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We went through this. When 2008 hit the company stopped providing free sodas and bottled water for our office of only about 30 people. I was damn close to just

by ja27 6y ago

We went through this. When 2008 hit the company stopped providing free sodas and bottled water for our office of only about 30 people. I was damn close to just buying them myself but it was crazy how upset a few people making moderately insane amounts of money would get over not getting a $1/day benefit.

ChuckMcM 6y ago
I completely relate to both of these. My experience is that you get a mix of people saying "just give me the money, I'll decide if I want to spend it on snacks" and people who say "I really like that snacks are available, please keep them." From a financial perspective its pretty hard "move the needle" on an engineers salary with free snacks and drinks. Median engineering salary in the Bay Area is more than $100K. So assuming the engineer was consuming $20 of snacks per day, 5 days a week 50 days a year, that is $5,000 per year per engineer. Not surprisingly there was lots of data on this at Google which I got a chance to review when I made a big stink about the switch in juice vendors. Not something I could share but it looked exactly like I expected it to look, sort of a power log curve where most people were way under the average and a much much smaller number were way over. That they couldn't manage the people who filled up their back packs with food and drinks for their family before they went home each night was telling on a number of levels. Of course the IRS and New York Times are all about how this "under the table benefit is robbing us of income tax" is pretty predictable as well. [1] https://www.indeed.com/career/engineer/salaries/San-Francisco-Bay-Area--CA https://www.indeed.com/career/engineer/salaries/San-Francisc...
- nitwit005 6y ago
  > That they couldn't manage the people who filled up their back packs with food and drinks for their family before they went home each night was telling on a number of levels. Oh that one is easy. The management all want to take home stuff too. My last company had some IT items that you could get from vending machines. The moment I said I was leaving a manager asked if I could use my badge to grab something for her, saying she'd already maxed out for the month. I realized I'd become a source of untracked purchasing, and assumed she probably wanted to take an item home.
- user5994461 6y ago
  >>> $20 of snacks per day It's more than 50 cans of soda a day. Thank god they were taken away before the poor engineer would drink them all and liquefy. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coca-Cola-Soda-12-Fl-Oz-24-Count/10535216 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coca-Cola-Soda-12-Fl-Oz-24-Count/...

by ja27 6y ago

ChuckMcM 6y ago

I completely relate to both of these. My experience is that you get a mix of people saying "just give me the money, I'll decide if I want to spend it on snacks" and people who say "I really like that snacks are available, please keep them." From a financial perspective its pretty hard "move the needle" on an engineers salary with free snacks and drinks. Median engineering salary in the Bay Area is more than $100K. So assuming the engineer was consuming $20 of snacks per day, 5 days a week 50 days a year, that is $5,000 per year per engineer. Not surprisingly there was lots of data on this at Google which I got a chance to review when I made a big stink about the switch in juice vendors. Not something I could share but it looked exactly like I expected it to look, sort of a power log curve where most people were way under the average and a much much smaller number were way over. That they couldn't manage the people who filled up their back packs with food and drinks for their family before they went home each night was telling on a number of levels. Of course the IRS and New York Times are all about how this "under the table benefit is robbing us of income tax" is pretty predictable as well. [1] https://www.indeed.com/career/engineer/salaries/San-Francisco-Bay-Area--CA https://www.indeed.com/career/engineer/salaries/San-Francisc...

nitwit005 6y ago
> That they couldn't manage the people who filled up their back packs with food and drinks for their family before they went home each night was telling on a number of levels. Oh that one is easy. The management all want to take home stuff too. My last company had some IT items that you could get from vending machines. The moment I said I was leaving a manager asked if I could use my badge to grab something for her, saying she'd already maxed out for the month. I realized I'd become a source of untracked purchasing, and assumed she probably wanted to take an item home.
user5994461 6y ago
>>> $20 of snacks per day It's more than 50 cans of soda a day. Thank god they were taken away before the poor engineer would drink them all and liquefy. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coca-Cola-Soda-12-Fl-Oz-24-Count/10535216 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coca-Cola-Soda-12-Fl-Oz-24-Count/...