Here’s today’s installment:
Today’s Task: Find out what your employment benefits are.
Most prospective employees often ask about the benefits before they accept a job offer. Not everyone knows the exact details of their employee benefits, however, so you may be overlooking something. It’s best to find out the exact benefits you’re entitled to. Here are some that you might already have:
- Overtime pay
- 13th month pay
- Food, clothing, and transportation allowances
- Medical and dental plans
- Expense accounts
- Allotted rest days
- Paid vacation leave and sick leave
- Lower interest rates on certain loans
- Any product discounts/freebies from the company or its affiliates (such as gym memberships, etc.)
Also, check this list of mandatory employee benefits in the Philippines and see if your employer covers them all.
Apart from the benefits themselves, find out if any relatives or other dependents are covered for some of them. This is usually true of medical benefits.
So that’s our task for today. Find out your exact employee benefits and write them down. That’s the only way you can maximize them.
(Since I’m self-employed this doesn’t really apply to me, but for some of my contracts I’m allowed to get reimbursements for any extra expenses I incur that’s related to my work. So I suppose my task is to find out the exact amount and what types of expenses are covered.)
Actually this is the selling point of a company I know which they tell prospective employees. They always say that because of their employment package, it is okay for new hires to take a pay-cut, which I believe is crazy.
Personally, I would quantify everything by listing down the amount of cash that I can really take home. Benefits are okay as long as they are tangible benefits. Am I making sense?
>Am I making sense?
That makes perfect sense, especially if you take into account any incurred savings from the company’s medical plans. On the same vein, if there are many benefits that you don’t take advantage of or that aren’t really worth it, then you’re really getting almost nothing.
But three are also non-tangible benefits such as time (from paid leaves), which you can use to create tangible benefits for yourself. I have friend who started her internet business during a paid leave, and when she was earning enough for that she left her regular job. Benefits like that can be more practical or useful than they seem if we’re creative enough.
Thanks Celine! What a coincidence, I am doing something similar to what your friend did.
Good luck with that Jay
I think many people are trying it now compared to when I was starting out 5 years ago. Many Filipinos are becoming aware of the internet as an additional source of income, especially for service providers such as writers, virtual assistants, and designers. I hope the trend continues because it’s much cheaper and more practical than being an OFW.