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The Perks of the Job

A virtual pub for off topic, light hearted pub related banter and discussion. No trainers
AleisterCrowley
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278137

Postby AleisterCrowley » January 17th, 2020, 3:00 pm

Best perk for me is a free mobile phone with unlimited* calls/data. 'Phone bill - what's that ?'
-we also get free fruit /tea/coffee !!
AC


* they do moan if we go over 7GB in a month , or make lots of overseas calls

bungeejumper
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278138

Postby bungeejumper » January 17th, 2020, 3:05 pm

airbus330 wrote:Having read this thread I'm feeling as though I have been pampered a bit through my career. I worked for a major, now defunct, holiday company and had a decent DC pension (18% company contr.), life insurance, premium health insurance, Heath Income Protection until retirement age, free Uniform, parking, annual medical, Union agreed high standards for travel and accommodation(latterly cut back), 75% discount on 2 holidays a year (slashed back latterly to a limited discount), access to industry discounted airfares and a generous relocation package which I used once, SAYE and BAYE share schemes and an Executive Share scheme which was a bit of a damp squib.

You can go off people, you know. :evil:

Jealous, moi?

BJ

PinkDalek
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278164

Postby PinkDalek » January 17th, 2020, 4:00 pm

Howyoudoin wrote:[What perks did you used to get that have gone by the wayside?


The youngsters have mainly failed to answer your question.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7953/486/1600/lv.jpg

Gone but not forgotten. I have forgotten how many one had to collect to pay for a sarnie though.

https://growingyoungereachday.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/luncheon-vouchers.jpg

Alaric
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278168

Postby Alaric » January 17th, 2020, 4:14 pm

PinkDalek wrote:Gone but not forgotten. I have forgotten how many one had to collect to pay for a sarnie though.


The rule used to be that 15p of LVs (3 old shillings) could be given tax free. It can sometimes work to convert 1960s prices in shillings to today's prices in pounds. So 3 old shillings for a round of sandwiches or even a "meal deal" sounds about right.

Has anyone mentioned the free lunches, usually with a class structure, so you had plebs, management and senior management entitlements? Plebs was canteen style self service. I didn't make it any higher with that employer.

PinkDalek
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278176

Postby PinkDalek » January 17th, 2020, 4:35 pm

Alaric wrote:
PinkDalek wrote:Gone but not forgotten. I have forgotten how many one had to collect to pay for a sarnie though.


The rule used to be that 15p of LVs (3 old shillings) could be given tax free. It can sometimes work to convert 1960s prices in shillings to today's prices in pounds. So 3 old shillings for a round of sandwiches or even a "meal deal" sounds about right.


Yes, I know about the tax aspect*** and wasn't working in £sd days, but given the rampant 1970s inflation, by the time I was receiving the LVs there wasn't anything available for 15p. They had to be batched up (along with the Green Shield Stamps), maybe to 75p or thereabouts. I'd never heard of 'meal days' back in the day.

Never used the Green Shield Stamps. The book was discarded years ago. No doubt some are attempting to sell them on ebay etc. Along with old LVs at £6.99 a shot - unsold.

*** https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192150/ots_luncheon_vouchers.pdf

The relief was introduced in 1946 when food rationing was in place with the objective of helping individuals afford healthy meals. The benefit of this relief has been almost entirely eroded by inflation. It is therefore very low in value and no longer achieves a clear objective, and is now being repealed.

I'm surprised the repeal was so recent.

OLTB
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278179

Postby OLTB » January 17th, 2020, 4:44 pm

When working for a previous employer on a Saturday, there was lunch provided and we were given a £12.50 budget each.

One of the junior members (me at the time :) ) faxed (remember those) the order to the local M&S and I would wander up to the store to collect the lunches for everyone. Most people opted for sandwiches, crisps, fruit etc. which came way under the budget allowed.

Some smart @rse decided to bring his own lunch to eat on a Saturday and then ordered joints of meat, veg etc. on the M&S order so he could have his Sunday lunch for free (using his entire £12.50 allowance). Being in a junior position, I just faxed off the order and collected as required.

During a company audit not long afterwards, this anomaly was picked up and the chap in question spoken to quite strongly. The 'perk' was removed and so was the berk soon afterwards - still protesting that he hadn't done anything wrong.

Some people try to push things a little too far...

Cheers, OLTB.

sg31
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278239

Postby sg31 » January 17th, 2020, 7:41 pm

Perks as an officer in the merchant navy were quite good. Free food and accomodation while onboard. Duty free fags at 10p for 20, spirits 50p per bottle, whisky was 80p. (all 1970 prices). The food was excellent whichever ship I was on breakfast, lunch and dinner were 5,6 and seven courses respectively

Holidays were generous on the face of it, 1 day holiday for every 2 days onboard ship. When you consider we worked 7 days per week onboard it doesn't seem quite so generous but then again as a lad from the back streets of Sheffield every day in the merch' was a holiday to me.

Free world travel was the icing on the cake.

I'm sure these benefits are still pretty much the same but as we don't really have much of a merchant fleet left I suppose it could be argued that they've been withdrawn.

After that I had a number of years as an Insurance underwriter, The pay was ok but the big benefit was a subsidised mortgage. 5% doesn't seem that generous at current rates but at a time of 12% rates it was fantastic. I managed to move up from a 2 bed house to a 4 bed detached as a young newly wed. The mortgage was easily managed and in those days it was a tax free benefit. it's possible the subsidised mortgages might still exist but the tax free status is long gone.

Once I became a senior underwriter/manager, free first class rail travel was provided on company business which was quite good because I could fly and hire a car for less money. I presume this still exists.

Self employment followed. I can't think of many benefits to that unless you are a glutton for punishment. I was, but at least I made enough to retire early.

Leothebear
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278246

Postby Leothebear » January 17th, 2020, 8:04 pm

My first job, in IT for an insurance company had several good perks:

Subsidised mortgage
Subsidised lunches, free tea and coffee at specified times
Subsidised sports and social clubs
Subsidised accommodation to ease new staff into an expensive location

All have now gone.

Companies are like sheep. They all started reducing perks, introduced outsourcing, tried to move to cheaper PC solutions (that failed abysmally) in order to economise. Mostly they failed to deliver.

The company I joined was at the time a blue chip stock. A safe and prosperous place to invest. Bit of an overgrown cowboy outfit today.

sg31
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278264

Postby sg31 » January 17th, 2020, 9:28 pm

Leothebear wrote:My first job, in IT for an insurance company had several good perks:

Subsidised mortgage
Subsidised lunches, free tea and coffee at specified times
Subsidised sports and social clubs
Subsidised accommodation to ease new staff into an expensive location

All have now gone.

Companies are like sheep. They all started reducing perks, introduced outsourcing, tried to move to cheaper PC solutions (that failed abysmally) in order to economise. Mostly they failed to deliver.

The company I joined was at the time a blue chip stock. A safe and prosperous place to invest. Bit of an overgrown cowboy outfit today.


I wonder if it's the same one I worked for. Now part of Aviva.

airbus330
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278320

Postby airbus330 » January 18th, 2020, 9:28 am

bungeejumper wrote:
airbus330 wrote:Having read this thread I'm feeling as though I have been pampered a bit through my career. I worked for a major, now defunct, holiday company and had a decent DC pension (18% company contr.), life insurance, premium health insurance, Heath Income Protection until retirement age, free Uniform, parking, annual medical, Union agreed high standards for travel and accommodation(latterly cut back), 75% discount on 2 holidays a year (slashed back latterly to a limited discount), access to industry discounted airfares and a generous relocation package which I used once, SAYE and BAYE share schemes and an Executive Share scheme which was a bit of a damp squib.

You can go off people, you know. :evil:

Jealous, moi?

BJ


I agree, when written down it glares generosity or excess at you. However, by comparison with the perks enjoyed in the 1970'/80's, these were modest. To answer the OP's point on what was cut though, all of it over my 20yr service! A constant battle with management to stop erosion every year. It turned a Thatcherite into a Union Rep. as only through collective bargaining can you put up a decent defense. The biggest loss was a Final Salary Pension with a retirement age of 55. Then 60, then no Final Salary, then 65. The most insidious cut was B scale wages for new recruits, which was a bitter pill to swallow. There is certainly still good money to be made in aviation, but the fringe benefits have been largely lost across the board. I'm currently looking at a job which is 2/3rds my previous salary and no benefits at all. That's progress :lol:

UncleEbenezer
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278328

Postby UncleEbenezer » January 18th, 2020, 10:18 am

airbus330 wrote:the perks enjoyed in the 1970'/80's,

Is it possible some of those perks (whatever their manifestation) were a tax wheeze? And fell by the wayside when tax rates came down and the tax net was expanded to catch many such wheezes?
This thread had reminded me of luncheon vouchers in my first job back in the '80s.

airbus330
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278332

Postby airbus330 » January 18th, 2020, 10:36 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:
airbus330 wrote:the perks enjoyed in the 1970'/80's,

Is it possible some of those perks (whatever their manifestation) were a tax wheeze? And fell by the wayside when tax rates came down and the tax net was expanded to catch many such wheezes?
This thread had reminded me of luncheon vouchers in my first job back in the '80s.


Yes, I agree. When I left school in '77 very many jobs included a company car whether it was needed or not, that perk has virtually been eradicated. In my case, HMRC made multiple attacks on money that we were paid for overnight expenses, to the extent that we were about to undergo another HMRC review with the objective of making all subsistence payments taxable. There was definitely an airline industry wide push by HMRC to tax anything that could be construed loosely as a benefit. One of my colleagues pursued HMRC all the way to the Law Lords over a similar issues about 15 years ago, he won the battle, but lost the war as that lost court case was the start of HMRC taking a very detailed look at our industry. Personally, I never felt overtaxed, although some of my very high earning colleagues disagree, but I always disliked the complicated and often arbitrary nature of HMRC interpretation and enforcement of the tax laws. Sorry, thread drift.

Howard
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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278338

Postby Howard » January 18th, 2020, 10:58 am

airbus330 wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:
airbus330 wrote:the perks enjoyed in the 1970'/80's,

Is it possible some of those perks (whatever their manifestation) were a tax wheeze? And fell by the wayside when tax rates came down and the tax net was expanded to catch many such wheezes?
This thread had reminded me of luncheon vouchers in my first job back in the '80s.


Yes, I agree. When I left school in '77 very many jobs included a company car whether it was needed or not, that perk has virtually been eradicated. In my case, HMRC made multiple attacks on money that we were paid for overnight expenses, to the extent that we were about to undergo another HMRC review with the objective of making all subsistence payments taxable. There was definitely an airline industry wide push by HMRC to tax anything that could be construed loosely as a benefit. One of my colleagues pursued HMRC all the way to the Law Lords over a similar issues about 15 years ago, he won the battle, but lost the war as that lost court case was the start of HMRC taking a very detailed look at our industry. Personally, I never felt overtaxed, although some of my very high earning colleagues disagree, but I always disliked the complicated and often arbitrary nature of HMRC interpretation and enforcement of the tax laws. Sorry, thread drift.


You have reminded me of a wonderful perk I received in, I think, September 1976. I was given a Mark IV Cortina Estate as a company car on the day this model was launched by Ford. I picked it up in the Midlands and drove it (slowly - carefully running it in) up the motorways back home to the North East. I have never owned a car since which received so many admiring glances. It seemed to me that every sales rep and sales manager slowed down beside me and admired the new shape for the most popular company car at the time.

Unbelievably, the manufacturing company who employed me negotiated a deal with the local tax office that allowed them to pay all our petrol expenses, leisure and business, tax free. This even extended to paying for our holiday fuel when we drove to the South of France for our holidays! Not very environmentally friendly. How times have changed.

regards

Howard

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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278348

Postby Alaric » January 18th, 2020, 11:37 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:Is it possible some of those perks (whatever their manifestation) were a tax wheeze? And fell by the wayside when tax rates came down and the tax net was expanded to catch many such wheezes?


That's very likely. Another effect was that increases in salaries and wages were periodically controlled as a matter of Government policy, alongside price controls. You could however get round this with spurious promotions and extensions of benefits. Supplying company cars to those with no business need of one was a manifestation of this.

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Re: The Perks of the Job

#278372

Postby sunnyjoe » January 18th, 2020, 2:27 pm

I have the opportunity to enjoy salary sacrifice agreements for various purchases and services. I intend to take advantage of this to get an electric vehicle. As Benefit In Kind tax for EVs drops to 0% in the next tax year I could get lease on a Jaguar I-Pace (~£70k new) for less than the lease of a Jaguar XF (~£45k new)


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