10 Google Employee Perks to Save Money and Take More Vacations

Taking more vacation time off from work means using your paid vacation days plus taking advantage of employee perks. What employee perks am I talking about? Buzzfeed lists 20 companies around the U.S. with amazing perks.

This blog post uses Google Inc. as an example since they are well-known to offer a very generous benefits package. Don’t despair if you don’t work for Google.  You probably have at least a couple of these perks at your company, so here’s how to turn them into more vacations.

1. Free Coffee

I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to spending money on coffee out. All the familiar and trendy coffee shops around town are too enticing, especially first thing in the morning when I really need a cup.

Think about taking advantage of the free or cheap coffee provided at work.  Every time you skip buying coffee is a step closer to your vacation savings goals. We all deserve a treat during the work week, but if you give up your daily coffee expense your savings will grow quickly.

For example here is coffee math for working at Google NYC where Google bought a massive office building in Chelsea. This assumes you buy coffee out five days per week and have 10 holidays and 3 weeks of vacation per year.

• Cappuccino at hipster coffee shop: $4 = Annual cost of $940
• Drip coffee at the self-service deli: $2 = Annual cost of $470

Now if you buy a donut, muffin, or scone with that coffee, the cost goes even higher. The takeaway is to avoid take away coffee when you have free or cheap coffee brewing at the office.  Use that money to increase your vacation budget each week.

2. Free Lunch

OK, free lunch is not a perk many employers offer. However if you are lucky enough to get free or more likely subsidized lunch at the office, turn those savings into vacation money. Think about how much time you spend making and packing lunch for work. Don’t forget to include supermarket shopping time plus waiting in line to pay. Going out for lunch can be an even more expensive habit.

To be real, eating at your own office won’t be as awesome as at the numerous Google HQ cafes. The goal of eating at the office is to have more free time during the workweek and contribute more to your vacation savings account.

Track that time you are no longer spending preparing lunches and re-purpose it as vacation time.  Use it for a stroll in the park, planning an actual trip, or spending more time with family and friends.  Take the money you would have spent on eating out and set up a recurring transfer from your checking account to your online savings account.

3. The Google Shuttle Bus

Who doesn’t love a free ride to work? Employees all across the San Francisco Bay Area can avail of a shuttle bus that goes to their Mountain View headquarters (plus Sunnyvale and San Bruno). I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the ongoing controversy regarding rising housing costs and gentrification in the city of San Francisco. I hope they work together to find a solution which benefits all residents of what is one of the best cities in the world to live in; if only it were more affordable to do so.

What are the pros of free transportation to the office? You can work on the bus to get a jump start on your day and make it more likely you’ll leave work on time. Take advantage of this not-behind-the-wheel time for personal fulfillment like reading, planning travel, or connecting on social media. The money you would have spent on gas and tolls can now be rolled into your vacation fund. Finally to reduce housing costs, you can live farther away in a less expensive area if you are willing to put up with the shuttle bus commute every day.

Hardly anyone can live within walking distance to work. So it is nice to know that many companies are helping the environment by getting cars off the road while delivering their employees safety to work and back home.

4. Travel Insurance and Emergency Assistance

Does your benefit package include travel insurance that can be used for both work and personal trips? Google and many other top employers offer travel evacuation insurance as part of their package of health benefits. If you fall ill while traveling anywhere in the world, this type of coverage will make sure you are transported to a medical facility and home for care and recovery.

If a company provides high-quality health insurance to its staff, adding travel medical coverage along with an emergency evacuation plan makes financial sense. This perk can lead to fewer sick days taken since employees will get the necessary care abroad and be back home as quickly as possible if something should happen.

For those of you that do not have travel medical insurance, it can be purchased for a very reasonable annual cost. I highly recommend it if you take at least one major vacation to a foreign country every year. Don’t confuse this with trip cancellation insurance which is about reimbursing you for pre-paid travel expenses if your plans change. That is typically much more expensive and not as essential for your health and wellness while on vacation.

VacationCounts recommends the well-established international travel medical insurance providers Allianz as well as TravelGuard for global coverage. Or you can search them all and compare via InsureMyTrip.

5. Retirement Savings Match

Finally, an employee perk that you are likely to have in your HR benefits package! Around 80% of full-time employees in the U.S. have access to a 401K retirement savings plan. According to this data, a majority match employee contributions with tax-free employer dollars up to a certain limit. So for example if you contribute 10% of your salary each pay period, your employer may chip-in an additional 5%. With this example for every $100 you contribute, you receive a bonus $50 thrown into the retirement bucket. Make sure to read your HR handbook as 401K matching can come with rules that limit investments or require vesting periods.

By contributing enough of your own money to the 401K plan to get the maximum employer match, you’ll be taking full advantage of this employee perk. Think about the match portion as funds that you would have saved yourself anyway. However instead of having to wait until you reach retirement age, you can spend that percentage on something else.

My suggestion is to decide how much of your company match do you feel comfortable pulling from your paycheck and putting to vacation use. Deposit this fixed amount into your vacation savings account each month. So if you are entitled to a match of $100 each paycheck, consider saving $20 of your own money towards a vacation.  Do remember that your 401K savings will be locked up until you are 65 or older.

6. International Assignments

An entire blog post could be written on the subject of how to get sent on an international assignment and fortunately we wrote about it here on VacationCounts awhile back. Google, like many other global corporations, has offices around the world in what seems like every major city. So what if you live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but want to work in Singapore or London someday? The first step is to scan the job postings for those cities to find out what kind of work happens around the globe. When you are qualified for a similar job in an office overseas, you are in the best position to sell your employer on the idea of a job transfer. Be aware that international assignments are likely to be high in demand and may require knowledge of a foreign language.

Regardless of who you work for when you are interested in an expat assignment, make your interest known. Even after proving that you are the right person for an overseas job assignment, it may require a bit of luck in terms of timing and open positions. Work towards this goal like you would a promotion. So take a look at your internal job board to plan your strategy for making an international assignment a reality.

7. Learning Programs

Today’s job market means that we must always be learning to move up in our own line of work or find a job when times are tough. Smart companies support their employees when they put in the time to acquire new skills. It helps people become more productive in their own job and more likely to stay as promotions are handed out. Does your company cover part of the cost of taking courses at a local college or business school?

When your employer doesn’t have a formal education reimbursement program, ask your manager for individual approval. Check around for local or online college courses to study a foreign language, international business, global team management, or project management. Acquiring new skills can lead to a promotion which might come with a greater number of vacation days in addition to the travel opportunities (see How to Turn a Business Trip into a Weekend Getaway). If you can prove the performance benefit and long-term commitment to your employer, you are ready to negotiate for this perk.

When evaluating coursework options, consider learning a new language.  It will help you better communicate with staff around the world and can lead to work trips to international offices and conferences. Who knows, it might be your ticket to an all-expenses paid international assignment!

In the meantime, consider learning a language yourself with the help of Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, or Michel Thomas available via Amazon. I’ve successfully tried all three methods as well as taken beginner courses in German, French, Chinese, and Japanese at local institutions. Your choice of classroom, website, or audio CDs depends on your style of learning so give them a try before you decide.

8. On-site Gym and Wellness

Exercising is an important part of our long-term health, so why not do it while at work? Joining a gym costs money plus you’ll have to travel to and from their facility. It is surprising how few companies offer an on-site gym plus wellness activities such as yoga and massage. Various forms of exercise improve our health and fitness while reducing stress – the kind of stress likely brought about by excessive workloads. As with every employee perk that Google offers, there is a clear business justification too. They’ll save money on health insurance and employees will be less likely to require a sick day when they are energized and fit.

From a vacation perspective better fitness can give you the stamina, flexibility, and strength to take on any type of travel and adventure challenge. If all goes well, you’ll never feel too old to continue traveling and conquering nature’s wonders.

A place to exercise at your place of employment will make it that much more likely you’ll actually do a workout before, during, or after the work day. When your office is too small to justify a fitness center on-site, ask your employer to contribute toward gym membership as a way to help lower health insurance costs and reduce sick day usage.

9. Employee Discounts

Local retail businesses often give discounts to the big employers in their area. It is an excellent promotional tool since the discount feels like an employee perk. The key is to remember to use them before they expire. I often forget about employee discounts until it is too late but I don’t want to miss out on specials at local restaurants, vacation rental memberships, or family ticket packages to theme parks.

To remember not to forget, track all your employee discounts in a document or spreadsheet. Flag the ones that you are likely to use or sort them in priority order. Set a calendar reminder if a deal is time sensitive and can be used in conjunction with an upcoming vacation.

Saving money on everyday expenses means that you’ll have more money to spend going on vacation. Plus these employee discount offers often involve travel and leisure activities, stretching your vacation dollar even further.

10. Google Apps Expertise

Employees at Google are surrounded by online apps and productivity tools. They quickly become experts in using Google to get things done. Time management and productivity is one more way to improve your work-life-vacation balance. Leverage free cloud software such as Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs & Sheets, Google Drive, Voice, and Keep to get more done and maximize your time off.

Fortunately for all of us that do not work for Google, these same apps are available for free on desktop and mobile. So you can be an expert in Google Apps at home as well as at the office. Every one of these online applications are built with speed and user-friendliness in mind. Their world-class engineers and designers are constantly enhancing the features to save their employees and us in the process, time and money.

Want to track your vacation savings and plan that next trip? Use Google cloud software to share your vacation documents with your entire family or travel partners to collaborate on where to go and what to do on vacation. Hold a video chat “Hangout” with your travel buddies and edit your vacation itinerary together in real-time. Store all your travel documents securely in Drive for access on the road. Post your photos in a travel blog to share your experience ad advice on the free Google Blogger platform.

Of course you don’t need to be a Google employee to take advance of this “perk.” Just start using G Suite as a paying customer to bring your time management tools for work to your home computer.

GSuite – Apps for Work – is the corporate solution that Google offers so take this suggestion to your IT team (unless you are the boss). Deploy GSuite at your office by licensing accounts every employees. The professional version provides much more storage and improved sharing, security, and customer support.

VacationCounts Summary

Compare your list of benefits with the Life at Google Benefits page to make a list of what you are missing out on. Talk to your colleagues about the best way to ask your employer for the perks that will have the greatest impact on productivity and work-life balance. While Google is ranked #1 for the top companies for compensation and benefits (Glassdoor study), they are sorely missing from the list of the top 25 companies for work-life balance.

So should you switch jobs to gain the type of employee benefits that lead to more time off from work or should you work for the company that takes work-life balance seriously? Can you have both in one employer? For career inspiration read about these Silicon Valley companies which offer the “coolest perks” including unlimited vacation time (it does exist!).

Add your comments below as to how your company ranks for vacation perks and work-life balance. Where should VacationCounts readers apply for their next job so they can enjoy more time off from work to live life to the fullest?