The paycheck is the baseline, a given when it comes to performing labor in this context. Perks of working in a given location are the carrots above and beyond the standard baseline of “I work, you pay me”.
That’s true. That’s why I literally just quit my senior technical leadership megacorp job that was now requiring me to come in 5 days a week even though I work with no one locally. So, I found a job that paid better and was more interesting and was willing to value my abilities over control of my corporeal being. The attitude that money can buy everything will lead these companies to be structurally uncompetitive.
I see the folks who seem to revel in these policies around me, they are precisely the people who go to work to act on a stage. I’m here to build things the world has never seen and make it a commercial success. I guess you get what you pay for with your carrots?
Giving people food is like the oldest trick for engendering loyalty in the book. It is cheap, but feels personal. “There’s no such thing as free lunch” is a two-way street.
Plus, if you don’t have food on campus, your engineers might go out to lunch, which always takes much longer. Add to that, since they are going out anyway they might go around the cubes and grab their friends for a group lunch trip (might as well carpool if you are leaving campus, right?), so hopefully nobody needs a disruption free stint of work between like 11:00 and 1:00.
Sure, the paycheck helps, it is just the most expensive way to buy somebody’s attention.
I mean, I could - and once again, I am reminded of the fact that I get to sit in front of a laptop instead of doing hard physical labor that I can literally see construction workers doing down the street.
But I can get a paycheck elsewhere, without the company suddenly doing a 180 on me with regard to my other benefits!
This is what people always forget about work relationships. You need it for money. But if the employer doesn't also need it for money ... you don't have a job!
So you are almost always in a situation that your employer needs you more than you need your employer.
If the employee is getting paid the same amount, and can get paid a similar amount for a different company without going to the office, it's not a carrot.
As opposed to a hyper competitive market where the worker is replaceable due to the market OR a market where there is literally little to no high paying jobs available, even for qualified applicants.
No, my paycheck is why I show up at all, it's table stakes. Carrots are things that show I'm appreciated, and the bare fucking minimum to keep me there isn't a show of appreciation.
I get paid to work, I'm not there because I fundamentally care about the organization or what it does. If you want to motivate me to do more than the bare minimum, please do so through motivating me, not by telling me I should be grateful to work for you.
And, yes, I'm entitled to be treated well, just like everyone else.