May I be honest? Where I work full-time, they bring in food every once in a while. Do you think they think of me? No and then they get *itchy when I say, "I don't want to participate." When I was first diagnosed, I brought my own food to these events and attitude was thrown around that the food I brought to share was bland and unacceptable.

I frankly would never work for places that offer these perks. They are probably long hours and I want the chance for exercise.

In my company, happy hours were usually organized by individuals that wanted to hang out together - I have a core group of friends that hang out together after work sometimes. Sometimes it is just us, sometimes we extend to the rest of the department but we don't care who comes or if they even drink. lol We pay for these ourselves so come if you want or don't...

A lot of the socializing and perks are just a facade of problems such as career advancement mobility. Equal opportunity and other management issues. Take Google, they have a Utopian society within but people aren't all happy with the free meals, relaxed atmosphere, etc. I've worked briefly at a huge tech firm and people are all well paid but not happy because the working pressures to conform and follow orders at the top without any push backs.

Mandatory fun is much more the norm than not. Never had a job where participation in whatever was the exec's favorite activity wasn't "required." Like one exec told us one time "your participation is strictly voluntary. Just like my appraisal of your performance is voluntary on my part."

One thing in common with many companies with large millennial population is that few rarely take long vacations. Boomers and GenXers frequently take long vacations but I noticed many millennials these days do not and often glued to their work. They make short vacation trips to some beer event or cross country quick trip and back staying at airbnb for a few nights and back. With tech, they are often connected and being too accessible and available. In my last 5 years of working on different companies, I've not met more than a handful of millennials taking more than one week of vacation.

Places that offer lots of perks (fancy food, drinks, rest-areas, video games, cushy couches, great laptops etc).....usually do so because they know you'll be working crazy hours and the distractions keep you from realizing just how much you're working.

I never cared but it's a nice thing.

Here's my experience, as a Millennial who's been in the workforce for over a decade, in a variety of office settings. Places that offer the foosball table, video game room, beer on tap, a party-like atmosphere with Nerf guns, all sold to us as being "perks" -- those places were NIGHTMARES. I just want to be left alone so I can do my job and then go home at 5.

It's much cheaper to buy bulk food and toys than to pay each employee good salary and benefits. And nowadays, it's hard to find good jobs, so the Millennials have no choice, but to accept the jobs with such things. Until they get into the workplace for a few years, and they learn the world and the tricks from all the big shots who use them, then they wake up and become smarter and will turn around, or they learn from their leaders and pass on to the next generation with some more different tricks. Life goes on and around and around.

No. Food, happy hours and perks are tricks created by the later Baby Boomers or the X generation (Baby Busters - the children of Baby Boomers). They are smart (you see most of the leaders of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram, etc… are in this X Gen). They know how to experiment and use people like Ivan Pavlov did with dogs.

I personally find the perks interesting.

I have never once seen a job posting that touted happy hours or food as benefits. I would guess you're looking in all the wrong places.

I'm going to say in my current roles and just stay until I can move. I think writing might be a side job.

No modern workplace, especially one progressive enough to offer those kinds of perks, would "force" anyone to do anything of the sort. Lots of people don't drink or have dietary restrictions or don't want to socialize at work. It would probably be a good move to go to a handful of happy hours or lunches and have a sparkling water or eat your own food for networking and team building purposes, but they can't make you. That would be an HR nightmare.