- cross-posted to:
- antiwork@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- antiwork@lemmy.world
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It’s true that it’s not always about the money, but it’s probably never about a ping pong table
Well, hypothetical speaking, if there were two completely absolutely identical jobs, but the one had a ping pong table. I might choose the one without and ask them to get a Foosball table, since I’m no good at ping pong.
It also depends on whether it’s about a pingpong table in the office, or whether I get one for at home and we’re talking a fully remote job.
Getting a free pingpong table isn’t a bad bonus! I’d prefer a decent crokinole board though, tbh
It’s a bad bonus if you don’t have space for a ping pong table. Speaking from experience, I got a free ping pong table for Christmas once…
Same here. In the past 5 years, it’s seen maybe 10 games, and a whole lot of laundry.
I’m cannot deny that “where should we mail your crokinole board?” would work on me.
What is Crokinole?
Shut up and sit down has a video where they rave about it. It’s a dexterity game that uses a large board and sliding pieces.
It seems simplistic, but it is genuinely amazing to paly.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=XMKzeg78peg
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
If they put in any kind of clackball table, I’m demanding noise canceling headphones and my own office.
I’m all about the air hockey table.
Most places that have HR like this work their employees too hard for them to have time to use a ping pong table anyway, so it’s really just a hollow gesture.
Indeed.
It’s telling that “basic dignity” or “managers who aren’t dicks” didn’t make the list.
Yeah. In my experience, “A manager who doesn’t suck” is most of the list.
Source: I’ve been the manager who did suck, and the one who doesn’t. I have some data points.
Ping pong tables are loud as fuck and disrupt the whole office. If they invest in a soundproof room to put it in, sure. Otherwise it just makes you feel like a massive douche.
Especially if your coworkers play like pros.
Thwack
thwack thwack
Thwack
I wanted a foosball table dammit!
That’s the game of the debil!!!
Damnit Bobby what did I tell you about foosball!
Dammit, you beat me to it!
It is if you’re managing an Olympic ping pong team
It’s always about autonomy, one way or another. People want to be able to control how they work and what they can get out of it. For some that does mean more money, for some it would mean less stress, for others it could means less meetings.
It’s pretty easy for management to address all of it by just giving people more power over what their work lives are like, but that could mean less control over their workforce. No “owner” wants that, to them, they own their employees’ time/work life.
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This
As a professional in this field, top reasons would be…
- Dissatisfaction with pay
- Limited/No career progression
- Dissatisfaction with environment/culture
- Dissatisfaction with management
- Poor work-life balance
- Poor job design/expectations of role
- Poor taining quality/knowledge management
- Inadequate tools/systems
I don’t see pizza party or ping pong table on that list so you’re obviously not a professional.
A real professional knows employees want pizza parties instead of higher pay and they want more responsibilities with the same pay!
:P
Pizza party solves everything!!
Or…a lemon party!
I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?
Make some kind of lemon powered rocket launcher and force life to take it’s lemons back!
Make lemonade, obviously
But I have no money and lemons are expensive! If only there was a way we could acquire lemons without paying for them… Anyone know where I could find a lemon tree?
My top reasons for leaving a job:
- Too little pay
- Too many responsibilities
- The possibility of career progression
The three Big Nos. My optimal work-life balance is 0.1-99.9. If they trust me to be able to do even one thing, that pay better be huge.
Almost all of these applied to the last job I left, so I guess it’s pretty spot on.
Obviously right? I mean this post is definitely a joke
So ping pong table falls under the third point right? More ping pong = more fun = better culture? Right? /s just for clarity
Very correct. You can solve bad culture by throwing more money at the problem. Preferably all at once with zero maintenance budget or governance so that the amenities in question can become non-functional monuments to your superior culture. Future generations will find these and marvel at your ingenuity from the safety of the water cooler.
There’s some new research that shows raising pay is not great for retention. Studies say it’s better to take that money and put it into a long-term benefit line a pension, profit sharing, while life insurance with a cash out value, etc.
Raises and bonuses had about a 3-month effect.
That seems highly suspect.
Was this research sponsored by the association for research into golden parachuting out of a pillaged company?
you really a pro, I’m looking for other jobs precisely because of 1 and 2, even though the rest are all great at my current job
It’s true, most people don’t care about money.
They care about what money can help them buy, like another day of survival.
It was never about the money. It was about maslovs heirarchy of needs; which, at the very bottom, is a foosball table.
There’s two kinds of money: Enough money, and more than enough money.
If you don’t have enough money, that’s all that matters. A nicer day at work means very little.
Once you have enough money, more money matters very little. Now it’s about enjoying work etc.
Ah but what is enough money for you or I is not enough money for the bigwigs. And since they’re obviously more important, as they’re at the top, we have to have sure they get enough money even if that means you don’t.
But they’ll get you a ping pong table so you can stop thinking about how you don’t know what you’re going to feed your family tonight
This is brilliant!
Tangentially related, I heard another about enough money:
When you already have enough money, do you really need 2x enough money?
Your baseline can change.
You may be fine with $1000 a month. You have everything you need: food, bed, apartment, electricity, etc.
Now you get a new job and have $2000. You try out more expensive food options and realize you like them better. You move into a bigger apartment and start enjoying the freedom.
You may never wanted this if you didn’t try it, but now that you have, you don’t want to go back. You may not have noticed that your mental and physical health was degraded due to your previous living conditions until you get better after raising your standards.
That question isn’t the best way to frame it, because yeah… 2x “enough” is pretty reasonable. That’s still well within the high returns of happiness phase.
Do you need 1000x enough, though? Or 1000x that? I’d love a high end espresso maker, or a nicer car, or to be able to afford to take more time off, but there comes a point where more is just pointless.
As a person with enough money, yes, I would love double my income.
Yeah like, cmon, what do you think the pyramid sits on. On the floor??? No, on the holiest of of foosball tables!
It’s actually second from the bottom, above Pogs.
Eh, I dunno. You can wipe your tears with money, light cigars with it, sew clothing from it. Many uses! :P
A ping pong table? What for? So HR can punish you when you use it?
seriously，who has time to use a ping pong table at work? It’s like a decoration to remind you you’re not having fun.
You can only enjoy the perks during your 45 minute lunch break. Food or fun, your choice …
Where do you live, where taking breakes is frowned upon? That’s crazy.
Here in Denmark, I’m being reminded to take breakes and go home. I have been asked if I’m sure it’s not hurting my work/life balance, before getting overtime approved.
It’s also common to stay at work after hours to hang out, if there’s a nice place to do that.
Come over to America! A magical place where you are only worth the money you make for your corporate overlords, and despite being told by your boss that they are SO glad that they hired you, your performance review is a 3/5 because they don’t want you getting too comfortable and “there’s always room for improvement!”
this sounds like a sci-fi novel
Same in my office in the UK, I got asked if I was not taking enough breaks or doing work outside of work hours as I was doing more than they expected and my manager was worried about me burning out, but having a chill atmosphere and a nice place to hang out and chill in the office just means that I can be more productive and happier at work so it’s a win-win… A lot of HR types don’t realise that it takes a nice office in both material and culture to make people productive and just go for the former which has the lower effect of the two when used alone.
Ok, calm down there, commie. Maybe you’d better go check in with your “family” and your “adequate housing”. The rest of us are here to make money… For other people.
I know that the American capitalism thing is a meme at this point, but working in software, every company I’ve worked for isn’t against you taking breaks or doing whatever as long as things get done. I’ve played foosball with my VP during normal hours before, and it was slightly awkward but good fun.
The usual issue I see in my industry is that you constantly accumulate more responsibilities without any corresponding increase in pay. It’s especially bad for morale when you see someone leave, and their responsibilities get distributed to the team, but no one gets any part of the old person’s salary as a raise to make up for the added responsibilities even when the higher ups refuse to hire a replacement since you’re all clearly handling it fine.
Listen, speaking as an American, we know Danes have better quality of life, but we’ll be damned if we will sacrifice capitalism to get there! Our motto is “if you’re not working, you’re losing money!” That only applies to the lower ranks, of course.
Seriously tho, I would love to live in a society that expects companies to hold the well-being of their employees over profits (not that these two are mutually exclusive), and the culture is changing slowly, but we’re not there yet.
My guess is USA or UK
Source: live in USA. Taking breaks is seen as being lazy. As is taking days off when your sick.
That’s nice and all, but staying after hours to hang out sounds awful. I don’t want to befriend those losers, I want to get on with my life. They can all rot in hell for all I care, I’d sell them out in a heartbeat.
This is so true, and I don’t even have a pingpong table at work
None of these answers is correct, it’s simply not a multiple choice question.
For some the pay is important, others need a bit of distraction like a ping pong table.
Everybody has their own needs, the biggest HR loser is the one that fits all employees in the same square.
others need a bit of distraction like a ping pong table.
That is never the answer. If your business isn’t retaining people because the party culture isn’t party enough…you’ve got way bigger problems…and it’s probably leadership.
So, a fruit basket?
Think bigger, and rounder, and flatter, and then covered in cheese and maybe pepperoni. But no mushrooms, Dolores in accounting will pretend to vomit.
Hawaiian pizza, I gotchu fam
Joke’s on you, I’m into that shit.
As I get older I begin to realize that people love to work.
However people hate being treated like shit.
Treating people like shit or building an environment that supports shitty behavior poisons the well and will absolutely make people leave, even for a pay cut.
If you just respect people and properly value them and their contributions to your organization, you’ll never have trouble keeping them.
A ping pong table is cheaper and less effort.
I wouldn’t say party culture - it is what you make of it! You’re normally at work for a significant portion of your day. Something like a table tennis table can help to break up the day and is just a bit of fun. For example, we had a table tennis tournament at work, which people got really into - it was fun and people bonded over it. I’d take that over working somewhere where you don’t even know your colleagues.
This was at a tech company where culture was a big part of why almost everyone worked there. Definitely wasn’t a party culture, but it was collaborative, where people worked closely together. There was never an expectation to work outside of working hours, or to do anything social - it was purely optional.
Obviously pay is a big factor, but it isn’t everything. I’m lucky enough to be in a sector where I can afford to get paid less and have a better work (definitely not party!) culture and work-life balance.
I shrug…I like WFH…it’s me vs the machine and that’s that. I hated the forced corporate fun when I was still in that environment. It’s “collaborative”…no…no it’s not.
Sure…having Little John spin the company party was a neat story…getting paid 50k more and working in quiet peace is a better one.
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Found that one that wanted the ping pong table.
Yeah, the main reason Ive changed jobs is money. Nobody gives raises like new bosses.
I always tell people the easiest way to get a raise is to find a new job. Nobody is keeping up with inflation anymore, it’s pretty much required to job hop to break even anymore.
I like my job, but I’d leave for the right position/compensation.
I try to interview once per quarter, at least.
I’ve started adding some tough questions, like asking how the average annual increases compare with inflation and COLA. Most interviewers turn into a 13 year old telling a girl they have a crush on them – all of the sudden 0 confidence.
That’s when I tell them that for the circumstance, my compensation ask is going to be quite high.
I also tell local employers that my “in office” ask is literally 5x pay. They always balk and say somethi g like “yeah that’s not gonna happen,” to which I say “Tell me about it!”
Everyone should interview more. Declining a good offer because you like your situation more feels like doing cocaine.
I often get ask about my salary expectation in the very first 10 minute interview with the HR person, before even getting the chance to talk to the team. Being sincere, I wouldn’t get to follow-up interviews if I told them my expectation that they would definitely see as too high.
How do you deal with that situation?
Make sure you have a job while interviewing for a new one, that way you aren’t desperate, and hold your ground!
You’re applying to and weeding out jobs that don’t suit you.
Your price is your price. They don’t have to like it and you don’t have to work with them.
I’ve told $50K jobs I wouldn’t do it for less than 5x, 250K, lol. Yeah, I didn’t get a follow up. Oh well. These are my terms. You want me in office for a 50k/yr role? I’ll do it for 250k. This ensures I don’t end up with a role not suited for me.
If the company doesn’t want to match your salary expectation, then why interview? Are you hoping that meeting with the team will change their mind? I don’t have enough experience to know if that happens, but I suspect it’s unlikely.
Not every company posts salary up front, so there is at least that situation.
Or the salary range is $40k - $80k, which in my experience, means $40k.
If salary range says 40 to 80 and they offer 40, counter with 100.
Don’t settle for less than 80 assuming your credentials fit the position.
Have them tell you no. Don’t decide it based on intuition.
If they stay at 40 tell them you’ll continue to look for employment that values your work where you think it should be valued, wish them well, and walk.
Glassdoor is usually sufficient to find the info you need unless it’s a startup.
Especially if you know exactly that your employer most likely has zero loyalty to you either.
If there was a way to get the same work for 20% less, my employer would happily do that.
I never understood that logic, tbh. It can’t be good for a business to lose half the staff every few years. Bringing in fresh blood once in a while is good, but you shouldn’t need constant transfusions.
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I interviewed once for a part-time job at a potential startup, and the two people running it spent 75% of the time talking about how they had a pingpong table and how that meant it was a fun company…
The job wouldn’t be in the office tho, so for my position (and pretty much every employee) would only be able to use it off the clock.
They were very excited about the ping pong table tho, because their job was in office and they played a lot.
I didn’t take the job.
And the startup never opened.
I’ve worked in at a smaller startup with a ping pong table and my anecdote is we were all obsessed with ping pong. So their excitement could really be genuine. It’s not always a ruse.
share this with workreform. they’ll love it. I would link but forgot how
I can’t afford groceries for the 3rd time this month, but did you hear they’re putting a ping pong table in the lounge!?
Wild. They both “might” help. They both cost the company money. They should both be correct.
Wtf are you talking about? Employees work office jobs 9 to 5 because they love to work. Like all good employee’s. Heck, if they weren’t getting paid they’d still the work for free because they love it so much. It’s only out of the pure goodness of my heart that I decide to pay them minimum wage/s
They work because they’re family, right? Not for money.
The only thing that makes less sense than your comment is people upvoting it.
Morale and pay are both factors, your sarcastic comment makes it seem like you believe everyone only cares about pay and nothing else…
Some people make good money, so that’s not their primary motivation when picking a job.
You clearly missed “/s” at the end of his post, OR you don’t know what it means.
It’s funny how many people are telling me I missed the sarcasm when I literally said it was sarcasm…
your sarcastic comment makes it seem like you believe everyone only cares about pay and nothing else…
Someone can attempt sarcasm and still fuck it up bud
Agreed, but the above comment is not one of those times. Just admit you missed it and go on with life. Nice edit with both comments, lulz
When you edit on Lemmy it resets how long ago the comment was made…
If I edited it, your reply to me would show a newer timestamp…
No idea why so many people in this sub have no clue what they’re talking about, but it looks like I’m just blocking the whole thing
If needing to pay for basic necessities weren’t a factor in people getting jobs, I highly doubt the majority of people would work the kinds of jobs of today. I don’t know a single person who is excited to go into their retail job and deal with shitty customers all day or sit in a bland cubicle all day making spreadsheets that nobody really cares about.
I know more people who would much rather devote their time to learning and playing instruments, or making something with their own hands, or writing stories, or spending time raising their families.
sit in a bland cubicle all day making spreadsheets that nobody really cares about.
I actually enjoy making those spreadsheets. I wouldn’t do it for free though.
Not everyone works entry level retail jobs…
And some people already make enough to live comfortably…
Which is why I said that.
Some people make good money, so that’s not their primary motivation when picking a job
I now completely understand why something as stupid as what I replied to got upvoted tho.
Have fun here
It’s obviously sarcasm…
Maybe that’s why I said it was sarcastic?
Someone can be sarcastic and still not make a point…
What exactly do you think sarcasm is?
In fact all three are valid answers. Cruel manipulation as it is, additional even uncompesated responsibilities often do drive retention as people are invested too deep and too stressed out to consider switching or find time for the process.
I doubt most people leave because of a lack of ping-pong table.
If they put a ping pong table anywhere within earshot of my desk I’m going apeshit
As a capitalist I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be about the money
In my experience, they’re thinking 20-30 cents per hour. And yah, that’s never enough to change someone’s mind. 20-30% that could make a difference, but it’s way too much for them to ever concider.
They’ll consider it if they know someone else is willing to pay it. I got headhunted a couple years ago by a place willing to pay me 50% more than I made to work remotely doing generally the same thing I was already doing in-office. There were more responsibilities, though, so I wanted to stick with my current job if I could get them to match the offer. I took it to my boss, and he agreed to match the pay, and even talked the CEO into letting me work remotely when they otherwise have a pretty strong push toward in-office work.
Now I get paid more than my own supervisor while working a pretty cushy job in my pajamas.
Congratulations 😄
That’s awesome! It’s nice to know it works out sometimes. Congrats!
Capitalism stops when it comes to salary. Then it’s all about culture and warm fuzzy feelings. Those are the only incentives an employee needs.
How about giving them a raise in pay, and if they really want it, they can buy the ping-pong table out of their own pocket flips desk
That’s stupid. Wouldn’t the smarter thing to do be to buy the ping pong table and Dock everyone’s pay because of it? That ping pong table cost the company a fortune. And no, those bite marks on the leg of pool table aren’t from my dog/s
I think I am bad at capitalism.
