5 ms·

If the accoutants looked at free sodas and snacks as leveraged salary/retention bonuses, they wouldn't suggest eliminating them.

eli 17y ago
My employment contract lists free sodas as one of the benefits, right next to health and dental. Probably one of the main reasons we still have them.
- numair 17y ago
  That's pretty amusing. You get health and dental benefits, along with one of the leading causes of health and dental problems... I know soda is considered holy water among many HNers, but for those of us who are highly health-conscious, that sounds a bit like the Detroit assembly lines with the cigarette vending machines.
  - dasil003 17y ago
    I was never a huge soda drinker, but I did have it regularly with lunch, or sometimes energy drinks at night, etc. Once I stopped drinking it regularly, I discovered how absolutely shitty it made me feel. If I go to the theater and eat a bag of popcorn with a soda, for instance. I'm not really a health nut, but when you look at the way soda and highly processed carbs are metabolized it's pretty scary. Given the rates of obesity and diabetes in the US, I rank soda and snack foods right up there with cigarettes in terms of long-term healthcare costs.
  - skorgu 17y ago
    There's a vast overlap. We have free soda, I know how horrible soda is for my body, my teeth, etc and so I quit drinking it. The problem is I quit long enough to prove to myself that I could (about three months) and since then I've quit once a week or so.
    - aplusbi 17y ago
      Ha! I did the same thing. Went years without soda. Then after I started drinking it again, stopped for a few months. Now ever couple of months I quit for a week or two. One of these days I'll give it up for good...
  - eli 17y ago
    Yeah, the irony was not lost on me. I actually requested some sparkling water be added to the mix, but apparently that costs more from the distributor.
    - superkarn 17y ago
      The company I work for provides coffees, sodas, and spring water. Most of the time I'm happy with just water. But I asked for some healthier alternatives and they started offering fruit juices =)
- silentbicycle 17y ago
  Free fruit works well as a similar perk, though not very many are caffeinated.
  - spazmaster 17y ago
    We've just quit the sodas perk, replaced them with fruit and we took time to explain why. While we didn't get high fives for the changing policy, now two three months later we're hearing, "gee, thanks, this is a great idea".
    - tomjen2 17y ago
      You could have offered both, then you wouldn't have to piss of some of your employees.
  - lallysingh 17y ago
    Market opportunity?
    - silentbicycle 17y ago
      Well, (off the top of my head) guarana berries are caffeinated. There may be more. Plants have caffeine because it helps defend them from insects.
      - rbanffy 17y ago
        A couple years back, I was working in an office where it was usual to go out of the building to smoke and/or get some coffee. More than once I had my cup of coffee stolen by very aggressive bees that, I thought, were attracted to the sugar. I then switched to sweetener, but the bees kept coming. They had either associated the smell of the coffee with the presence of sugar, or were addicted to caffeine. I felt it was better to leave the coffee to the bees than to argue with caffeine-addicted africanized bees.
- clistctrl 17y ago
  my employment contract listed all you can drink star bucks coffee as a benefit. We used to have a credit card we would pass around, and you could go around the corner. After $18k a year coffee benefits the president purchased a star bucks coffee machine. Personally I like this a lot better, far more coffee.
  - daemin 17y ago
    Where I used to work we got a coffee machine (quite a good one too) as a gift/award from management for being productive and getting stuff done. Best purchase by them ever, since it's an alternative water cooler and has saved many hours of walking down to the coffee shop. Granted we drink more coffee but when we go to get one we do so as a group and have an impromptu discussion (usually 50% work related) which gives us a break and allows communication between the hardware and software teams to flow freely. I can imagine that if they ever took that away there would immediately be a mass exodus of employees. Oh, and I do drink the coffee without sugar or any sweetener and with skim milk (mostly) so it's not that bad for my health.
Poiesis 17y ago
An excellent point. What I find strange is the insistence on cheaping out on the food I see a lot of places. Once you've commited on food, the incremental cost of healthy vs. cheap and crappy isn't all that bad, and keeps the premiums down if you're an employer subsidizing insurance. In any case, keeping employees healthy is in fact a good thing...

eli 17y ago

My employment contract lists free sodas as one of the benefits, right next to health and dental. Probably one of the main reasons we still have them.

numair 17y ago
That's pretty amusing. You get health and dental benefits, along with one of the leading causes of health and dental problems... I know soda is considered holy water among many HNers, but for those of us who are highly health-conscious, that sounds a bit like the Detroit assembly lines with the cigarette vending machines.
- dasil003 17y ago
  I was never a huge soda drinker, but I did have it regularly with lunch, or sometimes energy drinks at night, etc. Once I stopped drinking it regularly, I discovered how absolutely shitty it made me feel. If I go to the theater and eat a bag of popcorn with a soda, for instance. I'm not really a health nut, but when you look at the way soda and highly processed carbs are metabolized it's pretty scary. Given the rates of obesity and diabetes in the US, I rank soda and snack foods right up there with cigarettes in terms of long-term healthcare costs.
- skorgu 17y ago
  There's a vast overlap. We have free soda, I know how horrible soda is for my body, my teeth, etc and so I quit drinking it. The problem is I quit long enough to prove to myself that I could (about three months) and since then I've quit once a week or so.
  - aplusbi 17y ago
    Ha! I did the same thing. Went years without soda. Then after I started drinking it again, stopped for a few months. Now ever couple of months I quit for a week or two. One of these days I'll give it up for good...
- eli 17y ago
  Yeah, the irony was not lost on me. I actually requested some sparkling water be added to the mix, but apparently that costs more from the distributor.
  - superkarn 17y ago
    The company I work for provides coffees, sodas, and spring water. Most of the time I'm happy with just water. But I asked for some healthier alternatives and they started offering fruit juices =)
silentbicycle 17y ago
Free fruit works well as a similar perk, though not very many are caffeinated.
- spazmaster 17y ago
  We've just quit the sodas perk, replaced them with fruit and we took time to explain why. While we didn't get high fives for the changing policy, now two three months later we're hearing, "gee, thanks, this is a great idea".
  - tomjen2 17y ago
    You could have offered both, then you wouldn't have to piss of some of your employees.
- lallysingh 17y ago
  Market opportunity?
  - silentbicycle 17y ago
    Well, (off the top of my head) guarana berries are caffeinated. There may be more. Plants have caffeine because it helps defend them from insects.
    - rbanffy 17y ago
      A couple years back, I was working in an office where it was usual to go out of the building to smoke and/or get some coffee. More than once I had my cup of coffee stolen by very aggressive bees that, I thought, were attracted to the sugar. I then switched to sweetener, but the bees kept coming. They had either associated the smell of the coffee with the presence of sugar, or were addicted to caffeine. I felt it was better to leave the coffee to the bees than to argue with caffeine-addicted africanized bees.
clistctrl 17y ago
my employment contract listed all you can drink star bucks coffee as a benefit. We used to have a credit card we would pass around, and you could go around the corner. After $18k a year coffee benefits the president purchased a star bucks coffee machine. Personally I like this a lot better, far more coffee.
- daemin 17y ago
  Where I used to work we got a coffee machine (quite a good one too) as a gift/award from management for being productive and getting stuff done. Best purchase by them ever, since it's an alternative water cooler and has saved many hours of walking down to the coffee shop. Granted we drink more coffee but when we go to get one we do so as a group and have an impromptu discussion (usually 50% work related) which gives us a break and allows communication between the hardware and software teams to flow freely. I can imagine that if they ever took that away there would immediately be a mass exodus of employees. Oh, and I do drink the coffee without sugar or any sweetener and with skim milk (mostly) so it's not that bad for my health.

Poiesis 17y ago

An excellent point. What I find strange is the insistence on cheaping out on the food I see a lot of places. Once you've commited on food, the incremental cost of healthy vs. cheap and crappy isn't all that bad, and keeps the premiums down if you're an employer subsidizing insurance. In any case, keeping employees healthy is in fact a good thing...