When is a Perk Not a Perk? (or Why I’ll Never Work at Zynga)
When you’re looking to change jobs, you’re often told to consider the entire package- not just compensation, but all of the benefits and perks that come with the job, from health insurance to discounts at local restaurants. I don’t disagree with that, but I would encourage people to look beyond the financial side of those perks, and ask themselves, what does this tell me about the company culture.
Back in 2002 or 2003, C interviewed at a mortgage broker’s office. During the interview, he was told that while the law said they had to give you at least a half hour (unpaid) lunch, company culture was that everyone took an hour lunch, and worked through it. They would send one person out to grab sandwiches for everyone, and then they all just worked. (So the company got 9 hours of work out of everyone for 8 hours of pay.)
He said he mentioned this to all interviewees because while they could not fire someone for taking their legally protected lunch break, they could fire someone for having a detrimental effect on team morale- and someone taking their lunch break would certainly do that.
I think C kind of purposely blew the interview after that, as that was definitely not a company culture he wanted to work in.
I know, you’re thinking that’s the opposite of a perk and it’s likely a lot of you would walk away from that “opportunity”, unless there were other major factors. The thing is, not every company is going to come right out and say they expect you to work through your lunch, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t telling you in other ways.
I have friends who are working at or have worked at Zynga, EA, and BioWare. One of the perks these companies (and many tech companies) offer is a free company cafeteria- one that is open 18+ hours a day, serves three meals a day, sometimes have a restaurant like menu, and even employ gourmet chefs.
Free restaurant quality lunch every day sounds like a great perk. But stop and think about it- a cafeteria that is open from 6am to midnight every day- providing three free meals.
This isn’t a hospital where they have to care for people 24 hours a day. It’s not even a casino (where staff do often get one free meal during their shift from the employee cafeteria), where they are staffed 24/7, so an employee’s “lunch” break could take place any time of day. This is a job at a company where you supposedly work an 8-5 day.
Sure, you could come in and eat breakfast right before starting work, and then get your dinner before you leave the office, all free. Who needs a grocery budget?
No one at these companies it telling you you’re expected to make it into the office before you’ve had a chance to eat breakfast or that they expect you to work through dinner, and sometimes late into the night on a regular basis.
Going into these industries, you may expect to work late right before a launch, or a crunch time before a major milestone, but the fact that the company cafeteria is always open from 6am to midnight should be a sign that that is the norm, not the exception.
The EA office inVancouver,Canada, is also a dog friendly environment. I’d love to work somewhere I could take my dogs, but not if the reason for allowing me to take my dogs to work is so that I won’t feel the need to leave the office at 6pm in order to go home and care for my pets.
I will say that my friends who work/have worked for these companies love this perk. Often they have moved to anew citywhere they don’t know anyone for the job. Going home only reminds them that they have nothing interesting to do. So they happily live at the office and take full advantage of their cafeterias. More than once I’ve seen a Facebook post along the lines of- I left the office before 7pm today. No company cafeteria to feed me dinner. How am I supposed to eat? –And more than once, these posts have come on Saturdays.
My friends love their jobs, love the perks that come with them, but for now, at least, their jobs are their lives.
My job is not my life. With C and the dogs, it hasn’t been my life for a very long time. With adopting, it’s going to become even less of a major focus. I don’t want to be at the office at 6pm any day, especially not if I arrived there at 6am. That’s not me.
So the next time you’re looking for a new job, pay close attention to the perks and what they tell you about company culture. You may love a place that will feed you three squares a day in order to keep you there 12+ hours a day. Me? I’ll never work at Zynga.
I totally agree. While some people love their jobs and don't mind spending their whole life there it just isn't for me. I'm there to put in my time, get my work done, and go home. I try to exceed the expecations to grow in my company but I don't see why the number of hours I work should affect how I move up. It should be based on my results which I almost always exceed expectations on.
I am actually an anti time spent person. I think that if I can get the same results in one hour of work that it takes another person 3 hours to do, then I should be the one being rewarded. Which is somewhat ironic, since a good portion of my current job just really requires me to be present, in case something happens, whether I have other work to be done or not.
I agree, I don't make work my life though I know I've likely sacrificed salary along the way. To me, it's worth it because I've used that time to spend with my family, and I know that's time I could never make up later on.
I might not have thought the eating at lunch thing wasn't so bad if they paid for the lunch as long as it was the right job and I knew I'd enjoy what I was doing.
Even as I try to move up in my company or elsewhere, maintaining a work life balance is very important to me. I love coming home to C and the dogs. I can't imagine how much more I'll love it once there's a child at home, too.
I really enjoyed this post. I am amazed at tech companies with that culture, although I imagine without that culture they would never launch. I worked at a company (mgmt consulting) where people questioned you if you were leaving at 5:30 Monday through Thursday. I used to work 70 hour weeks. It was crazy. I much prefer my current job, where I am expected to work hard and get things done, but I've yet to work more than 50 hours on a week that I wasn't traveling. I can work long hours when it's necessary and even enjoy it, but not every single day.
My friends who work at tech companies tend to love it. I have to be honest about that, but it's really not for me. I think even if I weren't married, that still wouldn't be the right environment for me. It goes back to my goal of having a job that allows me to live my dream live versus having a dream job.
This reminds me of a quote from the early Eisner-era days at Disney when they were working long hours to turn around the company. Near the end of November Jeffrey Katzenberg scheduled a meeting for that Thursday at 8 AM. The room got really quiet and one person said, "That's Thanksgiving." Katzenberg (allegedly) said, "Do you have something going on?"
The father of one of my friends worked the police beat for the local newspaper. She can count on one hand the number of holiday dinners her father didn't get called out of to go track down a story. Her family actually used to joke that her father as a secret "other" family, and that he used the reporting a story as his way to leave one holiday meal and get to another.