“Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me banana.” Good luck getting that song out of your head now.
Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to work at Amazon? Today’s (5/23/17) Wall Street Journal had an article about how Amazon has two banana stands on campus and they give the fruit away for free every day. I’d link to the story, but you have to be a subscriber and I’m old school having read this in the actual newspaper format spread out on my desk (newspaper isn’t dead!).
Amongst the highlights are the banistas, the bananager and the irony of the shortage of bananas at grocers and restaurants near Amazon while also having the abundance of the free Amazon bananas and/or the peels left behind in these same areas. Beneficiaries are passively suggested to take just one banana, but many people take more, including some ‘runners’ for hungry officemates that may or may not be known for making delicious banana bread.
Our perks at Explore Communications are pretty good despite our lack of a banana stand. We take off early on Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day, have a culture of organizational democracy, close down between Xmas and New Year’s and participate in numerous group activities and adventures ranging from renting a house on the coast of La Jolla to attending a Rockies game to an afternoon at Top Golf.
There are more perks here at Explore, but none include free bananas. Being on the media side of the advertising industry, we get called on by vendors locally and nationally representing TV stations, magazines, websites, OOH companies, newspapers (I swear they aren’t dead), radio stations, rep firms and anything else you can think of that might have an advertising opportunity. These vendors like to feed us at meetings. It doesn’t matter if its 9am or 4pm – they tend to bring consumables (haha, no Colorado weed jokes please).
The thing is, we are an office of eight people. These vendors tend to bring snacks for twenty. Sometimes that is super beneficial (peanut butter cups) and other times it is wasteful. How many veggies and dip can we possibly consume in a day or two?
I like the idea of Amazon giving away free healthy snacks. Although I’m sure after working there for any significant amount of time, there is a growing group of banana haters in Seattle. Maybe they need to change it up. What does your company do for perks that is similar to the banana stand?
“Daylight come and he won’ go home.”