The Benefits Nobody Reads

There is a document. It was attached to an email on your first day, between the fire safety PDF and the laptop policy. It lists everything your employer will pay for on your behalf. Almost nobody reads it, which means a meaningful proportion of workplace health spending goes permanently unclaimed.

What is usually in there

Contents vary by country, employer and plan — this is a prompt to check yours, not a description of it.

• Employee assistance programme. Typically a set number of confidential counselling sessions, arranged directly, without going through your manager or HR. The confidentiality is usually contractual.
• Health cover or cash plans. Often includes physiotherapy, which is the single most relevant benefit for desk-related back, neck and wrist problems.
• Eye tests and a contribution to glasses where display-screen work is part of the role. In several jurisdictions this is a legal requirement, not a perk.
• Occupational health referral. You can often request one yourself. This is the route to a formal workstation assessment and adjustments.
• Screening allowances, flu vaccination, dental, and sometimes gym or wellbeing budgets.

The occupational health referral is the underused one. It is how a chair becomes a different chair.

How to actually use them

1. 1Find the benefits summary. Ask HR directly if you cannot; asking is not a red flag.
2. 2Note the two or three that map to something you actually have — the back, the sleep, the stress.
3. 3Book one this month. Benefits reset annually and unclaimed entitlements do not roll over.
4. 4Keep the paperwork. Reimbursement processes are tedious and time-limited.

A word on confidentiality

People avoid employee assistance programmes because they assume their employer sees the details. Under most schemes the employer receives aggregate usage numbers only, not names or content. If you are unsure, ask the provider directly rather than your employer — the answer is theirs to give.

This piece summarises common benefit structures and is not advice about your specific plan. Read your own scheme documents, or ask your provider.