100 Best Companies to Work For: Unusual Perks

Sure wish these companies and insurance plans would provide coverage for tummy tucks to women whose bodies have been absolutely ruined by giving birth to their children, especially those of us who had to have c-sections. No amount of sit-ups will return my lower abdomen back to the shape it was in before my pregnancy.

Sadly, I have only seen one actual “Voice of Reason” throughout this entire post, which I ran across by accident.
Thank you Chris from Florida for pointing out that the companies we work for don’t OWE us any of this. They didn’t choose to have a pet, so why should they pay for someone’s pet insurance? They don’t owe us a car to drive, why should they have to offer car insurance? They didn’t choose to have kids, so why should they have to pay for daycare for a parent that chooses to work for them? These are all perks that companies come up with to make life comfortable for their employees, but they certainly aren’t requirements. They already pay you a salary, why should they be required to pay for the things you want to make your life easier on top of that salary?
Just for medical insurance itself, my company pays over $10k per employee to offer us discounted medical insurance, on top of my normal salary. They don’t pass that cost onto us, just ask us to pay our small monthly amount for coverage. Why should they also be required to pay for my cat’s health? If I can’t afford that myself, I probably shouldn’t be adopting any pets. If you want to be able to see your children on your lunchtime, you find a daycare close to work.
Seriously people, you think you’re underprivileged, think about all that outsourcing we do to India. They make an average of $3-5/hour, no benefits (except English as a Second Language courses which are required for the job). They don’t get any of the perks that all of you are complaining about on this site. But all I read on here is a bunch of sob stories about how people think their company should be offering them more free benefits. If you can’t afford the kids, don’t have them. If you can’t afford the pets, don’t adopt them. If you can’t afford the auto insurance, take the bus. It’s a big DUH!

The original question in this post is what perks do you “wish” your company offered… So although some of the requests mights “seem” impractical to one person, the point of saying it was just to say it. And as far as infertility insurance goes… Why is it that some joe shmoe can be high on his drugs, and getting some random girl pregnant, but when there is something medically preventing a nice couple who would like to have a family it is so absurd?? Infertility is a medical disease, and treatment should be covered by insurance. It is ignorant and plain out rude to say that the coverage should not not be an entitlement. If you had another medical disease, such as cancer… the insurance would cover the treatment, why is it so unbelievable to offer fertility treatment coverage.

I have pet insurance for my 3 cats and 1 dog. It has saved me a to of money every year to keep the them all healthy

I work for Chrsyler Financial. I wish the company dismantled its business structure and operate like a home-base business where employees buy leads and refinance for commission pay. Employees pay a monthly fee to operate the companies back office and website.

Sign me up i am ready for the change I am an IT person and work hard. Rebecca Jane

Thank you DW of Charlotte, NC. A voice of sanity.

Trey of WestMonroe, Louisiana..Surely you jest…Pet insurance? Please get real…

You have kids and people in this country with no insurance!!! What a incredible waste of money by the elite. Every time GS participates in a stock offering or bond issue or merger, we are paying for their stupid insurance policies.

I AM ENROLLED IN PPO BLUE CROSS/BLUE SHIELD ILLINOIS AT WORK. THIS INSURANCE DOES NOT YET COVER TRANSGENDERED INDIVIDUAL’S CONCERNS.
WITH MORE AND MORE EVIDENCE KNOWN TO ALL WHO WANT TO KNOW, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THIS SHOULD BE A REGULAR PART OF MAJOR MEDICAL POLICIES…THERAPY IS ALREADY COVERED UNDER PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTIONS AT 50% COPAY. NOW WE NEED TO HAVE THE MEDICINES AND SURGERIES COVERED SO THAT TRANSGENDERED INDIVIDUALS CAN BE FAIRLY AND EQUALLY TREATED BY ALL EMPLOYERS USING BLUE CROSS.

Unfortunately FedEx is far behind when it comes to heath and fringe benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees and their families. Even though FedEx adopted “sexual orientation” in response to pressure from the New York City Employees’ Retirement Fund (NYCERS) in 2003, it has yet to adopt programs inclusive of GLBT employees as its main competitor, UPS, or similar Fortune 100 companies. For example, a FedEx gay employee may receive domestic partner benefits in California, as state law mandates, and lose them when management requests the gay employee to move to New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or any of the other forty-nine states and overseas. Talent will simply go to companies like Goldman Sachs and UPS.

I work for a large insurance company and we get great benefits from day 1.

Dental, vision, PPO, legal services, 401K w/ up to 6% dollar for dollar match, 4 weeks vacation to start, long and short term disability, and employee networks for gays, african americans, latinos and asians.

I’m dismayed at the sense of entitlement citizens have come to expect as rights instead of actual benefits… employers asking for employees to pay for personal calls… seems to make sense to me… free childcare, are you kidding? So you can visit your child throughout the day and be even less productive? Infertility insurance… so now the company owes us a shot at having kids? At least that’s slightly less crazy then pet insurance. If you can afford to have a pet, you have a responsibility to care for it. I once paid $285 for a vet to tell me a cat had hairballs… not fun I agree, but not sure how this should be a tab picked up by the company.

Perhaps it’s just folks venting, and saying what they’d like to see covered. I’m just not sure folks realize the costs associated with such moves… sure it would benefit a few individuals, but at the expense of others.

I work for Citi in Australia and they are now asking that employees pay for all personal calls on their cell phones even if the amount is $1 a month. Previously the company paid up to a maximum of $10 a month for personal calls.

The bosses can lose upwards of $10 billion dollars and the way to recoup these costs is to penny pinch a buck a month from employees.

Citi is pathetic at the moment

I wish my company offered the exact same sex change benefit as Goldman. It seems only fair, from a civil rights perspective.

On a more personal note, I wish they provided free daycare for the children of employees. I’m not a mother yet, but it would make my life easier to go check on my child on a lunch break and alleviate some of the guilt of being a working mom.

I work for a company that is large and profitable enough to offer both benefits. We’re still in the “dark ages” is the joke around the office.

It would be nice to get a week or two of paternity leave when your child is born. In all of the companies that I have worked, I have had to use my vacation (PTO) in order to stay home with my wife and help her recover and take care of our other kids. It really affects you when you really want to take a vacation and need to get away later in the year and you can’t because it was used up for your child’s birth.

Infertility insurance should be offered standard. In fact, it should be a federal mandate. It is criminal that up to 10-20% of our population cannot get insured help to have children, but the right to bear children is specifically listed, and infertility is a classified disability. We will cover viagra, but not medically-necessary treatment of a disease?

I find it kind of appalling that sexual reassignments are covered whereas vision and dental aren’t even a standard part of most benefits packages. Moreover, some prescriptions require a prior authorization above and beyond a prescription, which is essentially a challenge to a doctor’s patient-specific medical knowledge. Single people get screwed when it comes to family care time policies as well for non-live in significant others. In short, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed with employee sponsored benefit plans. I don’t generally believe in regulation but consistency accross the board is fast approaching a necessity in this country.

I work for one of top three American banking firms and, while overall I can not complain about our benefits package, Pet Insurance would be nice.To many of us, our pets are members of the family and high vetinary bills are a source of much stress. Pet Insurance would allow us to care for them as we would our two-legged family members.

I have also seen where many companies offer Auto Insurance and the option to elect it as a payroll deduction.

Other than those, Indentity Theft Insurance would be wonderful. We protect our homes, our health, and our future finances; why wouldn’t we protect our good name?