Free Tickets to a Professional Basketball Game

As mentioned in previous posts, there aren't many perks to being an engineer. You don't get any discounts on cool stuff or free tickets to events. Well, I stand corrected. A while back, some new hires got a "thank you" email in reward for all their hard work. But it was more than just a "thank you". The company was actually offering free box tickets to attend a professional basketball game at the Staples Center!

Sounds great right? Well, it turned out the free tickets were to see...(ahem)... the L.A. Sparks Women's WNBA basketball team. I personally don't know anyone who's paid to see a WNBA game, but okay, at least they were free tickets, right? Well, not exactly.

The email specified that while there were 20 free tickets available to the game, there was only one parking pass. And as we all know, parking can be up to $20. Suddenly, these tickets didn't sound so "free". It gets better.

The free tickets were for a NOON game... on a working day! Because of this obvious conflict, the email was sure to specify that, since it is during a working day, anyone attending would be expected to take their Vacation Time to see the game. Yup, taking Vacation Time to see a WNBA game and paying $20 for parking – what great perks we get from our company.

Because I know there was at least one corporate suite completely empty that day, I throw rocks.