Shiny perks: are pool tables irrelevant?

Once a tech-world fad, are benefits that transform the office into a playground slowly fading into obscurity?

Picture a dark room with neon lights full of arcade games, a Lego building station with jigsaw pieces scattered all around, a shiny pool table surrounded by sleek black stools. 

It sounds like an amusement park, doesn’t it? In fact, it is nothing more than “a snapshot of an average office space in the Google Headquarters”, as a data engineer working in the Mountain View campus succinctly described it to us. 

From pool tables and beer fridges to nap pods, meditation rooms, even in-office slides, shiny perks that promised to transform the office into a playground became a hallmark of the tech boom during the dot-com bubble and into the 2010s. Popularised by tech giants and start-ups, these perks quickly became symbols of innovation, a progressive work culture, and an office space that combines productivity with fun. In a race to attract top talent, more and more companies around the world followed suit, becoming increasingly creative in the playful perks they offer in their workplaces.

But as the pandemic hit the globe, radically shifting ways of working and popularising flexible working arrangements and working from home, the Google-inspired fad for ping pong tables, slides, and sweet dispensers has seen some of its shine fade - and some of its relevance called into question.

Today, the future of corporate pool tables and similar perks seems quite blurry. Some C-level executives seem to be moving away from the playground perks in favour of benefits like flexibility, while others are considering doubling down to make the office lure back employees. And though few employees would protest the inclusion of a ping pong table in their office, equally few would rank it high in their hierarchy of important benefits. 

Some may even see it as a red herring, or a sign of a corporate culture that picks style over substance.

Whatever the case may be, there is definitely a shift in the narrative around pool tables and their value in corporate contexts. So pick up your cue sticks and join us as we talk to employees and C-levels who enjoy such office playground perks, as well as review case studies and relevant surveys, to figure out whether employees actually care to play some pool - or whether such shiny perks are fading to obscurity in a post-pandemic world.

😎The fading illusion of cool

Let’s admit it: upon first glance it may be hard to deny the appeal of a pool table in the office lounge or a foosball table in the breakroom. It naturally conjures the image of a vibrant, relaxed workplace, a place where employees flow freely from productivity to creativity, and where they feel energised. Some C-level executives even believe that such office benefits and perks do even more than attract or retain employees: they see them, instead, as a way to improve business performance and enhance productivity.

However, as the data engineer shared with us, though such perks definitely create a buzz during the hiring process, they probably do little to affect employee engagement in the long term.

“The most excited I was about the pool tables and the rest of the games was actually during the interview process”, they admit. “I actually raved about it to everyone I knew before I joined the company. But a few days after starting, and a couple of awkward games later, the appeal of the game room faded away. The reality is that there are a number of other benefits -such as childcare help, remote work or the freedom to manage one’s time without feeling guilty- that are far more important and actually make a tangible difference in keeping people here happy”.

The testimonial seems to agree with the existing data. Gallup's monumental 2020 State of the American Workplace report, which identified categories reflecting how important different benefits and perks are to employees, lists thing such as game rooms on the added-value category, the last one in terms of priority, meaning though they may correlate with engagement, most employees won’t demand them or change jobs just to receive them.

In other words, employees likely wouldn’t turn pool tables down, but they aren’t asking for them either. And though team-building activities are a great way to add some joy to the workplace, they likely only work when the more basic benefits -such as insurance, paid leave, or flexible work arrangements- are already in place. 

Needless to say, it is also vital for these perks to be surrounded with the right corporate culture, one that doesn’t shame employees for taking creative or energising breaks by enjoying those amenities. Without the appropriate culture, employees who take advantage of the pool table may be unfairly labelled as lazy or unproductive, and they may eventually avoid using it out of fear of being judged.

So when companies seek to build meaningful employee engagement, and not just to catch a potential candidate’s eye, then game rooms are probably not the starting point of rethinking their benefits package. As the Gallup report summarises: “employees who are already on the fence in terms of engagement may actually regard ping pong tables and free meals as an empty gesture — a Band-Aid fix for a much bigger problem”.

🎱Do we ever hit the balls?

There is a common, and quite paradoxical observation among many people that enjoy the presence of a pool table in their office spaces. When it comes down to it, cue sticks and racks are actually rarely touched by employees. 

Just take a look at this Reddit user’s experience: their office’s pool table was so unused, their colleagues actually started playing Dungeons and Dragons on it.

Besides a probable indifference compared to other unwinding activities, there may be another reason why many pool or ping pong tables stay untouched. As a Marketing Manager of a London-based tech company reveals to us, it may have to do with the nature of the activity in question.

“Quite frankly, playing table tennis can be quite loud, and is not an activity that actually involves that many people”, he says. “Ours is a small office and we rarely take a break at the same time, so I think many people find it distracting or avoid playing so as not to piss off their colleagues. At this point, I would argue that the value of our ping pong table is purely aesthetic. We almost never actually use it. I imagine the same is true for many companies with similar installations like foosball or billiards”. 

The perspective highlights an important dimension to such shiny perks, namely that space design really matters. A fun unwinding activity in the office will be used only if it can seamlessly fit into the work and spatial dynamics, otherwise it may not really be worth the investment.

Another interesting perspective comes from the experience of CARPEDIA, a global management consulting firm whose partners installed a custom-made pool table at their head office over 19 years ago, way before the dawn of the fad. In a short article, Peter Follows, co-founder and CEO, revealed that the table was actually used a mere five times in two decades, and it has now simply been relegated to the basement. So besides spacing, what went terribly wrong with the promising perk? 

“The problem was not foreseen but made sense in hindsight”, the CEO explains. “Hanging around to play pool at the office after a long day of work wasn’t nearly as much fun as playing pool at a local pub where there were people and noise and action (not to mention that neither plan went over particularly well with spouses.)”.

As it turns out, more often than not employees do not necessarily seek fun at the office, but rather a creative, productive and collaborative space where they can get their work done and get out. Even if they did, today corporate pool tables face tough competition: most people will prefer the comfort of a stroll close to their home, saving time on commute to spend it at their neighbourhood bar, or simply enjoying a genuine talk with a colleague over lunch

🏊Leadership needs to dive in

There are also some who suggest that it may be rather misleading to look at things like pool tables or office slides merely as perks. Michael Kassimatis, co-founder and former COO of London-based BlakBear, a start-up that brings together chemistry, electronics, and AI to accurately measure freshness of food, recounts that the company’s office actually offered pool access (not a table - an actual pool), but “more so as a social or team bonding activity, rather than just a perk”, as he explains to REBORRN.

“We always tried to have a communal space that offered some form of unwinding, be it through gym equipment, video games, or comfy couches. A small paddle pool, as was the case with our office, is inherently sort of a social activity, nobody will go alone to splash around” he says.

Michael’s experience also highlights another important dimension, one that we already came across when examining the benefit of an unlimited vacation policy. A perk or a benefit will rarely be used unless leadership paves the way and embraces its use in the office.

“The small pool was fun, and we used it sometimes in the summer, but I don’t recall employees using it alone without the managers”, he explains, clarifying that this may have also been because of the team’s small size. “It was definitely a fun feature, but as was the case with all our social offerings, it definitely needed some nudging from leadership, perhaps through some activity that would introduce them”.

Ultimately, Michael also believes that humans see the office as “nothing more than an office, its own separate community, where dynamics play a big role when it comes to how you behave and which benefits or perks you end up using. This was definitely true for a small office, but may probably translate on a team or department level, and bigger organisations as well”.

🎯Flexibility over billiards: what about employee priorities?

There are varying outlooks on shiny perks, but one thing is certain: leaders don’t have to keep throwing darts at the board until one perk sticks with employees. They can get much further by adapting or staying true to the benefits and perks that are more meaningful or practical for employees. And there is no better ally than data and surveys in figuring out what truly matters for your office.

“Assume nothing,” as HR consultant Dawid Wiacek said in a Forbes article looking at different perks and whether they work in incentivising office work. “Rather than investing time and money into perks that employees won’t even use, survey existing or exiting employees to determine what current perks they like and what other perks they would actually like to see. This will ensure that you’re investing resources responsibly and wisely and not just haemorrhaging money on, say, a pool table that three employees actually use”.

Though we believe there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to evaluating employee priorities, here are some recent relevant surveys that cast doubt in the importance of perks like pool tables:

• According to a 2022 survey by workplace management platform Robin, superficial perks like ping pong tables and free cold brew still have some appeal in the new hybrid workplace, but they're no longer as valuable to workers as there once were. In fact, the most important perks listed are additional time off (45%), internet stipends (31%),  wellness stipends (30%), and work from anywhere policies (29%). Shiny perks, most likely belonging to the “other” category, were identified by a mere 6% of respondents.

• An employee benefit survey by Fractl agreed with this assessment. Among a list of 17 other benefits, things such as free coffee or snacks or on-site gyms and workout activities found themselves in the bottom of the list, with less than a quarter of employees giving these perks some consideration.

• A survey by Open Study College asked 2000 members of the UK’s workforce what the most sought-after perks in the office are. It found that the top options were hybrid or flexible working, subsidised parking and a good pension scheme, while both Friday ‘desk beers’ and pool tables were ranked in the top three perks that employees could do without.

🎳A solid perk, not a starting point

As employees weigh the comfort and convenience of flexible work against the novelty of in-office perks, it's clear that "cool" offerings are not the game-changers they were once thought to be.

Don’t get us wrong: ping-pong tables and office slides do have their place in an office. They don’t do much harm, but they also don’t do much good if they’re not carefully integrated into the work environment. They can create a buzz during hiring, but they rarely contribute to long-term employee engagement. They’re nice to have, but in no way do they replace the more essential benefits that employees actually need.

For these perks to work, they need to be thoughtfully designed to blend seamlessly with work dynamics, not disrupt them. Leadership plays a crucial role too—if managers don’t embrace and use these amenities, neither will employees. 

So if you want to add a pool table or a chocolate fountain in your organisation, by all means go ahead! But if you only place emphasis on playground perks, do not be surprised when your employees pick up their toys and head for a competitor that may have no game room, but offers more flexibility and a better culture.