Three pints of ice cream for each day at work? I hope B&J's also have a good medical coverage plan for their employees! Also, note to self: Do not apply for jobs at companies with orange logos...
12
Imagine if the money spent on free food (in an era of obesity) was instead spent on onsite child care...how many people would benefit? How society would benefit!
28
I worked for a company that was HQ'd in Silicon Valley in the late 90s. They offered all types of perks, including free meals. Of course, the point of it all was to keep us working, working, working, not "wasting time" outside the company.
Free is never cheap.
33
@S N : I can only think of one company in all my working years (4 decades!) that bought us lunch at our desks -- and only during busy "crunch" times -- and it was an ad agency. Their thinking was for the cost of a $5 lunch (*early 90s prices in the Midwest), they could make us work UNPAID OVERTIME with NO BREAKS (except a quick bathroom break). In short, the food was free but we had to work all through lunch and gobble food as we worked.
And frankly, that is miserable....9-10 hours and up to 12 hours (!!!) at a desk, in front of a computer without breaks.
9
Fortunate my place of work has a barista, chef, I can bring my dog to work -- the place even has someone who picks up the dog's poop!
Other amenities include 24/7 use of the company car, bbq grill, flexible hours, a porch and couches for naps!! I work for myself, from home.
28
@Harmon Smith I was going to ask you where you work and if I could apply!
6
I must admit that I have only read the title and blurb of the article and noticed a glaring error. If there is an agenda attached to the "free" office lunch, then how is it free?
8
It's in lieu of compensation, duh
11
When I worked at Apple in the 80s, one of the best perks was the free coffee and healthy snacks available to employees. Also, you could show up wearing pajamas, as long as u hit your milestones, no one cared what u wore.
Now, I’m glad for FoodRunners, who pickup and distribute leftovers from the abundant corporate meals for low income people in San Francisco.
7
@mikipryor
What’s healthier than a healthy snack?
No snack at all.
2
Think tank? No, AEI is a talking-point factory or a pressure group. Perhaps even a . . . gasp . . . lobby.
14
"If it's free, you're the product."
Just say no. Everyone needs a break.
24
A few major gaps in the reporting on this story, which makes it thin and voyeuristic rather than insightful: 1) these policies encourage huge food waste, and 2) in surrounding communities, it is very hard for restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, anyone to retain professional cooks. They are lured away by the tech companies, at huge salaries, and with the cost of living so high (also thanks to tech companies), I don’t blame the cooks. But many local food businesses are going out of business due to both lack of customers and lack of workers. It hollows out a community for all those who don’t work in tech (at least in the Bay Area). Wasn’t the IRS looking into this as untaxed compensation? Oh yes, another important issue this article couldn’t find one sentence for. Editors?
10
@Nancy Hummel we use a service that sends someone to pick up uneaten food at the end of the day. It is then distributed to soup kitchens, etc. I think this is actually more common than you realize
4
That doesn’t cover all the food that employees take and throw away. Has that ever been accounted for at your company?
Ah... “free“ lunches, “team-building exercises”... (what I‘ve always referred to as “mandatory fun”)... perhaps they could install bunk beds in every cubicle...?
No thanks.
7
FREE lunches for all ! EXCEPT physicians, and their staff. Thanks, Obama.
2
Corporations joining the effort to make America(ns) greater than ever....
It is hard to believe that employees stuffed with ice cream, ribs and cakes, let alone participants of chicken wing eating contests will be more productive. One can imagine any short term hapiness from sugar spikes will end in sleepy employees in the afternoon, more sick leaves and eating disorders.
I
3
I mean this all sounds pretty awesome to be honest. But where is the free Southern BBQ lunch providing company? Asking for a friend since I would never be interested in delicious BBQ on the companies dime. Of course not, how preposterous.
2
Big Pharma also offers free lunches, snacks, pens, water bottles and anything else they think will get doctors and residents to visit their hospital conference rooms to hear about their drugs. They then take them to dinner at gourmet restaurants. Sells drugs.
6
"Developing strong corporate cultures, managers could motivate their employees in more effective and profound ways. If employees could be persuaded that they weren't simply working for the money, but for something larger than themselves, they could be brought into the corporation in a more emotionally and socially encompassing way, as members of a family...The ingenious part of this strategy was that, by making employees feel more integrated into the culture, they no longer had to be controlled or motivated in punitive or technocratic terms. Targeting the emotional aspect of the employees made it possible to control them in what appeared to be a more benign manner."--from, "The Happiness Fantasy," by Carl Cederstrom. Cederstorm identifies Zappo's specifically as a company (purchased by Amazon for $1.2B) where, "the quirkiness and craziness are, of course, part of a more encompassing ideology of work." For the NYT to run this piece without context is like writing about diamonds without mentioning the miners.
6
@scott Or the current obsession with groovy, mindful travel without acknowledging the carbon cost of flying.
2
Corporate welfare for the rich. who pays for that? consumers of course
8
Robert Heinlein wrote over 6 decades ago, TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch).
4
@Michael: Thanks! I was hoping someone would remember that!
1
I used to work for a financial company on Madison Avenue that would buy a nice lunch for everyone each day. The quid pro quo, never stated, but implied was that you stay welded to your desk.
I soon began opting out of these so I could get out of there and walk around the city for a needed recharge. It simply was not worth it.
18
It is not free. It is a fancy chain.
4
Yet another way to keep minds at work and chained to the corporate chair. How about a walk or some time to get away for a minute!
13
only a right wing 'think' tank like the American Enterprise institute would consider prime rib an 'everyday food.' they have no idea how most people live, and the good news is that they are destroying their arteries with their meat and beneigts just like they are trying to destroy the country..
6
While a nice story, this is a sop to preclude Big Corporate from offering good benefits, job protections and competitive wages (all the way down the working ladder, not just in the glass palaces in NYC and Silicon Valley).
5
The norm? No. Not the norm. Many can't even get a paid lunch break. Please leave upper-class Manhattan sometimes.
7
In the 1970s Ma Bell assigned me to The MetLife building on Madison Avenue in New York. It served a free lunch to all its employees and visitors every day.
They started it in 1929 during the depression so that every employee would be sure to have at least one healthy meal a day.
11
If I recall, Chick-fil-A has been doing this with their employees at the Atlanta HQ for many years. I'm not sure if its still in practice, but I have benefited from vising the corporate cafeteria with a free lunch. Regardless of how you view their politics, they do well with taking care of their employees.
As for new start-ups, its almost a bad thing since the stigma is to offer these kind of perks or fear recruitment woes.
2
Over the 40 years of my working career, I have worked in a couple of jobs that had in-house cafeterias. One was a bank main office and that was a holdover from the days when an employer sponsored cafeteria was expected (but the prices were the same as on the street). In another job, the company provided a 24 hour cafeteria because we were in a relatively remote area (food service-wise) and we didn't want staff wasting their lunch time on traveling by car to get fed. Here the company subsidized the cafeteria to provide for the extended hours (we were running three shifts in the manufacturing area) but it wasn't free. My last job was in Manhattan and there were so many places to eat within a five minute walk from our office that it never occurred to us that we needed to have food brought in (except for special events).
At one time I worked for a vending machine company that allowed the workers to partake of that which they were filling the machines, which included candy bars, chips and similar snacks, and meat snacks. It didn't take long before I really didn't want a candy bar. I did eat a meat snack occasionally, particularly when I stopped at the brewery, where they provided beer to the employees (and the vending machine people!). Fortunately, the job was active enough that I worked it off, but I can see that it could be a problem for many.
2
@BigFootMN: many decades ago, my youngest brother got a job at a local brewery (long gone now).
Part of the compensation was every worker got a FREE CASE OF BEER on Friday to take home!
I mean a 24 can case!
And here is the weird part: in my family, none of us drank beer.
The cases of beer just piled up in the basement, unopened.
Finally my mom gave it all away to somebody.
2
while it might certainly be true in some cases that companies offer lavish lunches to keep workers at their desk and compliant, I think there's another dynamic at work. I'm in SF and our office provides a very, very nice lunch spread Monday through Thursday. Some of my young coworkers have actually objected to not getting served lunch on Fridays because the idea of going out and foraging for themselves is too overwhelming. I honestly think we've got a new generation entering the working world that doesn't know the basics of how to live on their own.
21
People gotta eat so we may as well eat for free for as long as we can.
Our food waste alone shows that there is plenty of food available in America that can be dispensed, served and given away for free.
Just as there are banks on every corner, as there used to was be gas stations on every corner, there should now be food banks on every corner of every street in America. The food banks can be the replacement(s) for the old Mom and Pop local neighbourhood community corner stores.
Any expense for this can be borne by a combined group, a coalition if you will, of the largest employers in any given community and/or neighbourhood.
Just as the Arab nations can always take care of all of their own citizens, America, which is a corporate nation to begin with, should be taken care of by the corporations that are established in American communities.
Private industry and private business works better than Government anyway, so it should be the private sector that takes care of the people of this land. With corporate-backed food banks on every corner, we can get rid of the concept of America as a Welfare Nation-State.
1
I worked at a research institute in France for a few years. Lunch was serious business. The canteen wasn't free, but prices were based on your position and how much you earned. You were expected to take the time to sit with your colleagues for an hour (sometimes more) and have a proper lunch and often coffee afterwards. This was in the days before cellphones, so I wonder how things are now. The downside was that sometimes it was hard to get work done. Long lunches took a big chunk out the day, and everyone was expected to break for lunch at the same time, which wasn't always convenient.
3
My last job working for someone else (I'm now self employed) was as a paralegal at a high-end law firm.
All the free coffee, food, soda, and (on special occasions) booze in the world couldn't make up for the fact that it was the most toxic work environment I'd ever experienced, nor for the fact that they funded those perks by chronically over-billing our clients.
39
The only time I ate for free was with the ability to go home for lunch. (I lived less that 5 minutes from work) If our bosses treated us to food brought into work, it was not free. Meaning, I still had to answer the phone or help a customer who came through the front lobby. Eating at one's desk does not allow for decompression. Going out for lunch you have to be cognizant of your time.
Here is a thought, there are more and more stories homes and dwellings are beyond an employees affordability and some are living the van life, the free work lunch maybe their only real meal of the day. That can be another article.
Rox Henkle
Spazhouse, Intuitive Research
6
Not a "new trend!" Decades and decades ago Wall Street firms were providing lunch -- at the desk -- to traders and their assistants. It was cheaper, in the long run, to feed them on the trading room floor rather than have them miss a trade or market move. Some of these lunches were simple, but when morale needed a boost the fare could get a bit exotic. Just the cost of doing business.
8
I used to eat lunch at work. It came in a brown paper bag, which I had packed myself. We didn't have time to go out.
The only people who ate for free were the ones who raided the fridge when nobody was watching.
15
I am a health care worker in one of the HCA hospitals, a company that rakes in billions each year. I can honestly say that after more than a decade of employment the hospital has steadily reduced all of its services, including the meals available to staff in the cafeteria. Not only has the time the cafeteria is open has been cut back, the quality of the food is terrible. If forced to qualify it, I would say it is pure dreck.
I would love to work for a company that realizes how much a good meal contributes toward worker morale, not to mention healthy nutrition. How lovely it must be to be cared for by one's employer.
25
I worked for a GE subsidiary who did this all the time. Brought in top-notch deli sandwiches. This was so we would not leave the building and work through lunch. I'd rather get out of the office with a bottle of water and apple for an hour.
42
The company where I work has a reputation for offering a lot of free food to employees. I was initially excited about it, but then I noticed how poorly they managed inventory on the fresh food and how much of it ended up in the garbage. Now I wish they would do away with the benefit, or hire competent staff to manage the inventory based on demand.
10
Companies used to provide defined benefit pensions for long term employees. Remember that? Now, people consider free food a benefit.
95
These practices seem like widespread violations of IRS regulations. Unless the companies are adding the fair market value of the food provided to the employee's W2 forms, they could get in a lot of trouble for evading income tax.
I certainly wouldn't talk about it to a newspaper reporters - that's just asking for trouble!
8
@Jonathan The company I work for gives each employee a $100 gift card to a popular grocery chain during the holidays. Employees can donate it to charity and not pay taxes, or use the card and get $25 in taxes taken off their next pay check.
3
@Jonathan
Maybe you should get a political conscience and compare this benefit to carried interest or the latest *preferential* real estate developer tax dodge voted in for Trump himself? Or is the problem you find that people who actually work don't have to claim the food as income?
Or you could just note as someone else here has, that the food is entirely "for the benefit of the employer" and hence not a taxable benefit.
Cheeze ....
4
@Jonathan
Excellent point. Free meals at least once a day, at least five days a week, every week of the year, sure sound like a form of reportable income.
Pay your fair share, morally enlightened ones.
2
I am so happy that my company provides nothing. We even have to pay 80 cents for basic tea and coffee. Extra, unneeded food is just a recipe for gaining weight.
I guess it would be great if they could provide fruit as a snack... But without bananas.
13
Oddly enough, in the mid-Market area of San Francisco, where many tech companies are located because of tax incentives, it has become extremely difficult for local restaurants to stay in business because of these elaborate free food policies. Between the astronomical rents and the lack of customers, the local restaurants can't make it. The city has effectively created a ghost town neighborhood devoid of any character and populated by people/worker bots roaming around with headphones on and staring into their glowing screens, not interacting with anyone. How sad...
79
Free meals at work keep employees on the premises and away from their desks for less time than if they went out. It's not generosity; it's yet another way to increase "productivity." Next up will be free bunk beds so employees never have to go home.
106
@Pat If the workers live on the farm the landlords can keep a better eye on the peasantry.
9
Right up there with the "unlimited vacation" scam.....
7
My employer used to provide free dinner for employees who worked late until they realized it was just an incentive to start work at 11 and stay later.
21
I found the idea that Amazon doesn't offer free food because it prides itself on frugality and wants its workers to patronize local business particularly rich.
43
Actually makes a HUGE difference to local businesses. I've worked for tech companies that give free food and places nearby struggled. Not so around Amazon at least in SF.
16
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company offered free lunch to all employees more than 50 years ago. There were separate dining rooms for Officers, Supervisory staff and regular employees. A terrific perk from "Mother Met".
6
@Concerned NYer
Lunch was free to visitors too. I worked for NY Telephone at the building and ate in the cafeteria most days at no charge.
Met Life started the practice in 1929 to ensure that every employee got at least one healthy meal a day during the Depression.
2
“By taking time for a midday meal, ‘you can better focus your thoughts and your life,” Mr. Cucinelli said. “It makes people more productive.’ Wouldn’t it be great if all schools provided a single, healthy meal (with alternative dietary options) for all of those in attendance in a public school—just as I saw them do in the Finnish school system? Students would simultaneously be educated in healthy eating while building a better brain. If you think low income students are currently being fed well, just visit a school and see the options: lots of high carbs and empty calories. The time and expense in applying for and monitoring subsidized food programs could better be directed to providing a healthy meal. An astounding 41% of children live in poverty. And, yes, feed the teachers too. But, as usual in our dog-eat-dog nation, those who have much get more, and the rest languish (while being blamed for their situation).
50
@Mary Tedrow agreed... but us teachers wouldn't have time to eat this healthy food as our 20 minute lunch is taken up with things like dropping students off, and having to turn things in and having people interrupt us with work questions!
2
Offering free eats is nothing more than a strategy to keep employees from straying outside, where they risk being distracted from their all-important work. And, of course, to rob local food vendors of income.
30
I have to buy lunch with after tax income. These employees are not taxed on their free food. That is a perk worth up to $4500 per year. Seems like I should have a tax deduction for lunch to be equitable or these free lunch folks should be taxed on this food based income.
34
@Ben P
Exactly right. If they received an allowance for transportation costs, that would be taxable compensation, so free food should be no different.
14
@Ben P
Frequent flyer miles employees keep for personal use from company-paid travel are also compensation and should be taxed at some nominal rate.
8
Actually, the IRS does consider this a taxable benefit, and only exempts employees from paying tax on it if they meet 2 criteria: 1, their lunch break is only 30 minutes and 2, they have to remain on the premises "for the convenience of the employer". I know this because as the Dining Director at a university, we were told we had to change our policy of allowing all staff to eat for free, unless they met the above criteria. This edict came down from the university after other universities had been audited and told they had to discontinue those free meals; they were also fined by the IRS. I was able to make the case for free meals for the staff in the dining operations--who all were poorly paid and hardly needed the additional burden of paying for their meals(their poor pay was something I fought HR over for my entire time there, since my budget could have easily paid a far better and more competitive wage, but the archaic HR policies there, as interpreted and applied by the HR department, wouldn't allow it). But I and other senior managers, as well as the administrative staff, were no longer able to eat for free. Instead, I was allowed to offer them all "free" meal plans, for which they were taxed. But I still find it ironic that as the person in charge of the quality and safety of a meal program serving thousands per day, I was not permitted to eat the food we served unless I paid for it.
10
I'll take a pass on the food. I'd rather have wages.
76
These tech bros are bought off cheaply by their bosses; for smart people, they lack foresight. I am so glad that I have a union job that provides annual pay increases, a pension, and health insurance. These benefits allowed me to raise my daughter and will let me retire in dignity. These benefits were won by strikes and negotiations by elected representatives. I know which side my bread is buttered on.
102
@landless-exactly right. Management tries to pretend that a non-union shop is somehow better than a union one. They want us to consider their largesse, offered on a whim and easily withdrawn, to be equivalent to benefits provided through collective bargaining. One is a power play, the other is an agreement between equals. No contest which is more just.
Proud to be Union myself!
52
What I saw living in the SF Bay Area was that my friends in the tech companies with free food also had very high wages, full benefits, stock options, etc. even as starting employees. I think more than being a distraction from other benefits, it was about trying to attract and poach talent, with it being a very competitive industry (not enough quality programmers relative to their hiring needs.) That was just my impression of it from observation and my friends' experiences.
22
I disagree, I find that these benefits typically come with jobs that have higher pay and other benefits.
9
This is nothing new. Over 35 years ago, when I was a junior associate at a big Wall Street law firm, we had weekly wine-and-cheese gatherings (attendance required), monthly department luncheons (attendance required), annual country-club days in the summer and formal dinner-dance evenings in the winter (attendance required). Not to mention the recruiting cocktail parties and lunches (attendance required). Coming from a very modest background, I was initially bedazzled by all the high-class offerings, but it soon palled: A workday of 16+ hours didn't put me in the mood to socialize, and most of my colleagues were, frankly, not people with whom I wanted to socialize. But that was the price of fame, so to speak. After several years of the gilded cage, I left for public service, where I happily paid for my own low-class food and ate it with people I genuinely liked, or alone in peace and quiet.
119
Not to mention being forced to drink poison or be censured.
2
@janeqpublicnyc
And of course those mandatory events could not diminish your billable hours or extend any deadlines.
8
The article alludes to the motive behind offering food to employees...keep them happy and productive. In other words, keep them from raising a fuss about the lack of a pension, adequate salaries, and working conditions. Instead of protest barbecues due to a meatless day, these workers should be organizing to ask for a pension and wage increases.
83
I suspect the Google employees who threw the protest barbecue are already paid wages beyond our dreams.
6
@JJ Hardly.
Glad to hear that Amazon is finally doing ONE thing for the local economy, which in all other ways it has trashed, with Amazinflation pricing everything out of existence including housing. Nice to patronize local restaurants - except that their employees now can’t afford to live there. Also not surprised that they are proponents of’that old saying, « There’s no free liunch »; heads up, NY and DC!!
13
@Christensen
There is absolutely nothing surrounding the Amazon fulfillment center in Ruskin, Florida. Supporting local businesses? No. The focus is on filling orders and nothing more. If they're not embarrassed by it, why lie?
1
My son sends pictures to me of his Free Brunch Fridays in California- eggs, meats, bagels, fruits and beverages- it's a lovely perk.
In my school, we have staff volunteering to pick up Wednesday breakfasts with bakery goods and bagels for around 40 people, and it really is a lift to come in and grab a bite.
4
Aren't free meals taxable compensation? Otherwise, what would prevent companies from gaming the tax code?
16
Meals provides by employers aren’t considered taxable income by the IRS if they’re provided “for the benefit of the employer”. The rule was originally written for jobs like coal miners, where there was really no alternative for meals aside from employer-provided food, but these days it’s generally interpreted to apply to pretty much any company.
11
More perks for the mostly well-paid employees at tech and other cool companies.
In the meantime, lots of other folks at low wage jobs get no perks and often have to work multiple jobs.
What a country
131
@LS And, of course, those low-wage workers get to "enjoy" meals off the $1 menus at places like McDonald's and Taco Bell.
7
@B- Many fast food places notably the big one McDonalds are drastically cutting back on them.
I think LS mistake was to equate the middle class with poor people.
Better to equate the rich and the poor. That is where the obscenity is starkly apparent, like in the early 1900s where the robber Barrons were billionaires and the poorest of the poor barely survived.
11
@LS
Are you telling me that low-skill fungible workers getting minimal compensation aren't valued highly by their employers? What a surprise!
6
“But there was one big difference from his lunches in Italy: Most of the employees were on their phone”
Says it all...
53
@JB i worked in restaurants for years, where we were served family meal together. When mobile devices became ubiquitous, all conversation ceased, and it became depressing.
24
@JB: if people in Italy are NOT on their smartphones 24/7, good for them!
But according to what I read and see....smartphones are now so ubiquitous, and have penetrated even the most remote places.....that constant usage is common even in the third world.
One of the most astonishing pieces in the NYT, little commented on, was about very poor Mongolian women in remote yak-herding villages who were forced into wretched tiny "menstruation huts" for a week each month. The women's main complaint? not the cold or isolation. It was "we cannot get a good signal for our phones to be on Facebook".
You just can't make this stuff up.
3
If a for profit business wants to spend its money on meals for employees...God bless them. But this is a problem for 501(c)(3) organizations like the American Enterprise Institute or any other 501(c)(3). This is called “inurement”; use of tax exempt assets for private purposes. Further these meals, outside of legitimate business purposes, should be taxable income to the employees. Interesting this article was in the food section. It should also be posted in Politics and Business.
90
@ Paulie Numbers Brooklyn
This is a problem that just has popped up in the universities giving free parking to the faculty, actively employed or retired. Now they will have to call free parking a taxable benefit.
18
Universities are having to call just about any "freebie" a taxable benefit now. The university where I used to work wanted to tax my employees on the value of their uniforms!--even though they were required to wear them. And if t-shirts were given to staff to wear for special events, we were supposed to report all recipients so that they could be taxed on them. It really got ridiculous, and cost the university far more in labor to keep track of it all than it was worth. And in the case of my staff and many other staff who were receiving these "extras", they were among the lowest paid hourly staff, and hardly able to take more money out of their pockets. Many of us started refusing some of these "giveaways" rather than have to go through the hassle of reporting them and paying tax on them.
11
@Paulie Numbers: yes, I suspect abuses here.
I also wonder if the free prime rib and other luxuries are for THE WHOLE STAFF -- the secretaries, the janitors, the unpaid interns, etc. -- or just the corporate suite?
And yes, I think they are writing this off and for a non-profit, this is troubling.
2
I suspect that the number of companies offering free food is still quite small overall. But that's not as interesting of an article, is it?
17
@Chris
how 'bout " minuscule " ?
2
@Chris: it's got to be REALLY small....I've worked for numerous employers, including some very international corporations, and we were lucky to get free COFFEE in the break room. If someone had brought us a box of granola bars, it would have caused a stampede.
I remember one place -- a small family company -- where the owner suppled a huge canister of Twizzlers (like from Costco). And people just gorged on it, as a way to avoid having to pay for snacks or lunch (or remember a bag lunch). And yes, I got so sick of Twizzlers I couldn't look at them for years.
2
Worked as a commercial fisherman for years in Alaska. Let see, the crew meals on the boat were fresh salmon during salmon season, fresh halibut after the halibut derbies, cod, dungeness crab on occasion, razor clams from the beach, fresh eel, and octopus. Never knew how good we had it. I was basically just a kid.
47
Also food is fun ... sharing a meal bonds people together, even if it’s standing around in an office kitchen sharing a tray of KC bbq brisket and lemon bars left over from a client meeting.
6
@Amy W. It's only fun if you want to bond. It's only fun if you don't have a dozen calls you need to make over your lunch hour, which is supposed to be YOUR time and not the company's. To my way of thinking, it's a violation of wage and hour laws to insist that people eat meals together instead of giving them actual breaks.
1
"Everyone who works at Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Burlington, Vt., is entitled to three free pints of ice cream for each day of work". . . I wonder if they are hiring?
In all serious, I used to work in a bakery and could eat anything I wanted for free. Well, six months later and 20 pounds heavier, I reached a point where I could not stand the smell of baked goods from this bakery. It took me years to be able to appreciate a fine cheese danish.
In essence, sometimes receiving those freebies can have the opposite effect. I heard that Fannie Mae let you eat whatever you wanted while working in the store but could not take one piece of chocolate home unless you paid for it. After my bakery experience, I didn't want to chance ruining my love for chocolate nor regain the weight I lost so I decided to never work there.
I think it's a nice and reasonable perk for companies such as Ben & Jerry's and Perkins Eastman to give to their employee. I also think it would be cool if management considered suggestions from their employees in how to improve certain food items.
14
In France, it is the norm to include meal vouchers for employees. In contrast, even most fast food restaurants in the U.S. charge their employees to eat the food that they serve to the public. Just shows a difference in the attitudes towards employees.
53
Exactly the same in Italy. Meal vouchers. B. Cuccinelli not so special
9
@nytrosewood
I'd rather have the cash.
Just shows a difference in the attitudes towards compensation.
14
@nytrosewood
Yes, food vouchers to use in local restaurants and shops. Every employer kicks in so far from being unfair competition, this dedicated perk guarantees restaurant businesses get customers.
Alternatively, where practical, canteens which serve equivalently subsidised hot, healthy, quick meals at a reasonable price very close to or on the employer's site (run by outside businesses who bid for the contract - answers part of the "unfair" competition issue).
Often the employee can choose between one or the other depending on personal preference on a month to month basis.
8
For the sake of the employees of all the companies mentioned in the article, I hope the faithful workers are not obligated to partake of the foods offered.
My hair stands up when I read of pasta with tomatoes and hot dog- and wing-devouring contests (the stuff must probably be eaten with the hands too).
10
@Tuvw Xyz It’s pasta and tomatoes in Italy, not pasta and tomatoes here. Big difference. I have many friends who can’t eat the food here, but go to Italy and can eat everything. Makes a huge difference when it’s not GMO, glyphosate laden poison. The other food you mention is only once in a while for eating contests. On the other hand, I do feel sorry for the people who have the kind of work experiences that only Slim Jims and Pop Tarts will get them through. Yikes.
38
@Tuvw Xyz
Even if it not a rule that they join in, do you really expect people to stand against peer pressure from fellow workers and urging by their boss?
6
@Tuvw Xyz
What is wrong with pasta and tomatoes?!?
4