As office perks go, free pizza is only the start

THE first perk I ever received as a journalist was a turkey. It was the practice of the weekly newspaper on which I started my career, to reward all employees with a bird for Christmas.

This was in Knutsford, a Dickensian town in Cheshire, that was made famous in the books of Elizabeth Gaskell as Cranford. It was so long ago I was required to knuckle my forelock in gratitude.

Perk is short for perquisite and means an advantage over usual salary, income or wages.

Workers were recently asked what they considered to be the best perks of their job in a survey by The Finance People. Chief executive officer

Anita Tweats said: “Many businesses often think that the headline wage is all that matters to potential employees. But my experience has taught me that sometimes the little things can make all the difference, so an appealing perks package could be crucial when recruiting.”

Turkeys did not feature. The ones most appreciated include flexi time, casual dress code, games room and close early on a Friday. Amazing. I enjoy all those perks. But then I do work from home.

The perks most appreciated include flexi time, casual dress code, games room and close early on

a Friday.

Top of the list was free food. “Providing food for your staff is a straightforward and low-cost way to show you’re a company that cares, even if you want to keep it informal. It’s cheap and easy to order pizzas once a week, for example,” says Anita.

Pizza once a week? Try telling that to the folk who work at Google headquarters in California, a place so big and laid back it’s called a campus. Employees have a choice of an estimated 30 restaurants and cafes and it’s all free: breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Airbnb, the holiday rental listing site, apparently allows their US staff members free holidays up to $2,000 a year ; Reebok offers fitness classes (I’ll pass); a beer company has free on-site pubs in their Chicago and Milwaukee breweries; and at Spot- ify, the music streaming company, new parents qualify for six months paid leave, while those still thinking about it can have their eggs frozen. Until when? They retire at 60?

Journalism is a bit of an unusual job and the perks I’ve had, since I started with a turkey, have included world travel, crime, national events, sport, disasters, showbusiness and rock and roll.

Oh yes, and The Examiner once gave me a month’s sabbatical but I couldn’t stay away from the office.