4 ms·

First they took free tea and coffee in the office (http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/15bcrisis-no-more-free-tea-coffee-for-ibm-staff.htm http://www.rediff.co

by krzyk 9y ago

First they took free tea and coffee in the office (http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/15bcrisis-no-more-free-tea-coffee-for-ibm-staff.htm http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/15bcrisis-no-more-free-...) now they are taking away WFH. There are fewer and fewer incentives to work for IBM.

misja111 9y ago
TIL that some people chose to work at IBM because of the free tea and coffee
- jhall1468 9y ago
  That's not what he said. The point was, IBM is taking away every fringe benefit, making them less competitive. Amazon is notorious for its frugality, but at the very least it offers free damn coffee. This is an argument of all things being equal. If IBM and Microsoft offer me the same package for the same job, but Microsoft offers me free coffee, I'll probably take the coffee.
- vorpalhex 9y ago
  Despite the fact that I usually bring my coffee from home, or go to a local shop, the fact that a company offers free coffee/snacks/etc matters from a perspective. If a company is going to nickel and dime you, charge you $0.25 for a coffee or force you to provide your own... they probably are going to be cheap in other places as well. If they aren't willing to give you coffee or seltzer, they are hardly going to give you good hardware or software - which is something that does affect me. That being said, that only goes so far. I don't really care about free lunches, or if a company has some game console. I mostly just don't want to work for a company that is going to nickel and dime me because it means they're cheapskates.
  - throwanem 9y ago
    Free lunches are a startup-culture thing, for the most part. Game consoles, likewise. I don't need toys to play with at work, or my food paid for - I'm a grownup, and I can deal. Free coffee isn't really in the same realm. The most enterprisey places I've ever worked have still offered it, not because they felt like being sweethearts, but because it makes hard economic sense - people will drink coffee, and at modern professional salaries, having them spend their paid time dealing directly with all the ancillaries around it is quite literally more expensive than just buying coffee and maintaining the equipment involved. Dropping it is thus penny wise, pound foolish.
  - tome 9y ago
    The brown M&Ms of tech employment.
  - zaphod12 9y ago
    I was at Cisco when free drinks vanished. It's a really big hit to moral. You feel like the company is hurting and wonder what else is coming. I agree with you entirely...it's almost less about the actual offering and more the feeling of a nice thing going away for a small cost savings.
- throwanem 9y ago
  I won't (quite) outright refuse to work somewhere because they don't offer free coffee. But it's not a good sign they're somewhere I want to work, if they can't or won't manage table stakes.
- krzyk 9y ago
  It's the other way around, if all other places offer that as a minimum, why go to a place that is "cheap" in such a way? What would be next, bring your own water or a power generator? My first job after college was in a small company (now they call them startups) that had 5 people. We worked in an old building, had low end equipment, but we had free coffee and tea (and water). It costs them next to nothing to have that basic "benefits", yearly it is probably much less then a single travel of any of their chief officers. If they are so cheap, then they probably won't give you big money for your work (small pay increases, or none) also, for me it is a big warning sign: GET OUT.
ballenf 9y ago
At least as of 1990, at one large IBM location in the US there were regular vending stations for coffee and tea. Was <50 cents (20 cents, maybe) for a cup of "freshly brewed" coffee. You also needed exact change or lost the difference (the "exact change" light seemed perpetually on). Also there were ashtrays built in to the walls at regular intervals. Don't know when they started giving away coffee, but it was tried for some years and then stopped apparently. Like remote working.
saltylicorice 9y ago
My IBM office didn't have free coffee in 2005.
taternuts 9y ago
Wow! I'd be seriously worried if my company yanked free coffee and tea. I guess on IBM's scale that turns out to be some real change, but I have to imagine the time spent leaving campus for coffee and all is more expensive overall.
hawski 9y ago
It reads like Warning Signs Of Corporate Doom [0]. In case of one company I worked for it was pretty spot on. [0] http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom

by krzyk 9y ago

misja111 9y ago

TIL that some people chose to work at IBM because of the free tea and coffee

jhall1468 9y ago
That's not what he said. The point was, IBM is taking away every fringe benefit, making them less competitive. Amazon is notorious for its frugality, but at the very least it offers free damn coffee. This is an argument of all things being equal. If IBM and Microsoft offer me the same package for the same job, but Microsoft offers me free coffee, I'll probably take the coffee.
vorpalhex 9y ago
Despite the fact that I usually bring my coffee from home, or go to a local shop, the fact that a company offers free coffee/snacks/etc matters from a perspective. If a company is going to nickel and dime you, charge you $0.25 for a coffee or force you to provide your own... they probably are going to be cheap in other places as well. If they aren't willing to give you coffee or seltzer, they are hardly going to give you good hardware or software - which is something that does affect me. That being said, that only goes so far. I don't really care about free lunches, or if a company has some game console. I mostly just don't want to work for a company that is going to nickel and dime me because it means they're cheapskates.
- throwanem 9y ago
  Free lunches are a startup-culture thing, for the most part. Game consoles, likewise. I don't need toys to play with at work, or my food paid for - I'm a grownup, and I can deal. Free coffee isn't really in the same realm. The most enterprisey places I've ever worked have still offered it, not because they felt like being sweethearts, but because it makes hard economic sense - people will drink coffee, and at modern professional salaries, having them spend their paid time dealing directly with all the ancillaries around it is quite literally more expensive than just buying coffee and maintaining the equipment involved. Dropping it is thus penny wise, pound foolish.
- tome 9y ago
  The brown M&Ms of tech employment.
- zaphod12 9y ago
  I was at Cisco when free drinks vanished. It's a really big hit to moral. You feel like the company is hurting and wonder what else is coming. I agree with you entirely...it's almost less about the actual offering and more the feeling of a nice thing going away for a small cost savings.
throwanem 9y ago
I won't (quite) outright refuse to work somewhere because they don't offer free coffee. But it's not a good sign they're somewhere I want to work, if they can't or won't manage table stakes.
krzyk 9y ago
It's the other way around, if all other places offer that as a minimum, why go to a place that is "cheap" in such a way? What would be next, bring your own water or a power generator? My first job after college was in a small company (now they call them startups) that had 5 people. We worked in an old building, had low end equipment, but we had free coffee and tea (and water). It costs them next to nothing to have that basic "benefits", yearly it is probably much less then a single travel of any of their chief officers. If they are so cheap, then they probably won't give you big money for your work (small pay increases, or none) also, for me it is a big warning sign: GET OUT.

ballenf 9y ago

At least as of 1990, at one large IBM location in the US there were regular vending stations for coffee and tea. Was <50 cents (20 cents, maybe) for a cup of "freshly brewed" coffee. You also needed exact change or lost the difference (the "exact change" light seemed perpetually on). Also there were ashtrays built in to the walls at regular intervals. Don't know when they started giving away coffee, but it was tried for some years and then stopped apparently. Like remote working.

saltylicorice 9y ago

My IBM office didn't have free coffee in 2005.

taternuts 9y ago

Wow! I'd be seriously worried if my company yanked free coffee and tea. I guess on IBM's scale that turns out to be some real change, but I have to imagine the time spent leaving campus for coffee and all is more expensive overall.

hawski 9y ago

It reads like Warning Signs Of Corporate Doom [0]. In case of one company I worked for it was pretty spot on. [0] http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom