Between the Lines

The Dark Side of Work Perks

Company-provided free food and happy hours impose a sinister creep on employees’ personal lives

Employees eating lunch at a cafe in the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA. Photo: Brooks Kraft/Getty Images

Every day, companies around the world execute a low-risk, high-return arbitrage: They buy the time and attention of some of the most highly compensated professionals in the world — programmers, product…