Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
But clearly an extra $20 in your wallet
is in your best interest. I think this is the employers' fault, though.
They're in business to make a profit and all, but from the customers. I worked for a slave driver once ( called Visible Technologies ) who asked me to donate several framed-and-matted 16x24 inch prints for their board-room, which normally aren't cheap. A lot of companies, unfortunately, will take advantage of their employees at every chance. This is the sign of a bad job, and any decent employer should see themselves as a partnership with their workers. Here, that means we should be able to reasonably expect HR to do their jobs. As far as I can tell, none of us can get this benefit from the IRS that we're all entitled to, without HR's help.
I guess I will come down on the side of HR on this one. It's too small a benefit that affects too few employees. I'm sure there are a lot of things that an HR dept. in most any company would love to do for their employees if they had the time to do it. Heck, there are things I'd love to do for our staff as IT guy if I had the time, but you have to pick and choose.
I am betting that if I raised a stink I could get my organization to provide this benefit but frankly I don't want to spend whatever small amount of political capital I have on something like this. I'd be much happier if they could lower our medical co-pays.