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engineers are thinking about soda, is a minute wasted This probably the most often forgotten argument in favor of freebie snacks: time/attention saving. A goo

by mmt 17y ago

engineers are thinking about soda, is a minute wasted This probably the most often forgotten argument in favor of freebie snacks: time/attention saving. A good engineer can easily cost a company $1/minute (and be worth much more). Even if going out to ones car to grab some change takes 2 minutes, that $.50 soda just got a 400% markup. Actually having otherwise productive employees think about this as an issue is an even greater waste of talent. In a large enough company, though, the ratio of dead weight to productive people, can be high enough that charging for soda isn't a false economy.

hugh_ 17y ago
A former boss of mine once said that he wasn't buying us a coffee machine so that we'd have an excuse to get out of the building and go for a walk. So much good high-quality thinking is done when you're walking instead of sitting in front of a computer. (It helped that there were three truly excellent cafes and a bunch of so-so ones within walking distance; this wouldn't work in, say, Silicon Valley.)
- mmt 17y ago
  I'd say there are many places (downtown Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale) where this would work fine, even without a car. Notwithstanding my original comment, I make a point of leaving for lunch, even if there's food paid for by the company, including if I partake of the food itself. The break is important. However, for some things, like an occasional small snack or a bit of caffeine-sugar water, it would be both a waste of time and of money to go out. Arguably, fiddling with a "free" coffee machine is also time-wasting. For some, the severity of the interruption is more significant than the length of time or quantity of money involved. The variance in working style makes any one-size-fits-all policy questionable. If your former boss made it very easy to get reimbursed for those trips out for coffee, his reasoning would carry more weight.
- blackguardx 17y ago
  Where was this job located?

by mmt 17y ago

hugh_ 17y ago

A former boss of mine once said that he wasn't buying us a coffee machine so that we'd have an excuse to get out of the building and go for a walk. So much good high-quality thinking is done when you're walking instead of sitting in front of a computer. (It helped that there were three truly excellent cafes and a bunch of so-so ones within walking distance; this wouldn't work in, say, Silicon Valley.)

mmt 17y ago
I'd say there are many places (downtown Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale) where this would work fine, even without a car. Notwithstanding my original comment, I make a point of leaving for lunch, even if there's food paid for by the company, including if I partake of the food itself. The break is important. However, for some things, like an occasional small snack or a bit of caffeine-sugar water, it would be both a waste of time and of money to go out. Arguably, fiddling with a "free" coffee machine is also time-wasting. For some, the severity of the interruption is more significant than the length of time or quantity of money involved. The variance in working style makes any one-size-fits-all policy questionable. If your former boss made it very easy to get reimbursed for those trips out for coffee, his reasoning would carry more weight.
blackguardx 17y ago
Where was this job located?