shroud wrote That type of work environment is definitely great if you can find it. Of course, it's only certain types of jobs that benefit from that kind of relaxed atmosphere. Some places timeliness IS important - brokers can't exactly come & go when they please or they're going to lose THOUSANDS of dollars. Places with customer hours have to be able to open on-time, and while the general staff working those places may not be considered YPs, the people MANAGING those folks might be (depending on the job), and they need to be there on-time too...The thing is, for every Google and Apple with famous relaxed work environments, free lunches, air hockey tables, etc, there are dozens (maybe hundreds?) of tech companies that DIDN'T remember they still needed to keep the money rolling in and products rolling out while trying to cater to all the young talent that didn't want to deal with the "traditional" work environment.
First off, just wanted to say hi. BU alumni going to grad school here at Ohio State. I signed up a few days ago in order to post a reply to another thread, but now I cannot remember which thread it was.
Anyway, I previously worked in banking, and we had many of those perks you described. Free lunches, free dinner, car service home if you worked past 9:00pm, etc. These perks are, like milodesc stated, are available just so you do not leave your desk and can continue to work through lunch, and or dinner. When making my decision on my employer out of undergrad, perks such as these really had no bearing on my choice. I chose my employer based my future career options, and frankly salary. I understand not everyone bases their career on salary, but many of us do. To add on to this, not everyone also wants a lax carefree environment. It might be great for a creative person, but I need pressure, and a rigid environment in order to function. This is evident all through my schooling, as I put off everything until the day before, but I always came through with a great test score, or a great presentation, without the pressure I simply cannot function, or I do half assed work because I feel I have all the time in the world. I agree that we need workplaces like you suggest it is just not suitable for all industries and types of people. Frankly I think in my previous group if we were given an environment like Google, not a single one of us would have accomplished anything, and would have probably sat around all day conversing about girls, cars, whatever. In summary, just remember not all of us work the same way, or work for the same reasons. I truthfully do not see how anyone can "enjoy" banking, a high school dropout could plug numbers into models all day long, it is boring work (at least at the lower levels, analyst, associate, etc.) most of us put up with it for the money, and the hope we can quit fifteen years down the road and pursue other interests. It does take a toll on you and frankly is one of the reasons I decided to go to grad school in order to get a break.
Sorry for rambling, I will also try to type in paragraphs next time. :lol:
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