|
Benefit boomers
>>
Compare these high-tech work perks to your own office environment to determine if geeks really have inherited the earth
by SARAH MUSGRAVE and MICHAEL CITROME
We may be far from Silicon Valley, but if Montreal's high-tech offices are any indication, those in the communications and software industries are some of the most comfortable, best fed and potentially healthiest office drones in town. Salaries aside, many multimedia workers enjoy flexible hours, top-notch amenities and free cappuccino as opposed to the gut-rot coffee, beige cubicles and overactive air-conditioning so familiar to the masses of 9 to 5 goons. Some high-tech employees point out that these on-site perks may be a sinister plot to keep them at work for long hours, but the rest of us low-tech grunts can only hope we'll eventually get this kind of treatment at our own jobs.
Hutchison Avenue Software Corporation
HASC builds and manages large pieces of software for banks and brokerage firms, in particular Quicken's Quotes Live, a realtime stock market interface. The company was bought by Intuit last summer.
Recruitment slogan: "You'll never go hungry." Reps bring cookies to recruitment sessions.
Location: 1435 Bleury, suite 700. Conveniently right above Sona and across the street from the Imperial Cinema.
Number of employees: 30
Office design: Open concept in old warehouse building with lots of windows overlooking city. Homey atmosphere with Sally Ann couches and plants that are actually alive. No walls in the team area. Separate eating and lounge area, conference and machine rooms. Archaic elevator operated by a man using a tongue depressor.
Health and fitness: $100 towards membership fee at gym or fitness centre. Soccer team, outfitted in Intuit uniform, enjoys healthy rivalry with Openface employees. Several motorcycles in office.
Facilities: Fully equipped kitchen, arcade console, TV and "there's an old shower down the hall." Music and games on computers.
Food: In-house "culinary artist" prepares healthy, deluxe lunches to ensure programmers "don't overdo the pizza and soda." Cereal for breakfast, leftovers for supper. Fridge stocked with juice and soda. Drip coffee only, in keeping with "blue-collar image."
Hours: Flexible working hours: "Employees can come and go as they please," according to one of the founders. Core hours are 12-4 p.m..
Dress code: Mid-range casual, shorts and sandals, some dye jobs.
Money and extras: Full health-care coverage, bonuses and profit sharing, $3,000-$5,000 activity budget for parties and outings. Bonuses for shipping products on time, cash bonus for fulfilling job requirements. Get to play with stock market to make sure software is working.
Opportunities: Intuit will retrain for different job within company. Offices in California, Arizona, Virginia, Boston, Edmonton, Europe and Japan.
Nortel Networks - Broadband Networks campus
Spun off from Bell Canada Enterprises earlier this year, Nortel is a world leader in telephone, data, e-business and wireless solutions for the Internet.
Recruitment slogan: "At the heart of the Internet revolution."
Location: Broadband campus is in Dorval's TechnoPark, but Nortel has more employees at several offices in Montreal area.
Number of employees: 3,000
Office design: New construction with ultra-modern architecture, skylights and bright banners, 13-foot ceilings. Open-concept work spaces set up along streets that lead to grand piazza. Bright colour-coded carpets for each floor.
Health and fitness: On-site gym, fitness classes, softball field and volleyball court. "Wellness centre" designed to promote "work-life balance" includes massage, health assessments, nutrition counsellor, seminars on financial management.
Facilities: "Work city" includes bank and ATM, convenience store, shuttle between buildings, showers.
Food: Sunny cafeteria, employee kitchen called Pause Café and free coffee all the time.
Hours: Flexible work arrangements, "no 9 to 5 Dilbert cube mentality," according to a PR rep. Possibility of telecommuting, part-time or full-time, company pays cost of high-speed data connection at your home.
Dress code: Laid back, lots of shorts for men and women, jeans okay. Some insiders say, "casual to an extreme."
Money and extras: Stock options, stock purchase plan, bonuses and PRIDE point program in which points for performance can be redeemed for trips, merchandise or cash. Tuition and books reimbursed for approved classes. Customized insurance plans. Rebates for car seats, finders' fee for getting people hired.
Opportunities: Offices worldwide in Asia, Europe, Latin America, South America and U.S. Career development encouraged through Intranet job postings (37,000 internal jobs posted last year). Help with relocation.
UBI Soft
UBI Soft Entertainment is the Canadian branch of a huge worldwide software company, developing games such as Rayman for computers as well as for video-game consoles.
Recruitment slogan: "Get into the game!"
Location: 5505 St-Laurent, suite 5000, in Mile-End.
Number of employees: 400
Office design: Two floors of a large loft that once housed a textile factory. The layout is open-concept, with a few closed areas for meetings. Large windows and 150 tropical plants create a jungle atmosphere.
Health and fitness: There's no office gym, but the UBI Soft is a stone's throw away from the YMCA at Parc and St-Viateur, where many employees are members. There's also what staff refer to as the "Wednesday morning fruit ritual," wherein baskets of fruit are delivered to the office for all to partake in.
Facilities: Everyone at UBI Soft is "really into video games," so that's the main source of leisure. All the computers are high-end PCs with 21" monitors and there's a large library of video games, plus consoles ranging from Gameboy to the as-yet-unreleased-in-North America Playstation 2.
Food: Cafeteria with microwaves and vending machines, but most people get takeout and play network games.
Hours: Business hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. but people stick around as late as 10 p.m. working and playing games.
Dress code: "Jeans, anime T-shirts and green hair," says an insider. Average age is 25.
Money and extras: Stock options, full benefits after three months, and access to ongoing training.
Opportunities: Because UBI Soft has offices all over the world, employees are often sent off to far-away branch offices. Montrealers are working in Japan, China, Morocco, France, Italy and Spain, among others.
Softimage
A leader in the animation and digital video industries, Soft Image software created the digital stars of The Matrix, Star Wars: the Phantom Menace, Fight Club and Stuart Little among others. Founded by Daniel Langlois, then taken over by Microsoft, it's now owned by Avid.
Recruitment slogan: "So, you wanna become a movie star?"
Location: 3510 St-Laurent, above Restaurant Mediterraneo. "Right in the heart of trendy Montreal, there is a place where lives a legend," according to promo material.
Number of employees: 300
Office design: Unassuming lobby with demo reels, headphones and matronly receptionist. Loft windows overlook the Main. Leather couches, a few fishtanks, funky catwalk, cherry wood and steel accents. "Essence of Dilbert" in development department, glassed-in offices in other areas. "I like it because it feels more like you are in a production facility than a software company," says one insider.
Health and fitness: Salsa lessons, aerobics at lunchtime, unequipped excercise room, $200 towards gym membership.
Facilities: Bike racks, lockers, parking discounts, fully equipped kitchen with stainless-steel counters. You can bring your dog to work!
Food: Croissants on Fridays, fridges stocked with free soft drinks and juice, coffee machines and fridges on every floor. Frequent 5 à 7s organized by departments. Many restos in area.
Hours: Flexible, no meetings before 10 a.m.. More evening-oriented so as to work with other time zones.
Dress code: "Anything goes." Varies by department: software geek chic (logo-branded T-shirts, tennis shoes), Scoobie kids with wraparound glasses and earphones and, "Black still reigns supreme and there's a strong leather-pants factor."
Opportunities: L.A. and U.K. offices, other locations worldwide. French courses offered for relocated Microsoft staff, professional development encouraged.
Money and extras: Stock options and an aggressive stock purchase plan. Awards for graphic design and film. Company foots bill for one industry-related conference per year. Occasional movie screenings like Star Wars, for instance.
Zero Knowledge
Founded in 1997 by the Hill brothers, formerly of TotalNet, Zero Knowledge is a company dedicated to creating cryptography programs for Internet privacy, namely Freedom.
Recruitment slogan: "Want to make Internet history?"
Location: 888 de Maisonneuve E., corner Berri, overlooking the gay village and above Place Dupuis shopping centre.
Number of employees: 250
Office design: ZKS occupies three floors of the building, and each department was given the choice of how to lay out their space. For example, the People department uses an open-concept layout, and PR has closed offices. Corner office lounges, plants, rooftop terrasse.
Health and fitness: There's an in-house gym equipped with cable TV. As well, employees get a monthly "purch" budget of about $100, which they can put towards any kind of self-improvement purchase, whether it's time with the massage therapist, magazine subscriptions or CDs at HMV.
Facilities: Large rec room offers pool table, ping-pong, air hockey, foosball and numerous arcade machines. Lounge has a huge TV and a DVD player. Showers and in-house laundry service. Free tampons in women's washroom.
Food: An in-office location of Java'n'Juice provides a daily "inexpensive" lunch. Also, there are espresso machines and fridges full of soda, and, assuredly, one full of beer as well.
Hours: "Entirely flexible," some departments work on shifts. Offices are open 24 hours for employees, regardless of whether they want to work or loaf.
Dress code: "You must wear clothing--other than that, it's up to you," according to a PR rep.
Money and extras: Full benefits package and stock options. Job-relevant training is paid for. Opportunity to attend industry conferences.
Opportunities: With an office in San Jose, California, and employees in London, England, the possibility of travel exists.
Hard Boiled Egg
A homegrown company that started out as a Web design house, HBE is now an industry leader in software for creating Web portals.
Recruitment slogan: none
Location: Right smack downtown at 460 Ste-Catherine W., corner St-Alexandre, within tempting view of Sam the Record Man.
Number of employees: 47
Office design: HBE has a loft space with a unique twist--the closed offices are designed as islands in the centre of an open space, so light flows right through them from both sides.
Health and fitness: Nerf-gun chases down the hallway provide the daily workout.
Facilities: Everybody plays network computer games, and the in-house collection of Nerf guns means that foam-dart sneak attacks are a major leisure activity. During the Fantasia festival there are movie outings almost nightly.
Food: Snacks, granola bars, soda and coffee provided. Employees actively organize group lunches out.
Hours: Change with wildly varying project deadlines. Office is open 24/7.
Dress code: Everyone is casual except for the business staff. Baseball caps, T-shirts and cargo pants are the norm, accessorized with yo-yos.
Money and extras: Employees get full benefits, and HBE regularly sponsors trips to conferences.
Opportunities: HBE has an office in Ottawa, and developers regularly go on site to Ontario and U.S. locations.
Discreet
Founded by Richard Szalwinski, Discreet Logic merged with Autodesk last year. Develops special-effects systems and software used in video, HDTV, film (such as MI2, The Matrix and Phantom Menace), interactive games (like Tomb Raider) and the Web.
Recruitment slogan: "Be revolutionary. Be first. Be Discreet."
Location: Headquarters at 10 Duke in Old Montreal. Free shuttle service to and from the metro/train station.
Number of employees: 300
Office design: Dickens meets Heavy Metal with a dash of Flashdance. Old shipbuilding warehouse with a post-industrial twist. Huge steel doors, polished cement floors, catwalks and cargo elevators.
Health and fitness: $200 towards gym membership, aerobics on site, outdoor volleyball, massages, hooks for mountain bikes provided.
Facilities: Showers, espresso machine valued at $60,000, pool table, couches.
Food: Fresh fruit, bagels and juice daily, bottomless cups of cappuccino, beer and wine on Fridays.
Hours: Flexible work schedule.
Dress code: "Sporty geek chic" for guys and "chichi, with mules and push-up bras" for dolls. "They used to say you had to own a pair of leather pants to work at Discreet, but not since Richard left," says an insider. Company is outfitting all employees with custom-made leather jackets from Rudsak.
Money and extras: Stock purchase plan, profit-sharing plan, comprehensive group insurance program including dental, eye and travel coverage. Bonuses, including $1,500 U.S. finder's fee plus chance for a trip to Hawaii. "Also, the occasional Academy award is nice."
Opportunities: Discreet has development facilities in California and Chicago, and offices around the world.
Openface
Openface is a small business Internet solution provider that does everything from Web site development, to networking and providing Internet connectivity, "with a personalized approach."
Recruitment slogan: none
Location: 3708 St-Laurent, on the corner of des Pins.
Number of employees: 38
Office design: Two floors of St-Laurent loft space, with brick walls and pine floors. One floor has a white design scheme, and the other blue, in keeping with company colours.
Health and fitness: Nothing in-house.
Facilities: There are coffee and soda machines and a kitchenette.
Food: The office has a kitchen, and there are plans to have an in-house chef to provide inexpensive meals for the staff.
Hours: Because Openface is an ISP, someone is around almost every minute of the day. System upgrades go on well into the night.
Dress code: No dress code, except for Hawaiian Fridays, when floral apparel predominates.
Money and extras: Employees enjoy full benefits, and stock options are in the works. As well, the company owns a chalet up north at Tremblant that can be reserved for the weekend. Training budget includes the possibility of industry certification.
Opportunities: Business needs often send staff to Boston or New York, and there are also conference junkets. Employees can take more than two weeks off a year to travel.
More Education & Technology stories
|
