This US Firm Is Paying Employees To Hang Out, But There's A Small Catch

In a unique initiative, a $3.5 billion cloud-based security company in the US is paying its employees to socialise with each other. The program that started last April at Verkada, a California-based firm, lets three or more employees go out for food and drinks after 3 pm at the company's expense, Fortune reported. Dubbed the '3-3-3', the perk lets employees expense up to $30 in food and drinks if they go out, in groups of at least three.

Verkada's CEO Filip Kaliszan recently went viral in a TikTok discussing the 3-3-3 perk on a podcast. ''The idea is it's the afternoon and three people go out and hang out together, chances are you'll talk about something relevant or work-related, and ultimately that will benefit us,'' Mr Kaliszan said in the interview.

All 1,800 of Verkada's employees have participated in the program at least once. The CEO told Business Insider that such kind of interaction is crucial for Verkada to stay competitive in an industry with tech companies that are worth $100 billion

The program requires no pre-approval, but employees are required to post a photo in the "3-3-3" Slack channel when they're done with their outing. 

Before the program was officially launched in April last year, employees could still go for drinks at the expense of the company, but they didn't know that. So, the firm decided to promote it in a better way by advertising the program on posters around the office and in elevators. 

"It wasn't about the money it wasn't about the budget. It was about everyone knowing that this is something they can do and then everyone getting excited about it,'' Mr Kaliszan added. 

The concept quickly went viral on social media and many praised the company for encouraging team bonding and friendships outside of work. 

One user wrote, ''That is a lot better use of money then like a team building exercise or hiring a speaker.'' Another commented, ''Building work relationships and networking is a necessary skill so I'm glad they are prioritizing and paying for it.''

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