JONTILLMAN.COM | part of the problem since 1976

There has been, since the mid 90’s, a trend towards companies offering more and more on-site amenities. From day care to car washing, coffee bars to game rooms and massage therapists, companies, especially IT firms, are falling all over themselves to provide these types of things “to attract the best talent”.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why companies jumped on this idea so quickly, went along so willingly? There were no editorials about how the “casualization” of American workplaces was a recipe for laziness as there was when, horror of horrors, men became able to dress themselves and stopped relying on the suit as uniform avoidance of fashion. Why is that?

Some people would have you believe that it is a sign of a shift in priorities, evidence that companies are finally waking up to the realities of “work/life” balance and doing what they can to create “accomodating” work spaces. I think that is bullshit, probably originating from some IT firm’s ministry of propaganda public relations department.

The real reason that “new economy” firms are offering all of these seemingly lavish “perks”, and the reason that the idea is making inroads into mainstream, conservative businesses, is that these types of “amenities” send a subtle message to all the employees: no need to go home, we have everything you need right here.

By offering “lifestyle amenities” in a controlled way on-campus, so to speak, comapnies can further isolate their employees from outside social contact, which is the leading cause of not working. Far from proving that your employer values you and understands you and your complex needs, it heralds nothing more than a return to the bad old days of the company store.

By building a mediated simulacrum of a “modern” urban setting, complete with bike paths and coffee shops, employers are able to keep their employees out in the suburbs, where the corporate campuses and all the employee housing developments are, effectively insulating them from the outside, non-work world.