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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
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.
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…
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.
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.
My last job had a pingpong table. We’d even use it occasionally. That is, until people started getting pissy when they’d see us playing pingpong. Then management started bitching that we were playing pingpong instead of working. Eventually, nobody was allowed to use the pingpong table - it just sat there, in the middle of the room, with brand new paddles and packs of balls that we weren’t allowed to use.
The money was okay - not great, but not terrible. After some management fuckery, I left for a $10000/yr raise and 100% work from home. I’ve gone up $20K since then, been promoted to senior, still have upward trajectory, and still work 100% from home. I have a desk in Memphis somewhere, but I’ve never actually seen it.
My employer really covered their bases. We have ping-pong, pool, and foosball. That guarantees that everyone has something that will keep them from quitting.
I wanted a foosball table dammit!
Dammit, you beat me to it!
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I was at my last job for 10 years.
If I had been well paid and treated well I would not have ever started that job search. Further even just having one of those two thing might have kept me from looking.
At that job I hit the tipping point of both. It’s was getting shittier everyday and the pay wasn’t budging year after year. Finally mid-Covid the power flipped to the employee and jobs were much easier to get. I started looking and jumped shipped.
It’s not ever not about the money around 0% of the times.
Eh. Toxic work culture can drive people away regardless of the pay. Obviously some people suck it up but not everyone. Ultimately the goal is to treat employees well all around. Good pay, benefits, and work culture will keep people happy.
A company offered me a million dollars to work for them, but then I remembered the ping pong table at my current employer and said no way. Totally worth it.
Money can’t buy what a ping pong table brings.
Yeah, often when an employee leaves it’s about the lack of ping-pong table.
“Yes, boss, I’m leaving because I’m tired of playing ping-pong on unoccupied morgue tables, you really should’ve bought a proper ping pong table instead”
Ping Pong table ? Are they serious ?!? We had a PS5 in the meeting room for ~4 month an no one ever touched it. I don’t go to work to have a fun time, I go to do my job, then leave and have a fun somewhere else. More correct answers for retaining employees:
- give them tasks they are interested in
- give them perspective for developement (promotions, raise, mobility, etc)
- value their contributions and support them moraly (you want to know your managers and colleages got your back)
- of course more money ! Or alternatively more freetime !
Absolutely correct. I always wonder when I see such reports where HR comes up with their completely stupid notion that work is not about earning money.
Well, it’s not just the money obviously, but a lot of HR takes that to the convenient extreme that “the money doesn’t matter”.
It also changes based on the compensation amount. Someone making $300k/year may feel less obsessed with a raise versus someone making $50k/year.
Someone making $300k/year may feel less obsessed with a raise versus someone making $50k/year.
I would not bet a penny on this…
While everyone wants more money, from what I’ve seen, higher paid people get more petty about non-cash stuff. So the person making not quite enough to cover them confidently may not have the attention to spare for non-cash BS. Then as they get their money comfortable, they then start getting swayed by other things. An important sounding title, having a seat with a view in the office, having their name appear in recognition announcements. Not so sure about this froofy stuff like ping pong tables, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone value that, however I’d imagine if candidates see people using such benefits that may give an impression of significant leisure time, which may be appealing, but a disused table would probably look worse than having no table at all.
Incorrect right answer a air hockey table you don’t want money you want to play the Foosball
Yes! My thoghts exactly! I am an addict to foosball. Anything to enable my adiction is worth it! I have 3 tables at home already (all Mimic free) and am able to play 2 games at the same time. /s
Foosball is a four person game I’ll die on that hill. And not even because I suck at defence (as such, I do plenty of that mid-field and forward) but because the game isn’t about frantically grabbing handles. So yes air hockey is an excellent addition.
Air hockey is so fun even if I’m terrible at it
Air hockey is so fun even if I’m terrible at it
Profit sharing can be one hell of an incentive to retain and motivate employees.
One of my previous jobs had an employee exercise room. Some people used it and management didn’t like that so they said we’re not allowed to use it during our shift and only after hours. It was a government position so we weren’t allowed to be in the building before or after our shift.
These places only use them to advertise to new employees how “friendly” they are.
More correct answers for retaining employees:
- Have managers that aren’t oblivious idiots
- Have even higher-ups that aren’t oblivious idiots
- Don’t treat employees like easily replaceable money-eating parasites
I’ve never left a company because of money. I have left because the bullshit they put me through wasn’t worth the money. That’s not just being funny either. I’m okay with being under-compensated if the environment is positive, managers are friendly and flexible, and it actually feels like our sister teams have similar goals and we’re not working against each other.
I agree with this, with a caveat. I’m ok with being underpaid compared to industry standard, to a certain extent. However, I’m not ok with being underpaid compared to other colleagues doing similar work for the same employer.
Totally agreed , in my previous company I had a very good supportive team , remote work and everything , but I was vastly underpaid !
I agree with this, with a caveat. I’m ok with being underpaid compared to industry standard, to a certain extent. However, I’m not ok with being underpaid compared to other colleagues doing similar work for the same employer.
I love that in theory,
There are so many systems/programs/policies that promise to do that verry thing that I wonder if their trying to pretend to improve rather than actually doing so. It doesnt work, just be a miserable failure of a cult.
genuine compassion is possable, you just gotta wade through the BS others are trying to sell your employer.
There is a bit of truth here. Toxic culture and out of touch management will make people walk as well.
Thing is, there might just be a wad of cash big enough to make me put up with that against my health interests.
Fuck ping pong tables though. No one left a company because they didn’t have enough fucking table sports. If you think they are then you are the problem. Exit interview your own fucking arse.
yeah, the "not necessarily pay is accurate, but the “right” answer being ping-pong table pivots things from “ok, they have some understanding” to “incredibly tone deaf”.
This is what I came to say. Good management will make people stay for a long time with less pay.
But obviously HR doesn’t get that lmao.
I mean not enough ping-pong tables could be reason to leave for a PE teacher or something
“Man, my job pays horribly and the benefits barely cover anything, but they have a ping-pong table so it’s honestly a tough call.”
I struggle to understand how someone could seriously write something like that question without a lack of self-awareness so dire that a walk to the kitchen would come with a near-death experience. It just can’t be real.
One of the best bosses I ever had once told me that people will stay for the culture but leave for money. His philosophy was to try and ensure that money was not a factor in people’s decision, then build as good a culture as he could.
And to be clear, by making money not a factor, I mean he paid well.
I had a meeting years ago with my company’s CTO about my salary. He kicked off the meeting by saying “you care a lot more about what you make than I do” which prompted me to ask for 50% more than I had been planning to ask for. He agreed to it without argument. TBF he was a coke addict married to the daughter of the company’s owner and within six months he’d been divorced and fired, but I got to keep my salary.
Was his name Keith?
Phillip. Of course, we knew him better by the name his eventually ex-wife gave him on Facebook: “Ol’ Three Inches Two Minutes”.
That was beautifully put.
How many of these companies think employees are going to say it’s about the money during an exit interview? Usually if you agree to an exit interview it’s to be diplomatic and not burn your bridges. You’re not going to tell the truth, you’re going to say what they want to hear.
I was abundantly clear that I was leaving for the money. They countered with a salary that was pretty much identical, but I wasn’t shy about telling hr that it shouldn’t take me getting another offer to convince them that I was worth paying market rates for.
No bridges burned, they’ve reached out twice now to see if I’d come back and the salary is now pretty competitive but I’m in a good spot and not interested in leaving.
You can be honest and diplomatic…if you try.
So what you’re saying is that your reason for leaving wasn’t about the money
It was specifically about the money. Please don’t be one of those people so ignorant as to believe that a firm who doesn’t value their employees until they’re one foot out the door is somewhere that will pay you what you’re worth in the long run. Being competitive now doesn’t mean I’d be making more money, it just means they’re now in the range for my position.
Money isn’t only valuable in this instant, the availability of money in the future is also an important factor.
I always have. If that’s the reason, why wouldn’t you? It’s just business. Once, they’ve offered me a potentential promotion or salary increase to try to retain me (but not nearly as much as I got from the new job). I doubled my salary and got my title promoted twice in 2 years by switching employers twice. If I keep it up I’ll be a CEO in no-time, lol.
perfectly maps to startups selling working at a startup as “we’re a family”, “you’re a googler”, etc. give them a ping pong table and free beer on fridays and you can pay considerably less.
If they’re anything like my relatives, I absolutely DON’T want to be treated like family…
Thought you were going to launch into a family tragedy involving ping pong and beer. Carry on.
They said employee, not wage slave
Does HR even know the difference ?
“Usually, in our narrow and sad description of what an employee wants, it’s not money. Clearly it’s more related to the lack of ping-pong tables and extra responsibilities.” 🤡
These people have absolutely forgotten what it means to be an employee.
Born rich they were never an employee
I started out with millions of dollars and look at me now. I’ve pulled myself by my boots straps I have. Read my book, it’s it’s called “How To Get Rich And Be A Pretentious Dipshit”. It is self-published and available on my website. At me on LinkedIn
I’m a multi millionaire how did I do it easy started out born into a billionaire family
I’m a multi millionaire how did I do it easy started out born into a billionaire family
Of course, nobody with two brain cells to rub together who reads that answer is sitting there thinking to themselves, “Huh… I guess I’ve had it wrong all this time, focusing so much on money.” Rather, they’re instinctively blurting out, “Yeah right – I call bull!”
But I’ll give them partial credit; frequently it’s about money. Sometimes, it’s just about a work environment that used to be great going to crap. And sometimes, it’s about the employee coming to an epiphany, and realizing that their work environment was actually crap all along.
That said, it may be true that not every job that I’ve ditched was entirely because of money… but it should go without saying that it’s always a factor in where I went for the next job. Also, it’s never the only factor – but it’s certainly one of the more significant ones.
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It’s a really interesting question, which would I prefer? A ping pong table at work or more money which I could use to buy a ping pong table at home.
Or food, whatever.
I actually convinced my boss to get us a ping pong table, all I had to do was forego my pay for a year!
Totally worth, since I’m not working for the money, I’m working for the culture (our culture is now a ping pong table). It’s so awesome that I can use it during my state-mandated breaks 🙂
state-mandated breaks 🙂
Looks like someone doesn’t do construction work in Texas.
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?
As a person with enough money, yes, I would love double my income.
Most people quit because of bad bosses. I know I have…
