In US, gasoline is new workplace perk

    In Washington State, Microsoft has leased three large office complexes miles from company headquarters in recent months to shorten the commutes of about 7,000 employees.
    In San Francisco, Citigate Cunningham, a public relations company, now encourages workers to stay home whenever possible, providing laptop computers and BlackBerrys to enable telecommuting, and reimbursing them $40 a month for high-speed internet connections in their homes.
    At Rejuvenation, a lighting manufacturer in Portland, employees skip one day of work completely. The company has gone to a four-day week, with each workday being 10 hours long. Alysa Rose, the president, also gives away a free bicycle to an employee every month. Nationwide, workers are being presented with free gas cards, subsidized bus passes, more money in their paychecks, and the opportunity to turn their cars into company billboards (with the company often picking up all fuel costs, not just miles spent commuting.)
    Gasoline has become the new workplace perk, as employers scramble to help workers cut its use and cost. A dollar a gallon ago, things like telecommuting, shortened workweeks and internet subsidies were ways of saving time and providing workers with a little more balance in their lives. Now they have become ways to save money and to keep workers from, well, walking.
    "We had 14 calls last week and nine of those named high gas prices as their No. 1 reason for leaving their job," said Lauren Milligan, who helps job-seekers polish their resumes at ResuMayDay.
    Some employers have come to the same conclusion. "We need to stay competitive and viable," said David Lewis, the president of OperationsInc, a human resource consultancy in Stamford, where, since June, employees receive up to $100 a month on a Express cash card to offset rising gas prices.
    "An extra $100 a month for gas and you have a real issue that could result in turnover," Lewis explained, adding that even with rising unemployment, it is more economical for him to retain workers than hire new people and train them. NYT NEWS SERVICE