Crazy Ideas

Might as well provide dry cleaners too. If a place wants you wearing work clothes outside of what you'd normally wear especially ones that can't be washed normal then they should front that bill. After all it's the company that sets up an arbitrary culture and clothing rules.

I used to work at a hotel that had this as a perk for even the lowest level of managers. Like being a shift manager in the restaurant got me that perk. I lived offsite in a house with a washer dryer, so I only used that once when mine broke, but I got all my dress whites and suit jackets dry cleaned in house, which was great.

Tbf, non management got basically an at cost version of this, I never lived in the dorms, but I think it was like $1for them to get a regular load of laundry done (really 2-3 loads, because were talking giant commercial sized washers for hotel linens) and like $2 per dry clean article.

It's basically a fact that companies that make their office desirably to be at in general get better attendance. Cheap food, good culture, good facilities all contribute. Even then, if you're at a shitty flex desk most people would much rather the comfort of their own desk, screens, peripherals. I think a huge amount of companies underinvest in this area. You have to make working from the office genuinely more enticing than working from home and one of the biggest factors here is costs. It takes an epic culture to override that cost imperative.

From the culture side:

Run events to draw people into the office. I organise takeaway once a week and it sucks heaps of people into the office for a good lunch, but really the business should facilitate that or comp it even because I've clearly proven it gets people in the office and motivated.

Design the office for collaboration, prioritise mobility so the office can be restructured for the work at hand. Minimise underused desks. I work in engineering so relocating to other desks is a huge pain when you have to bring all your hardware with you (power supplies, debuggers, oscilloscopes, programming jigs etc.) I wish my business had rolling desks or some kind of nice system for allowing these setups to move quickly and easily.

From the cost perspective:

Free or very cheap food is a huge huge perk. People hate packing and prepping a lunch in advance but it's almost always cheaper to do that or just work from home.

Free laundry is a great suggestion, save energy and water bills by doing it at the office. On-site gyms are a great incentive if they can cater to the demand because a gym membership costs a ridiculous amount.

Free EV fast charging is basically free fuel, helps cut back on that commuting cost. Or alternatively supplement public transit expenses, ebikes or even car service costs.

I'd even pitch giving employees a budget to get their own screens, keyboard, mouse etc if they make an effort to come in often enough.

Whatever it is, the more a business goes out of its way to make the office a cool place to be, and not cost more to be at than home, the more people will attend.

Last time I checked, this is available to Google employees at the main offices in Mountain View.

🤦‍♀️ no.