So I have been in IT for about 4+ years now and started a new job in January, I won't say where but I will say it is Government with plenty to spend.

In all my previous roles things like tea, coffee and biscuits have been given to staff for free. At my new role you get nothing for free! There are no plates, cutlery or anything available in the kitchen to anyone. You can use the coffee machine, for $1.50, and you have to buy your own milk!!

So my question is how cheap is your current workplace? or what is the cheapest workplace you have worked and why?

that sounds incredibly lame, I have it very good comparatively
every week I cook up a bbq for all the staff, everyone gets free snags on rolls and free soft drink

everyone gets free milk for their coffee, the only thing you pay for is $0.50 per "pod" of coffee, which is subsidised from about $1 per pod I think
all the money goes into an honesty-money-tin thing

there's never any problems getting hardware/software we need either, which is awesome sauce

I used to work for a web development company which gave us free tea and coffee and bought people birthday cakes for their birthdays but then the birthday cakes were revoked when times got tough and then I left. Who takes away cake on Birthdays?

The place I work for now lets me work from home on most days but that means no free food etc. but I'm fine with that. Also they buy me things for Christmas e.g. iPad and new laptop but still no Birthday cake.

1st world problem : whinging cause you dont get free latte's/ biscuits and meals provided at work...

buy your own fuckin coffee like 90% of the rest of the world does

I used to work for an accounting firm in the city that were pretty generous (pay was shit though!)

We had a decent coffee machine and every month we'd have staff drink alternating between the office (had a big booze fridge) and and external location like Jade Buddah etc.

Twice a year there'd be a fully paid for dinner - end of financial year fancy one with partners included and end of year Christmas party, staff only.

They did wind back the staff drinks in the office a bit though (stocked less booze) as one time a guy got a bit too pissed and shit on the bathroom floor, then went home. The staff that came in to do some catch up work on Saturday morning weren't impressed.

Current job is basic tea, coffee and milk - that's pretty well it. I'm fine with that though.

Public service here - we don't get a single thing provided. And no freebies or tickets or golf days from vendors either, cos we're the public service.

I wouldn't call UniMelb overly cheap - we still get monthly drinks (which I never attend), and platters of cakes etc for peoples birthdays etc. And I believe they're looking to buy an expensive coffee machine for the office. There's no biscuits or anything though, just tea/coffee/milo, but there's regular emails that go out screaming "the milk is for coffee only!".
On the other hand you can't call them all that cheap because I got an email first thing thismorning to say "The new supercomputer will be delivered on May 12"... can't really go go calling them cheap when they've just bought a $100m toy :D This one takes up about 48 or 60 rack spaces, if I recall correctly.

I'm trying to remember what we got at other jobs. Mazda always used to give us heaps, even contractors - there was always coffee, cake for everyones birthday, a decent christmas lunch and hamper; AusReg I gotta say I can't recall, but they did have a stocked out break-out area (pinball, pool etc).
Carsales had coffee etc, and when I started basically had weekly cake, but gradually worked it down to fortnightly, then monthly, and when the new boss came in he stopped people using the pool table/arcade machines during business hours.

My workplace is great we get:

1. Free coffee and tea (no biscuits).

2. Cheap soft drink (from vending machine in building) - i am talking 1960's prices.

3. Free booze (wine, beer and champas) - for functions we sometimes get spirits for mixers etc. And the beer is normally of a better standard (lately vale ale and imported becks have been the go).

4. Free in house gym with 1 personal training session each week (one of our accountants is also a PT).

So i am pretty content where I am.

if we work 12hrs we get free dinner. otherwise we get free coffee/tea, biscuits, fruit, beer etc. standard stuff.

Free coffee (instant or plunger), tea (a few varieties), and milk. Another fancy pod machine you can use that costs $1 per coffee.
Free bikkies, type varies week to week
Free box of fruit for the office each week
An office beer slushfund. Basically random cash we get for things like selling off old hardware goes in the beer fund for a friday arvo stubbie.

Work provides a nice cake from a proper cake shop for whoever's birthday is happening.
A big end of year party each year with meals/drink/etc provided.
Work provides a decent kitchen to use with all the usual stuff like kettles, microwaves, cutlery/crockery, sandwich presses, etc.

I won't say where but I will say it is Government with plenty to spend.

can't be in QLD then. change your location it's misleading ;-)

ours isn't cheap really, we get all supplies, plus all staff in sales or service have company credit cards to buy pretty much anything they want. as a manager i just go an buy plates, cutlery, etc when needed

they are however anal in that they are trying to instil the USA style sales culture and we are bogged down in reports, sales call quotas, and just an over load of massive bureaucracy. sounds like govt doesn't it. but it's not, it's a US based massive conglomerate of over 35,000 employees worldwide.

which is why i am leaving...yeah!! one week to go and Monday is a holiday....yippee

going here www.hseaustralia.com.au so PM me if you need some consulting done!!

Free tea/coffee, with a machine that makes various types of coffee/hot chocolate type drinks (i don't drink coffee thus don't use it) kitchen has microwave/fridge/sandwich maker etc, and the tea points (two kitchenettes on other levels from kitchen) have fridges/kettles in them.

5 or 6 tins of different types of biscuits that are rotated, 1 of these a week is normally chocolate biscuits but they go pretty sharpish

often get things brought into morning meetings, savoury and sweet buns and pull aparts and things like that

fridge full of soft drink/alcohol for friday afternoons, beer and wine only (mostly mid strength beers too)

cos i work in a reasonable sized division, we are always having birthday/leaving morning teas as well as our monthly division morning teas, but that is where everyone shares bringing stuff in between them, rather than the company providing

christmas party at the end of year that is usually pretty good

oh and zip taps on all the taps in the kitchen/kitchenette so instant freezing cold or boiling hot filtered water

We provide a variety of teas and we have what appears to me to be a high-tech coffee machine and decent coffee beans. I am not a coffee drinker so can't speak as to the quality.

We provide milk and sugar and the cutlery and mugs necessary to drink stuff.

We provide a variety of free softdrink - mostly Coke and various sugar free alternatives as everyone (including me) has turned into a pussy in the last few years.

We have beer for Friday arvo beers. It ranges depending on who buys it; I try to make sure we have Little Creatures but every now and then some heathen will go down and buy cheap shlock.

We have cake from the Cheesecake shop on birthdays.

Sometimes we'll have donuts (if I have to go to Indro during work hours I usually buy a 24 pack to bring in).

We also have a bunch of legends who bring in random foods for people to eat - nice chocolates, snacks, etc. Someone brought in this chocolate cake the other day that had the sugar density of a neutron star; it was terrific but probably gave everyone dia-betties.

We have a bunch of people that bring in their own food and leave it here to eat so our fridges are usually pretty chockers (we have one normal size and one mini-bar size).

suncorp is not in big4

thermite, you laughed out loud loud out loud? that must have been very noisy...

i give my workers free tea, coffee, filtered water, biscuits, bread, spreads, salads and other foodstuffs. and yes they still complain.

Does putting hookers & blow on the company credit card count in this question?

Does putting hookers & blow on the company credit card count in this question?

Only if you work for the federal Labor party!

ZING

I thought unions were included in that list ticman

Yeah I actually went to the union about our tp trog cos I was tired of ring sting

They told me to go away :(

Last company I worked for had it sweet. They provided free biscuits, milk, coffee (industrial type too) and they had filtered water. Free coffee everyday saved me like $4 bucks a day or so. I am no longer there though.

New place has kitchen facilities but thats about it. We do get a couple of free beers most Fridays though.

haha fair enough mish.

suncorp is not in big4

1. no shit.

2. mission clearly stated he worked at an accounting firm so I was obviously referring to a big4 accounting/consultancy firm not one of the big4 banks...

My last workplace, which was actually a pretty awesome place to work decided they would put out an arnotts biscuit jar in each level. It was re-filled daily. This was in response to company wide low moral! LOL. Everyone's pissed off??? Just give them a lovely packet of arnotts biscuits.

we steal paper towels from the airport toilets because the business wont pay for chux or viva etc

also, no kettle (free to bring one in).

complained about the carpets being dirty, and asked for a vacuum cleaner (was happy to vacuum), I was given a dust pan and brush, one of the other employees has since gotten a broom (all that bending is shit)

we have to supply our own pens (hardly need one) because when they used to supply them, they would go missing, (now the one big floor in this plan was it is a news agent, and all this policy has done, is increase the number of pens on the shelve that go walk about)

i also stand all day, so i asked for a rubber mat (you know the pressure relief ones) got a rubber "welcome" mat, and was told this was all the business could afford at this time

tech support is right out of the I.T crowd,
ME: "Hi, my till has stopped working, it has tripped the power, and I smell burning"
THEM, " okay, well, have you tried turning it off, and turning it on again"

it turns out that there was a short in the power supply, so nothing major


(there is more, but making dinner stopped me going into this depth before, now eating it will prevent more)

until I quit recently (unemployed wooooo) we had free tea coffee milk and shlominos pizza every thursday during the work meeting (which I might add was during our lunch break and mandatory). also they took everyone out to dinner to the rsl when I quit which nooone else got in the 5 years I was there. suckers!

I drink the owners beer, cider, spirits. Often i get free lunch, free car suspension (active TEMS suspension so not just cheap stuff) and a computer on which SC2 runs at over 100fps on high.

I suppose it's a perk of working in a small business.

Thought this was a 'how cheap is your workplace' thread not a 'why my workplace shits rainbows’ thread.

My last workplace didn't even have a computer, Made it especially painful when people needed to pay large bills with cash or cheque.

I had a friend who spent a few years in IT at the ATO between private jobs, and always said that it was important to remember that while the no tea etc in the public service seems kind of lame, overall the benefits of hours, pay, super, overtime, etc, more than made up for it.

Though he also said that the worst part was dying from boredom due to terrible management and efficiency, so good luck with that part. :P

No filters on the taps at work, wouldn't drink un-filtered tap water if I was on fire and dying of thirst. Free or not. There's coffee but I don't drink it, it might keep me awake.

Mind control drugs, they'll get them into you any way they can.

Usually it would be very easy to just dismiss that as a joke, but this is the QGL forum where anything is possible.

lol Timmeh that's awesome.

My workplace. Free milk, coffee, and tea but they're el cheapo and absolutely shit. Fortunately in the city so good coffee is never far away.

Christmas one year was amusing. We were told that due to budget cuts it would just be (per person):-

1 slice of bread
1 sausage
1 cup of soft drink per person (byo cup)

Needless to say it turned out to be a non event because no one turned up.

so was the wine shit or just too expensive?

Company I work for is actually reasonably good in this regard.

1. every friday at 5pm my operations centre (say 150 people) get beer, wine, soft drink, pizzas, fried stuff (sausage rolls, springrolls, meat pies etc)

2. every 4th friday (period end) at 4:30pm, themed company wide event on top floor, i.e. german food and german beers was a recent one

3. Discounted tickets to events, i.e. company will buy 50 tickets to a Lions game or something at the performing arts centre then discount them for staff and family

4. free coffee, hot chocolate, tea range and some special coffee machines each floor.

5. free milk

6. free news papers

7. free fruit baskets twice a week for each floor

8. 2 packets of arnotts assorted every day

9. Usual Christmas type stuff but the company last year also did a Childrens Christmas party. Staff brought in their kids for a magic show, face painting, balloon animals, food and the company bought every child a gift worth $20-$30 and had Santa give them to kids.

10. end of financial year party is MASSIVE, lucky door prizes which include things like $500 gift vouchers, 52" TV, etc, held offsite with themes i.e. one year was casino royalle and every one got tokens for playing blackjack etc which could be redemmed for things like Bunnings gift vouchers etc at the end of the night. Another year was 80s themed and had old school space invaders arcade games etc

Believe it or not the last two years running the same guy has won the 52" TV....

Oh but on the flip side our pay is below industry average from what I understand.

My work place is fantastic, we just had a company sponsored dinner at a fancy restaurant (super fancy), all expenses paid, unlimited drinks. They even paid for the taxis home. Also included partners for free. Would have been easily $200+ per person minimum, for 15 people.

public service...fridges, microwave, sandwich press, boiled water thingy. 2 vending machines for buying coke and chips/chocolate.

sometimes there are social things/morning teas/people leaving events where we'll get spreads of fingerfood and beers/pizza very occasionally for forums.

pretty much sums it up.

The course of action is clear - the kettle needs to disappear and then send regular postcards back to the office explaining that nobody stole it, it just went on a well deserved holiday.

Standard stuff here -
Milk (both normal and lite)
tea bags
coffee
a zip on the wall for boiling hot water
also a fridge for you to put your stuff in if it needs cooling
polystyrene cups for your drinks
one of those small bench ovens
sandwich machine

the work social club also have a fridge (the stores old one) in the brew room that you can grab a fizzy drink or water out of for a dollar.

As I work in a supermarket we also have food downstairs we can buy and get a staff discount on.

That's probably because they read this forum and know you hate them and all their delicious rights they have because we don't have a free market economy :)

Also I should add, despite all the stuff we do buy, we don't buy good quality toilet paper. I'm not sure what it is but I suspect it comes in a palette marked BRAND X SANDPAPER.

You know homebrand single ply toilet paper? We don't have that. We have wax paper or what feels like wax paper anyway.

You know homebrand single ply toilet paper? We don't have that. We have wax paper or what feels like wax paper anyway.

Smooth as eggs?

Our work does hire out the entire top floor of cloud land for our xmas parties though. thats mad

I read this thread only to find the toilet paper... you can always judge a workplace on the toilet paper they supply.

I bring my own roll....

Kitchen with tea, coffee (nespresso machine), fridge with milk, bread for toast, biscuits etc. Free onsite parking.

I own the company and the office so I can do whatever I want to keep people happy!

Smooth as eggs?

It just spreads everything around ...

lets all work with exo!

I read this thread only to find the toilet paper... you can always judge a workplace on the toilet paper they supply.

Hahaha, pretty much this, one of those big round ones like a foot in diameter is like a big fuck you to all staff.

If you see that come in, its time to find a new job.