Taking Advantage of Corporate Perks

Whether you work for a huge multi-national company or a local mom & pop shop, chances are, there are company perks you should be taking advantage of.  If you haven't noticed by now, I actually still work for a bank, and have enjoyed many of the company perks ranging from health care to discounted phone plans, to discounted gym memberships.  Whatever your story is, you should do a little research and figure out if your company offers some sweet deals.

This blog concept came to me as I was experiencing one of the local benefits this past Saturday.  Myself, the wife, and another couple with their small child had free tickets to see our local aquarium.  This was in part due to my company donating to this aquarium, and in repayment, they offered a free visit day.  It was a fun time filled with sea lion shows, and exotic fish.  As I was walking around and became face-to-face with a sturgeon, I realized that I'm pretty good at rooting out company perks.

I like to think of company perks ranging from a few different levels.  The most fundamental and basic is a health care plan.  This may or may not include dental, eye, or any other sort of health benefits.  Along the same topic of fundamental needs based perks, your company most likely will offer some form of retirement plan whether it is a common 401k or the increasingly elusive company pension.  All these benefits fit into a basic needs category.  One perk I took extreme advantage of was tuition reimbursement which essentially allowed me to achieve my MBA for free.

Next up on the list of perks are the local discounts.  Most companies offer discounted movie tickets through their HR office, or maybe even a reduced gym membership.  My company had an arrangement with a few gyms and also 20% my Verizon phone bill.  Along with this group comes the free activity perks such as aquariums, zoos, and museums.

Finally, the next group belongs in sort of a consumer discount group.  Companies are starting to subscribe to discounted vendors that offer a web portal to many more discounts throughout the world.  You could see travel discounts are deals from technology stores.  It pretty much runs the gamut.  These types of deals are nice when you are really looking for something.

The point of this isn't for me to brag, but to make you aware that these type of deals exist out there, and you should do a little research and find out what your company has to offer.  You may be surprised...

Wonderful Moment of the Day: Coming home to a chicken pot pie...yum!