Beer in the vending machine? The craziest employee suggestions
December 18, 2009 by Jennifer AzaraPosted in: Benchmarking, Lighter-side, Management issues, Special Report
Sure every company wants to be responsive to employees’ needs. But some people really know how to push it.
A new survey from CareerBuilder asked nearly 3,000 hiring managers about the strangest requests they’ve ever received.
And, boy, were they strange!
We bet these suggestions had their employers saying “sorry we asked!”:
- Designate a special smoking area for medical marijuana use.
- Hold the team meeting in Hawaii.
- Put a tanning bed in the break room.
- Install a swimming pool.
- Institute bikini Fridays.
- Add beer to the vending machine.
- Put a reclining chair in the lactation room, so people can use it for naps.
- Replace an employee’s desk with a futon so that employee could lie down while working.
- Let workers change clothes in their cubicles.
- Apply the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover jail time.
- Allow a worker who’s scared of the dark to work only during daylight hours.
- Give an employee additional time off to pursue a side business as a clown.
- Recommend that the HR professional wear nicer shoes.
- Let employees forgo the company-provided birthday cake and take the cash instead.
- Provide protection from “alien rays” emanating from an employee’s computer, and
- Offer “cat-ernity leave” to bond with a new kitten (this one was actually granted, folks).
What’s the strangest suggestion you’ve ever heard? Share it here.
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Tags: Beer, Bikini Fridays, CareerBuilder, Employees' needs, Hiring managers, Medical marijuana, Survey, Vending Machines
December 21st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I actually like the idea of a reclining chair. A former employer had a “quiet room” where people who weren’t feeling well could go relax. Some people took naps in it during their lunch break. It was a great perk, and was very rarely abused. It’s also the room we had the massage therapist come to every other week. Employees paid out of their own pocket, and could have 5, 10, or 15 minute chair massages during their break. Another, easy and cheap perk that people loved. I wish we had the space to do that here!
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Actually this is quite common in Germany…. But then ‘bier’ is their national beverage…