The Goodbye Massage
Posted on December 11th, 2008 – 12:03 PMBy May Chen
Despite the doom and gloom in the newspaper industry, we’ve still managed to retain a few perks at work. A decent fitness center with lunch-hour yoga and spinning classes. A locker room with only slightly icky showers. Subsidized parking.
And through it all, there’s been Emily, who came in once every two weeks to pamper us with back and shoulder massages. She’d set up her massage table in an empty conference room, dim the lights and was open for business. $17 bought us 15 minutes of bliss. An escape from the stress of work. Respite for arms and shoulders abused by hours everyday pounding on a keyboard. The greedy ones amongst us (yes, me) sometimes booked two sessions.
But now Emily’s gone.
Emily’s departure wasn’t the result of corporate downsizing. She simply found another gig - doing massages at a chiropractor’s near her home in River Falls. For her, it was a (much) shorter commute and sure-fire business, unlike the sometime unpredictable appointments at the Star Tribune.
And Kay and I are bereft.
For Emily wasn’t just a pair of magic hands. She was a fount of knowledge and a source of ideas for this blog.
There was her water birth post. Her lesson on bedtime affirmations (It works!).
“What will we do without Emily?” Kay wailed. “She’s our sage.”
Emily, we already miss you.
What are your perks at work? What would you like to have? What have you lost in these grim times?
12 Responses to "The Goodbye Massage"
We lost donuts (oh darn) and holiday parties (eh?). However, bonsues weren’t as bad as they had made it out to be, so I am taking some of the money and adopting another family from. St. Anne’s place.
[…] Cribsheet – […]
I’m jealous that you had Emily. I’ve always thought that a masseuse would be a great perk (and maybe a shrink, but that’s a whole different issue). It doesn’t have to cost the company anything if we pay our own way. If only…..
Not a an answer to your question but I gave myself an early Christmas present and am getting a massage this Saturday. I figure it’ll get me through the season…
You know, having a masseuse come in would actually be a nice present to give to co-workers. I’ll have to think about it…
We have the best pregnancy perk! I work in an office building in Plymouth. We all park outside, except for the execs who gets spots in the basement garage. Once a pregnant woman reaches her 3rd trimester, one of the VPs gives up their parking spot and we get the garage. This morning, at 36 weeks pregnant and 0 degeres outside, it feels awfully nice!
Read this and weep:
I’ve always been amazed by the perks of working for Google. Like the meals. Have you seen their cafeterias? Sadly, I’m probably only qualified to clean the bathrooms, so no Google Employment in my future.
Barb, that is an awesome pregnancy perk, and shows some real thoughfulness on the part of upper management!
Today’s perk is that as the only woman in the company, I get left behind at lunch alot. The boss feels bad, so when they get back, I get to go home! I’m looking forward to sneaking in some Christmas shopping before I pick the boys up from daycare this afternoon. Now, does anyone know what to get my husband, since I don’t?
Doesn’t Matt work for Yahoo? I wonder how the perks are there.
If it makes you all feel better, people at Google don’t earn as much as they would if they worked at other companies and they work crazy hours. 4 of my friends have quit in recent years because of the lifestyle expected. But their offices sure are pretty…
Barb, your perk sounds awesome. Our only perk is “pop and corn Friday” where on Friday afternoons we get all the popcorn and cokes we can consume. One of our clients is a big food retailer so we get a budget to buy food there for our corporate events.
Nasty coffee in the break room?
It’d be awesome to have an onsite daycare. Then when I’m waiting for a 3-hour incubation, I could go down and see DD.
Onsite daycare….sigh….the holy grail. Everytime I drive past Best Buy corporate headquarters and see their daycare I think how lucky they are.
Sherry, how was the massage:)?
