I remember reading许多故事about a couple of Google employees who lived in RVs parked outside of the company’s global headquarters in Mountain View, California. Their rationale was simple: Why throw away my money when the company provides everything I need?
当时，这是一个有趣的故事，它实际上只能存在于奢华，奇怪的科技界内。今天，有一种更恐怖的情感，是我对这些故事的反应。I’ve come to view many workplace perks not as a benefit to employees, but instead as a way to keep them in the office for longer, later hours, and to further infringe on an already-broken sense of work-life balance that has saturated employment in the 21st century.
是的，有很多公司为员工提供生活方式利益feels吸引人。它表示工人的一种奢侈或舒适感，好像在说：“您可以随时回家，但是当您看到小吃吧时，您就不会想要！”但是，这也令人非常令人作呕，因为它意味着一种信念现在在许多公司中都太普遍了，但是在技术行业中，这是一个工作场所，应该与家里几乎没有区别。
I once worked with a head of engineering who put it quite well. During an all-hands, he was asked why the company didn’t have (despite having a number of lovely amenities in the office) “nap rooms,” or areas where people could take a rest before returning to work? With a bit of a wry smile, he said, “This isn’t your house. It’s work. We don’t want you to spend 12 hours a day here. We want you to come in, do your job well, and go home to your family and friends.”
We’re already seeing a lot of variance in how companies have reacted to the work-from-home transition. Many have拥抱它. Others have allowed it, but are迫切希望让员工回到办公室，担心生产力秘密减弱（尽管heaps of evidenceto the contrary).
在大多数情况下，雇主似乎正在寻找一种“重新创建办公室”的方法，并试图占领只是员工生活中的更多空间。他们正在通过提供以前在办公室里利用的特权来做到这一点。
Ironically, employees are closer to the office than they’ve ever been before: It’s no longer an engineer or two deciding to live in the parking lot, but theglobal majority在办公室旁边睡觉的知识工作者。工作日也已经得到了更长.
So in the era of remote work, what kinds of perks should employers be offering to their employees? The answer is simple: Let them do their jobs well, go home, and give them the space they need to build their own lives outside of work.
雇员和公司特权之间断开连接
There are many tech companies that are now发送他们的员工小吃盒. The employer believes that it shows they care about their employees’ health. And for many employees, it might feel that way too. But I see something more selfish at play. It implies that people are going to be sitting at their desk, working while they eat. It also suggests that your employees need to acknowledge that they’re being treated well enough that they should forgive some long nights and early mornings in service to the company.
“公司的特权”本质上并不是很糟糕，但是他们不应该与公司真正帮助员工的真实方式相混淆。没有什么免费的小吃会弥补员工与家人和朋友失去的时间，而他们不会回来。
So what are some examples of true employee perks? Here are a few examples:
- 很好地付款
- Covering 75% or more of their healthcare premium costs
- Encouraging time off—not as a matter of policy, but as a matter of need
- Not messaging or emailing your employees after 6 p.m.
- 提供灵活的非线性工作日，使员工能够保持流畅的时间
这不仅仅是保护员工；这也是关于防止损耗的。大辞职is a result of millions of people living in a chaotic time and asking themselves whether it’s worth the stress to keep working at their job. It’s on the employer to prove that itisworth it, and that it needn’t come at the expense of their well-being.
Flexible workdays is the future
现在，我们所有人都希望与我们所爱的人一起度过更多的时间，而雇主有很大的机会通过改变公司政策来积极地倡导这一概念。
公司喜欢Dropbox正在取消传统工作周，实施非线性工作日that allow employees to work around a three- to four-hour period where everyone is expected to be online and available for meetings—and then flex their days as they see fit.
由于非线性工作日，出现了强大的变化。他们通过将协作时间压缩到更少的时间来限制组织内的会议数量：根据我的公司生成的报告，这是一个可喜的变化。会议增加了69.7％自大流行开始以来。
它还使员工拥有更多的流畅生活，这更好地反映了育儿和学校的状态。人们需要花时间去照顾自己的家人并照顾好自己，而不必担心雇主被报复。
Lastly, it acknowledges something we’ve known for many years: There aren’t that many productive hours in the day. Employers tend to view hours worked in a week as commensurate with overall productivity, and the reality is that many of those hours don’t lead to better results.
If you choose to adopt nonlinear workdays, don’t fall into the trap of using it to create an “always on” culture. After-hours is still after-hours, and time off is still time off.
任务是重要的
What happens at work also matters to employee happiness and fulfillment—but that doesn’t come from creating a workplace that people never want to leave. It comes from people feeling a healthy sense of attachment to their work, caring about the mission they’re on, with the full and confident knowledge that it can always take a back seat to their personal needs.
Give them this sense of purpose, and your workers won’t be looking elsewhere for free snacks.
Henry Shapiro is a cofounder ofReclaim.ai, a smart friend for your calendar based in Portland, Oregon. Prior to Reclaim, Shapiro was the VP of product at New Relic, where he worked on acquiring new customers and developing new products.