5 Awesome Perks Of Working For Facebook

Facebook FB has 4.6 out of five stars on Glassdoor, an online database of employee-written company reviews. Most Facebook employee's reviews cite typical reasons for why it's great, like smart people, free food, innovative culture, blah blah blah, etc.

But there are some unique, really cool perks that come along with working for the social network giant. Here are a few:

(Free!) Equipment Vending Machines

Facebook gives its employees free access to commonly-needed IT equipment via vending machine. Employees swipe their badges for instant access to keyboards, mice, headphones, USB memory sticks and more, according to former engineer Scott Marlette on Quora. This gets rid of the time-consuming processes of requesting the items from IT or purchasing them and then getting reimbursed.

“Seemingly, most companies don't do this in order to prevent theft or control spending. Facebook deliberately decided to make reasonably-priced items easily available so you could get right back to work if something broke or was missing from your desk, rather than spending valuable, productive time and an IT person to work through a procurement and manager approval process,” says Marlette.

Related: Men And Women Differ On Use Of Social Media, Mobile Phones

Facebook's Walls

Facebook has its own walls to write on -- no, literally. The company has physical, real-world walls that it encourages its employees to write on, according to an article in Silicon Valley Business Journal. There is also a group of onsite artists who are in charge of “keeping things fresh.”

“Employees are encouraged to change their surroundings too, by writing messages to one another on massive chalkboard walls,” the article says.

Game Day

Operations engineer Matt Kulka says on Quora that one of his favorite days at Facebook is Game Day, where the company rents out a local park and sends the entire office to go play school yard games like dodgeball and kickball (rock, paper, scissors and skee ball for the not-so-athletically inclined). Employees are split into multiple teams (represented by colors), and the winning team gets “prestige and bragging rights.”

“The build-up to game day is very fun as well. Usually there's a large amount of good-natured smack talking and team color propaganda spread around the office for a solid month or two before the actual day,” says Kulka.

Presents for Everyone!

Facebook likes to celebrate its birthday by giving gifts to all of its employees, software engineer Colm Doyle says on Quora. Last year, every employee received a pair of pajama bottoms. Previous gifts have included watches and socks. What will the social network gift its employees with this year for its tenth birthday?

Bike Culture

The Business Journal also says Facebook's campus is full of communal beach cruisers, so employees easily travel across the 57-acre area. There's also a full-service, onsite bike repair shop where both the company beach cruisers and employees' own bikes can get tuned up by bicycle mechanics.

“A paved road with traffic lines keeps cyclists from running into one another or the hundreds of pedestrians crossing campus. Facebook ripped up Sun Microsystems' winding pathways, saying a central road would encourage employees to mingle and share ideas,” the article says.