My job as a SDET: Free/discounted stuff
Everyone knows that there are perks to working where I do. Good health plan, dental, if you need it physiotherapy, so on and so forth. There are little things on a day to day basis that are pretty awesome though.
First is that actually at work, there are free drinks. Like coffee, and it's actually decent coffee. It comes out of Starbucks machines, which means on a scale of 1-10 for awesomeness, it's about a 6.5, but it's not instant coffee. Apparently the coffee used to be much worse. To go with your free coffee is... free milk. Available in skim, fat free or regular. Next to the free milk is a variety of free juices, along with some free sparkling water (several flavours), and several free soft drinks. But don't try to get bottled water for free - you have to pay for that shit. Which seems kind of counter-intuitive, given my old mentor said he exercised his dental plan after first arriving here, only to discover he had lots of cavities from drinking Coke more often.
Next is that because they have so many fingers in so many pies, employees get discounts on a stack of things. Like travel, laptops, electrical goods, and so on. There's an entire awesome website set up to telling you what discounts you get. An example: flashing my discount card got me 2 movie tickets for $6 at the local science centre, which shows movies in 3D. Completely awesome. I also knocked off about $1000 on my laptop using this service.
I like the discounts, but some of them are completely useless. One thing I agree with should remain free is the coffee, although it's been my secret desire to switch out the regular for decaf to see what happens. It would be the world's most lethargic protest if the employees became disgruntled.
First is that actually at work, there are free drinks. Like coffee, and it's actually decent coffee. It comes out of Starbucks machines, which means on a scale of 1-10 for awesomeness, it's about a 6.5, but it's not instant coffee. Apparently the coffee used to be much worse. To go with your free coffee is... free milk. Available in skim, fat free or regular. Next to the free milk is a variety of free juices, along with some free sparkling water (several flavours), and several free soft drinks. But don't try to get bottled water for free - you have to pay for that shit. Which seems kind of counter-intuitive, given my old mentor said he exercised his dental plan after first arriving here, only to discover he had lots of cavities from drinking Coke more often.
Next is that because they have so many fingers in so many pies, employees get discounts on a stack of things. Like travel, laptops, electrical goods, and so on. There's an entire awesome website set up to telling you what discounts you get. An example: flashing my discount card got me 2 movie tickets for $6 at the local science centre, which shows movies in 3D. Completely awesome. I also knocked off about $1000 on my laptop using this service.
I like the discounts, but some of them are completely useless. One thing I agree with should remain free is the coffee, although it's been my secret desire to switch out the regular for decaf to see what happens. It would be the world's most lethargic protest if the employees became disgruntled.