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So, has anyone here ever, like... worked in a regular office? Not the Apple Mothership or anything like that, just like a small office for a business with like
by nsxwolf 5y ago
So, has anyone here ever, like... worked in a regular office? Not the Apple Mothership or anything like that, just like a small office for a business with like 50 people in it?
If you go into the break room in a place like that, you're going to see consumer grade coffee makers. Again and again. They're totally normal.
- mcculley 5y agoMost of them are in good working order, UL approved, and not bought at a garage sale and improvised to run continuously. You cannot trust your coworkers to put a heating element on their desk.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bombcar 5y agoThe temperature of one office I was at had to be adjusted to the point where the secretary wouldn’t bring in a space heater. (We added a vent from the server room over the raised ceiling to blow on her, she was happy, the breakers were happy. )
- Nextgrid 5y agoOn the other hand, are garage-sale & improvised coffee makers the kind of coffee makers people typically want to bring to the office? I assume the vast majority would be a standard, store-bought coffee makers which should have all the required safety verifications.
- mcculley 5y agoThey would likely be safe, but how would you know? Inspect every one? It is easier to ban them.
- nsxwolf 5y agoMy point is... I don't think it's very common to ban them. I have visited hundreds of offices with consumer grade coffee makers in the break room. I've seen plenty of the machines that use various "pods" and come with a service contract too, but buying a $20 Mr. Coffee from Walmart is totally a thing in the business world.
- sgerenser 5y agoWorked in 2 offices like you described, first one had a Bunn commercial brewer and the second had a Jura for the fancy coffee drinkers and a medium-duty Keurig for the “anything with caffeine” drinkers. I’m sure there are 50 person offices with a single $20 Mr. Coffee but I’m sure they wear out quickly.
- nsxwolf 5y agoI would expect the Keurig to be banned also if there was much to this "building managers just ban consumer grade coffee makers as a matter of course" theory.
- Spooky23 5y agoTech company people have fancy schmancy stuff. It’s one of the endearing aspects of HN and the large cohort of California based tech company people.
- mcculley 5y agoThe office I described was far from fancy. It was a DoD project in the 90s run by Lockheed and beneath minimum standards for safety. It was literally in a modular building that had been assembled onsite. The floors sagged and the fabric on the cubicle walls had mold growing in it. The nearest coffee pot was a 10 minute walk away, which is why residents were tempted to bring their own.
- brewdad 5y agoEvery office I've worked in either had a commercial grade Bunn coffeemaker or we had to go buy our coffee from the cafeteria downstairs. Most offices were free. The government office I worked in for bit had us chip in a couple bucks a week to pay for the coffee on the honor system.