Work Freebies?

[GridGirl]

I had to pick my other half up from his works night out on Friday, a trip to Nando's which they all paid for themselves. His previous works outting's this year include a trip to TGI Friday's and one to Frankie and Benny's because its cheaper. He works for the NHS so gets nothing free. My parents both have over 60 years NHS service between them and have never had anything either. They've recently scrapped the £100 and engraved tankard you receive for 25 years service now.

Then I thought about what I've had free this year.

February: A trip to an Indian/Chinese restaurant when it was free food and drinks all night.

June: A trip on the Boozy Bus when I'd hate to think how much money was spent on booze. I didn't buy a drink all night and muchos booze was drunk on the bus and in all four pubs we visited.

September: A Summer ball, with a three course meal, disco and a free wine on the tables. Partners were invited so we had to start paying for drinks when the wine ran out.

Coming up: A night at a casino with a champagne buffet and about £30's worth of free chips to play with. I'm also invited to another ball in November which will include a three course meal. Work are paying for it and I dont expect to buy a single drink on that night either. Then of course it the Christmas party, again a three course meal in a nice hotel and of course more free booze.

This is all coming from a firm that requires you to give you old Tip-pex mouse back when it runs out and you need a new one. :s So what work freebies do you get?

[Camelopard]

We get things like mugs, T-shirts, caps etc from various software companies, although that does not happen as much as it used to.
Some companies used to sponsor golf days and the occassional case of beer at Christmas.
My wife who is a nurse gets freebies from the hospital like colds, coughs and the flu :) .

[tinchote]

No real freebies. I get paper and pens and things like that, but mostly to use at work.

But then I travel for work, and in that case a big part of the trip is a freebie, one way or the other :)

[Daniel]

£3000 worth of shares :cheese:

[slinkster]

Nothing for me... I'm self employed and also work part time so no benefits for me.

[Donney]

Same here, no freebies whatsoever.

[Dave B]

At my old job we enjoyed regular conferences with entertainment and grub laid on, some excellent performance rewards (eg VIP trips to the British Grand Prix two years running!) and a fully-paid Christmas party. Not to mention all the freebies provided by reps.

I guess that's a key difference between the private and public sector. Taxpayers rightly demand value for money, and even if it could be proven to improve productivity and performance they still get uppity and the thought of their tax paying for other peoples' jollies.

Consumers, on the other hand, by and large don't really care if they do business with a company who pisses their profit away every Christmas :D

[Hazell B]

My partner's thank you for going 3 years without breaking any of the valuable glass they make is a meal at some so-so place next week. Annoying thing is that all the lads have been told they cannot bring anyone with them - not even if that person pays! So, they've all booked, all ordered their food and not one of them is going to turn up :p :

Being self employed, I get to choose my own perks. They aren't much, just odd bits of free dog, horse, cat and wild bird food, the occasional antiquey type thing at auctions and most of my diesel. The dogs get the best perks, they have all the broken dog treats and any peanuts that fall out of the bags. Having said that, I never put some things (such as computer use) down to the business, so it works both ways. Stealing selotape and pens from yourself just isn't that much fun :p :

[LotusElise]

I am a student and I don't work... ;) (Not in the economic sense anyway - reading apparently doesn't count.)
However, an IT firm I used to work for was good for perks. There were various nights out during the year which were full of boring networking but good for free food and at Christmas, an unlimited free bar.
The computer game place I've just left had weekly pub lunches, which were nice too.

[Andrewmcm]

Expenses paid trips to conferences across the world. I swear academics organise conferences in exotic climes just as an excuse for free holidays.....

[nicemms]

Free Windows Software!! (Legal as well)

[BDunnell]

I guess that's a key difference between the private and public sector. Taxpayers rightly demand value for money, and even if it could be proven to improve productivity and performance they still get uppity and the thought of their tax paying for other peoples' jollies.

Consumers, on the other hand, by and large don't really care if they do business with a company who pisses their profit away every Christmas :D

Very true. The same could be said for public sector salaries. It used to piss me off in my old job!

Now, I get to travel more widely, which is nice. I work hard on these trips, though.

[donKey jote]

tires :dozey:
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_3_166.gif

[MrJan]

last work Reps would often bring in cakes, biscuits, McDonalds and mugs and stuff. Every now and then we'd get taken on a day out at the rugby or something. Usually involved food and about 12 pints a head. Sadly I recently changed jobs and I now get nothing :-(

[Henry Cutts]

Free Karting! And we have a Christmas party/outing.

[Storm]

We get nothing much at all..(being a huge company with lots of employees :\ ) Last time we had an office party was a year ago.

In my earlier firm (which only had about 100 people), we had plenty of freebies , so to speak...lots of T-shirts, jackets/caps, chocolates for Diwali and a couple of parties with booze in a year.

Also giant screens when Cricket and Football world cups were on (in 2 corners of the central hall where all the cubicles were :D , pizza and beer after work hours while watching the games if they were on...as work hours were...ahem...flexible , meaning you couldn't go till you finished your stuff :p :)

[Erki]

I don't care. Just gimme the "¤%&ing money and fire me then. :hot: :p

[GridGirl]

I think I need to get a job in academia. There's no foreign travel with my job, although earlier this year we had some work for Oxfam which would have involved going to to either Kabul in Afghanistan, Darfur in Africa or Chenobyl. Needless to say no one wanted to get blown up, go hungry or get radio active poisoning so the work was just done in Oxford, England instead.

[schmenke]

No freebies here... unless Post-its count :dozey:

[KILOHMUNNS]

I got a nice M&S Christmas hamper last year, which I then shared with my team. I've had a few nights out , mainly meals but I have been Karting, murder mystery evening and a trip to Edinburgh!

[Drew]

When I did a paper round, they gave me a free newspaper, I thought that was good enough :p :

[Loobylou]

I'm assuming headaches don't count... :s

I'm being sent on a BSi Auditors Training Course next month. The option is have a hire car & drive something I don't know & probably won't like for 2 days or use my own car & put it on expenses at far more than it will cost me in petrol... tough call!! :D

My boss has managed to get the first courses that will, eventually, make up an OU degree signed off - on the understanding that there's no point just doing the first year - the company will have to follow through with the rest of the courses. :)

Christmas party - probably not going this year, the venue is crap, the food is ok, the bar is too small, the drinks are over priced (not much choice either if you don't drink alcohol) & there's just too many people in my copmany that I don't want to associate with unless I'm being paid to do so. My boss isn't going so I see no reason why I should. :p

[Bebee]

No real freebies. I get paper and pens and things like that, but mostly to use at work.

But then I travel for work, and in that case a big part of the trip is a freebie, one way or the other :)

Sounds like Murdoch... :s

The only freebie I really get is when I go travelling for conferences or other Uni-related stuff.

[Christina]

The job i just left threw some awesome parties! It was a "digital lifestyle" store which sold apple computers and fancy cameras and all the things that go with all that junk. So on top of the bi-annual fully paid-for free-for-all in a big fancy blue restaurant with an open bar, we also got to go on fun outings put on by companies such as Nikon and Olympus. Muchos fun!

The job i currently have (for one more week) is a bit of a hit and miss job, it's just promo work, but i dont think i've done a single shift without getting something for free! I even came home from one job a while ago with a full carton of boutique beer!! mmm.. it was good beer.. other hauls from this job include 16 boxes of bottles of Lipton Iced Tea (i ended up giving most of it away to a country service station, there is only so much iced tea a girl can handle!) a box of porridge samples which could have easily lasted me 6 months of breakfasts, Nivea gift bags full of moisturiser and beach balls (national beach volleyball championships nivea promo), fragrances, hats, t-shirts the list goes on.. But even when i dont come home with something leftover, it's still a good job. Last week i met a camel named Henry!!