These 7 Companies Have the Craziest Employee Perks
Looking for a job that offers more than the standard salary and health benefits combo? Look no further. From scuba diving lessons to a full-service concierge that will pick up the drycleaning and then stand in line for concert tickets in your stead, there are wonderful benefits to working at one of these seven companies we've scouted out. (See also: The 29 Companies With the Best Maternity Benefits)
Read on for the full scoop on the zaniest perks reaped by those lucky enough to be employed by a business that knows full well how to keep its workforce happy and loyal. Then you might want to freshen up that resume — we hear the competition is thick for gigs at a place with its own rock climbing wall.
1. Cisco's Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of the many health and wellness benefits enjoyed by employees of information technology giant Cisco. This traditional Chinese medicinal practice is said to ease pain through the insertion of needles into the skin or the application of heat and pressure on specific pressure points across the body. The going rate for the rest of us is about $50 to $75 dollars per treatment.
2. Chesapeake Energy's Scuba Lessons
Free scuba diving lessons are among the mind-blowing perks offered to employees as part of Chesapeake Energy's "Living Well" program, which pays up to $1,000 for workers to participate in on-campus fitness and education classes. Ballet, aerobics, beach volleyball, rock climbing, and flying lessons — yes, we're talking airplanes — are also on the roster.
3. Google's Automotive Extras
It's widely known that Google employees enjoy some pretty amazing perks — gratis gourmet meals, massages, yoga instruction, an on-site bowling alley, child care assistance, top notch legal advice, business-travel destinations to paradises like Lake Tahoe and Hawaii, and up to $12,000 in annual tuition reimbursement. But did you know they also get free oil changes and car washes? That's a big bonus considering the average American spends more than $7,000 annually on their vehicle.
4. SC Johnson & Son's Private Concierge
The company that manufactures Glade, Ziploc, and Windex offers its employees a full-service concierge that'll shop around for the best auto insurance quote, pick up the groceries, and stand in line for concert tickets. It's like having a willing and able assistant to complete all of life's tiresome errands and chores in your stead. The goal, company officials say, is to provide employees with a healthy work-life balance.
5. Eileen Fisher's New Age Fitness
Pilates, Qigong, creative movement, and nutritional education are among the health and wellness courses available to employees at Eileen Fisher's headquarters in upstate New York. EF employees also receive a $1,000 annual stipend to pursue their health and wellness goals outside of work through massage, acupuncture, or the perhaps the purchase of some new home exercise equipment. The company offers an additional $1,000 annual stipend for educational pursuits like yoga teacher training, pottery classes, museum memberships, and horseback riding.
6. Deloitte's Paid Sabbaticals
The financial advisory company offers associates partially paid three- to six-month sabbaticals to pursue personal or professional growth opportunities in career development or volunteerism. Deloitte workers can also opt for an unpaid one-month leave during which there are no restrictions on how they spend their time. Europe, anyone?
7. Infertility Perks at Facebook
Facebook is now offering employees up to $20,000 toward infertility treatments, sperm donations, and, for women who want to delay pregnancy, procedures to freeze their eggs. "Anything that gives women more control over the timing of fertility is going to be helpful to professional women," Shelley Correll, a sociology professor and director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, told a Christian Science Monitor reporter. "It potentially addresses the conflicts between the biological clock and the clockwork of women's careers: The time that's most important in work, for getting your career established, often coincides with normal fertility time for women. This can potentially help resolve that by pushing women's fertility into the future." Apple will roll out a similar program next year.
Does your company offer any great perks? Please share in comments!
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
