Tech companies offer employees all sorts of innovative and, at times, absurd perks to help retain top talent, keep morale high and build culture. Big companies like Google hire fancy chefs and run private mass transit for employees. But, as great as that all sounds, we thought we'd try and find out what people working at New York tech companies actually value. Here's what we found out:
Jeff Valeo, Senior Site Reliability Engineer at
What is your favorite perk? Learning Fridays.
What makes learning Fridays so valuable? Giving engineering five hours each Friday with no meetings to focus on a work-related side project is amazing. Being able to really dig into a new technology or work on a proof of concept that is not tied to an official project, but will help the company, is something extremely unique and rewarding.
Jake Rosenfeld, Investor Team at
What’s your favorite perk? My favorite perk at Mighty is our team's access to a HUGE outdoor patio which hangs from our office on the 23rd floor of a building in the Financial District in Manhattan.
Other than how intrinsically awesome that is, what makes that perk special for you? It's my favorite perk because, when the weather is nice, it provides an amazing atmosphere to eat lunch with colleagues, take phone calls, and jam out on work that can get done using one of our company laptops. It's a special thing to be able to get some sun rays on one's face while at an office in NYC!
Jessica Forbes, Director of Product Design and Research at
What’s your favorite perk? I'm a big fan of our weekly MealPerk budget, which gives us $18 a week to use on food ordered through Grubhub or Seamless to the office.
Why is that your favorite perk? Who doesn't love free food? But seriously, as much as I use our service at home, it's nice that we create a culture where the company actually makes it easy for everyone to use it. Not only is the food a nice perk, but it makes my job a lot easier because we have a constant stream of feedback from coworkers as they use our apps throughout the week.
Mike Swift, CEO and co-founder, at
What’s your favorite perk? We just started offering our employees a ‘Hack Budget’. We'll put up to $100 towards supplies (hardware, software, materials, etc.) to build a cool hack. After you finish it, you get to demo it to our whole team during all hands.
What other perks are you excited about? We also offer 2 days of paid time off (for both full time and hourly) employees to volunteer toward something related to our mission of empowering hackers.
Stacy Sahagian, People and Culture Analyst at
What is your favorite perk? Free lunch!
What makes that special? We have a wide variety of catered lunches, and it provides our employees and me a chance to interact with people from different departments.
Brianne Mahoney, Customer Operations Associate at
What is your favorite perk? My favorite perk is definitely my complimentary Vive membership. Nothing beats a Vive blowout at your favorite salon!
Why is that your favorite perk? It is a great way to use the product as a customer, and also talk to stylists about their experience with Vive. As a team, we spend every day trying to improve and build an innovative product, so experiencing it as a customer has been both insightful and rewarding. Plus, it's always fun and relaxing to go to a salon and have a professional stylist make your hair look amazing! It's a win-win.
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