11 Mar
2010
11 Mar
'10
6:26 p.m.
On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Philip Pemberton
<classiccmp at philpem.me.uk> wrote:
Ethan Dicks wrote:
Fewer and fewer US companies do, despite the recommendations that
cutting coffee service costs the company more in lost productivity
than the coffee costs in the first place.
When I was at the Pole a few years back (where the tea/hot
cocoa/coffee is provided, but you've always had to pay for soda and
beer), the services contractor eliminated coffee service at their
Denver HQ. They "cushioned" the blow with the news that they were
spending $35K/year on beverages and related expenses (cleaning, etc)
and decided to eliminate free coffee to avoid laying someone off. The
first response I heard was, "you need names? I'll give you a list of
names!" The second response was for us at the South Pole to hold a
"Coffee Social" and invite the folks from Denver to come on down to
the South Pole "where the coffee is still free". Coincidentally,
Dilbert was running a multi-day thread on a back-pack-sized coffee mug
and the effects thereof. Nice synchronicity.
They keep us freely caffeinated at work where I am now (free (Lipton)
tea, free coffee (no decaf), free soda (6 common varieties).
I wish my work did The real clincher is that HO used to send us tea,
coffee and stamps with the
store stock...
Needless to say some of us aren't particularly happy with this -- we have to
send lab test reports to Fujifilm every couple of weeks (hence the stamps)
and nobody wants to pay for a book of stamps...
The usual method of handling that in the States (even in 50-person
firms) is with a postage machine. We have one here - it's locked to
avoid casual misuse, but it means that the office staff don't have to
present themselves to a Post Office to pick up actual stamps for
work-related mailings. I don't know if this is a feasible technique
in the UK or not, but it's common here.
-ethan