another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

I work for a very small company (6 women total) I have been thee 15+ years and things have changed DRASTICALLY over that period of time, when I started we would celebrate everyone's birthday individually and order in lunch and have some sort of dessert of the persons choice with a candle for birthday cake. We would get a very nice cash bonus for christmas, we would all go out to a very nice dinner for the holidays all funded by the company (again, there is only 6 of us) and multiple other things... now bonuses have dwindled, birthdays are celebrated all together as one, we all go out to lunch and split the bill 6 ways, I have a holiday party at my house because for a few years nothing was done, no more little incentives or perks... now to my question....

would you rather have zero incentives/perks at your job or start with a ton of perks and have them all slowly disappear?

Re: another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

do you like the people you work with? do you get that knot feeling in your tummy on Sunday night just thinking about going to work? These are the things that should matter. Im in a similar situation

i work in an even smaller place- i work alone 3 days a week. the other 2 days i work with 2 other women. we get along. we dont socialize outside of work but we are very close. I enjoy going to work. although we all work hard, we say we come to work to relax.

no more holiday dinners..bdays are only acknowledged by us 3. we get cake for each other and give each other gifts.

it sucks looking back at the incentives you once had. i always say it doesnt take a lot to make people happy. a simple "thank you for your hard work today" goes a long way.. I just ignore it because I have worked in places where I was miserable. Theres nothing that can make me go work at a place where I feel sick every Sunday night.

Re: another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

Re: another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

I think what really matters is that you're happy doing the work you do, you get along well with co-workers, and you feel fairly compensated for your work. Anything else is a bonus.

It sucks that you started with perks that they slowly took away. Many companies cut back over time. But I could deal with that. If I hated the work I did, hated my coworkers, and felt severely underpaid there are no amount of parties, or dinners, or any other perk they could offer that would make me happy enough to stay at a job like that.

Re: another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

just another thought. sometimes companies have to cut back financially. I worked at a small firm that layed off a receptionist that didn't make that much but would still have a Christmas party, birthday celebrations, etc. I think we'd all rather lose the "perks" so that person could keep her job.

another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

I work for a huge hospital with over 10k employees. I adore my coworkers. We get zero perks, unless you count the department Christmas party that we all skip every year. I would take having coworkers who care enough to celebrate birthdays, have parties, etc over any "perks."

But to specifically answer your question, I guess no perks at all. I feel like the moral drops lower when taking things away.

Re: another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

Re: another spinoff to little things you like about your job...

I think when you have a ton of perks, you sort of begin to expect them to just be there.
When you don't have the perks to start with, then there are no expectations.

I've been here for 20 years. Started out with more perks than we have now, but that doesn't really matter.
What matters is there is little or no morale amongst the American employees. As I said in the other post, there is a big gender/ethnic divide here.
But, I've only got a few more years left and I need to take advantage of our disability policy before I finally do retire.