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Generous perks have been a norm in the tech industry for decades as a way to woo the best and brightest employees… but recent belt-tightening and shifting priorities are making the perks disappear.
Why It Hurts: People’s work life has been on a rollercoaster over the past five years, transitioning from offices to remote work-setups to back again… but to offices that seem to value them less. No wonder engagement at work just hit an 11-year low.
Between the Snacks: Remote work isn’t the only perk being shown the door.
- Google, the granddaddy of perks-givers, is nixing exotic off-site meetings in favor of the office conference room, has closed some micro kitchens, and even traded the good artisanal chocolate for Twix (which, you know, could be worse).
- Salesforce ditched its ranch retreat for employees, let go of its in-office barista, and stopped offering a monthly “well-being” day off.
- Netflix is reportedly discouraging people from taking an entire year off for parental leave, with the unofficial appropriate time off being six months now.
- Meta shockingly fired employees for using their meal-delivery vouchers to buy household goods.
The Future: It’s starting to feel like perks culture is morphing into productivity culture, with the vibe shifting from getting an in-office massage and playing ping pong with coworkers to getting down to business before AI does for you. Meanwhile, high interest rates, economic uncertainty, and expenditures on AI infrastructure have led to 264,000 layoffs in the tech sector this year alone. In other words, it’s dog-eat-dog for employees right now.
But, to retain the best talent in such a cutthroat environment, companies may need to go back to being generous with the most important perk of all — pay.
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