike.

Amy and I with our toasting flutes.

Amy getting cake on my nose during the cake cutting.

Our reception was held at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, PA.  Not only was it the venue for our reception, but it was also the location of our first date.  We had dinner at the restaurant which is in the downstairs section of the resort. 

I hadn't seen my brother Bob in over 2 years because he lives in Seattle, WA and doesn't get back to the area much.  It was really good to spend time with him and I wish he could have stayed longer.  He had to get back rather quickly due to his landscaping business.  His business focuses mostly on residential clients these days but he had held quite a few commercial accounts in years past.  Landscaping can be a very lucrative business especially when commercial businesses are your clients. 

My brother consistently ran into collection problems with his commercial clients in the past and he has since rid himself of the most troublesome ones.  Most businesses he had dealt with required constant badgering and oftentimes the threat of a lien was used in order to collect money owed.  If a lien is placed against a business, there can be no improvements made to the business before the debt is paid.  This isn't an enjoyable situation to be put in, but it is effective, nonetheless. 

I have often thought about starting my own landscaping business here on the east coast, as start up costs are relatively inexpensive, and I could do most of the labor myself.  The biggest issues would be trying to determine what clients I should focus on (residential or commercial) and accumulating that initial client base.  Who knows, I may still make an attempt in the future.  It's just tough finding the time to run this startup while working fulltime.