The Non-Definitive List of Things That Are Not ‘Generous Workplace Benefits’
Some employee ‘perks’ are rights, not privileges
I first became a tax-paying cog in the American workforce in the mid-1990s. I was a teenager, but I remember advertisements in newspaper job listings — you know, the prehistoric, paper version of Indeed — that sometimes included details about job perks beyond the salary.
Later, when I graduated college and began my career, I noticed many of those “perks” were still the same.
Some 20 years later, unsurprisingly, little has changed.
“Generous workplace benefits,” companies often proclaim. As if job-seekers are meant to read them and feel an overwhelming sense of urgency to drop everything and apply for those positions.
Benefits: Privileges or Rights?
What’s staggering is how tone-deaf many of these “benefits” appear, especially in light of the massive shifts we are seeing in the workplace — don’t worry, this isn’t another story about the great resignation.
But employers really can’t ignore the fact that the balance has shifted. Truly, it has been shifting for years, though the past 20 months have been remarkably eye-opening.
