4 ms·

Would an in-house coffee waiter improve your team productivity?

7 points by hoodoof 15y ago

Imagine someone whose job it is to keep peoples coffee cups full, thereby removing the productivity destroying trips to the kitchen. Would this improve your team productivity?

ColinWright 15y ago
I don't have my copy of "PeopleWare" to hand, but I think that is where I read this story ... A company brought in an external consultant to look at how to improve productivity in the software and engineering sections of the company. After two weeks they reported back and recommended the hiring of a "coffee lady" - someone to bring around biscuits, fruit, sandwiches, and hot beverages. This would save the programmers and engineers from making "productivity-sapping visits to the kitchen, water cooler, etc." The recommendation was implemented, and over the next few months productivity fell. At a loss, a further study was commissioned. It was found that although time was taken to visit the kitchen and stand by the water cooler, and some of the time "wasted" was spent in talking about football, dates, and other non-work related topics, some of the time was spent explaining a problem, and having a colleague say "I had that problem last week/month/year, and here's how I solved it ..." The benefits of sharing information far, far outweighed the apparent losses in efficiency. The best thing you can do is increase the interaction, without causing more loss of time at desk. Encourage people to visit the facilities at the same time, provide whiteboards and pens, provide a shared workstation, have doughnuts and sandwiches delivered at predictable times. Increase the communication within and across teams. Don't force them to stay at their desks.
waqf 15y ago
I go to the kitchen because I need to stretch my legs, not because I actually need the coffee. If the coffee came to my desk, I'd have to find another excuse to take a two minute break and walk around. Take up smoking, perhaps.
psyklic 15y ago
I use coffee trips as an excuse to get up and move around, as opposed to sitting at my computer 10 hours straight. I would probably drink more coffee with a waiter, but I would still invent excuses to get out of my chair every now and then, if only to stretch.
to3m 15y ago
With coffee cups never empty, there will be a significant amount of diuretic liquid poured into your team's collective digestive systems. This can lead to only one result - more productivity-destroying trips away from the desk! Will you try to solve this in the same manner?
moocow01 15y ago
How about instead a caffeine drip put into everyone's arm when they get into the office in the morning? Seriously though - people need to move around... I don't think there is a need to optimize coffee breaks. If people don't have breaks you'll see a drop in productivity rather than a gain.
ayers 15y ago
Like others have stated, I use going to the kitchen as a stretch for my muscles. I find that getting up away from the desk and walking around helps break up the working day. Without these breaks I know that my productivity would drop, especially in the afternoons. The same goes for working through lunch. I often find myself doing this in order to complete all the work I have on my plate. What I am trying to force myself to do is actually get out of the office and at the very least go for a walk outside. More often than not I am a lot more productive in the afternoons when I take a decent break for lunch. Working straight through lunch is a bad habit to get into.
chris_dcosta 15y ago
I've often thought that a school bell that rings every 40 minutes would also be a good idea in a working environment. Especially if there was enforced playtime too. I'm not joking about this, I really think structured work/play is a valid idea. if I ever get enough staff I'll try it out on all of them. We'll see where it goes...
sdfjkl 15y ago
I'd ask them to please not service me and would continue my irregular trips to the kitchen to get a cup of tea. The reasons for this are: - I do my tea trips during natural pauses in my work (between tasks, stuck on a problem, waiting for the computer, feeling tired) while the coffee refills would interrupt whatever I'm doing and cause me to lose focus - Breaks are good for your creativity - when stuck on a problem I regularly get great solutions when I stop "actively" focusing on it and get a cup of tea (or do other small AFK tasks). - In the office kitchen I bump into users (I develop in-house software) and get immediate feedback, which is often the most valuable kind. - Getting up from your chair is good for your posture, blood circulation, etc. All of these make me more productive, not less.
KoryFerbet 15y ago
Hmm...I think it would have some benefits. The biggest issue I could see is that people need to walk around. I know when I walk down the block to get a coffee it's less about the coffee and more about getting the chance to walk outside and stretch my legs a little bit. You also might have to introduce a system to give everyone a catheter since the more coffee you drink the more trips to the restroom you'll be taking.

7 points by hoodoof 15y ago

Imagine someone whose job it is to keep peoples coffee cups full, thereby removing the productivity destroying trips to the kitchen. Would this improve your team productivity?

ColinWright 15y ago

I don't have my copy of "PeopleWare" to hand, but I think that is where I read this story ... A company brought in an external consultant to look at how to improve productivity in the software and engineering sections of the company. After two weeks they reported back and recommended the hiring of a "coffee lady" - someone to bring around biscuits, fruit, sandwiches, and hot beverages. This would save the programmers and engineers from making "productivity-sapping visits to the kitchen, water cooler, etc." The recommendation was implemented, and over the next few months productivity fell. At a loss, a further study was commissioned. It was found that although time was taken to visit the kitchen and stand by the water cooler, and some of the time "wasted" was spent in talking about football, dates, and other non-work related topics, some of the time was spent explaining a problem, and having a colleague say "I had that problem last week/month/year, and here's how I solved it ..." The benefits of sharing information far, far outweighed the apparent losses in efficiency. The best thing you can do is increase the interaction, without causing more loss of time at desk. Encourage people to visit the facilities at the same time, provide whiteboards and pens, provide a shared workstation, have doughnuts and sandwiches delivered at predictable times. Increase the communication within and across teams. Don't force them to stay at their desks.

waqf 15y ago

I go to the kitchen because I need to stretch my legs, not because I actually need the coffee. If the coffee came to my desk, I'd have to find another excuse to take a two minute break and walk around. Take up smoking, perhaps.

psyklic 15y ago

I use coffee trips as an excuse to get up and move around, as opposed to sitting at my computer 10 hours straight. I would probably drink more coffee with a waiter, but I would still invent excuses to get out of my chair every now and then, if only to stretch.

to3m 15y ago

With coffee cups never empty, there will be a significant amount of diuretic liquid poured into your team's collective digestive systems. This can lead to only one result - more productivity-destroying trips away from the desk! Will you try to solve this in the same manner?

moocow01 15y ago

How about instead a caffeine drip put into everyone's arm when they get into the office in the morning? Seriously though - people need to move around... I don't think there is a need to optimize coffee breaks. If people don't have breaks you'll see a drop in productivity rather than a gain.

ayers 15y ago

Like others have stated, I use going to the kitchen as a stretch for my muscles. I find that getting up away from the desk and walking around helps break up the working day. Without these breaks I know that my productivity would drop, especially in the afternoons. The same goes for working through lunch. I often find myself doing this in order to complete all the work I have on my plate. What I am trying to force myself to do is actually get out of the office and at the very least go for a walk outside. More often than not I am a lot more productive in the afternoons when I take a decent break for lunch. Working straight through lunch is a bad habit to get into.

chris_dcosta 15y ago

I've often thought that a school bell that rings every 40 minutes would also be a good idea in a working environment. Especially if there was enforced playtime too. I'm not joking about this, I really think structured work/play is a valid idea. if I ever get enough staff I'll try it out on all of them. We'll see where it goes...

sdfjkl 15y ago

I'd ask them to please not service me and would continue my irregular trips to the kitchen to get a cup of tea. The reasons for this are: - I do my tea trips during natural pauses in my work (between tasks, stuck on a problem, waiting for the computer, feeling tired) while the coffee refills would interrupt whatever I'm doing and cause me to lose focus - Breaks are good for your creativity - when stuck on a problem I regularly get great solutions when I stop "actively" focusing on it and get a cup of tea (or do other small AFK tasks). - In the office kitchen I bump into users (I develop in-house software) and get immediate feedback, which is often the most valuable kind. - Getting up from your chair is good for your posture, blood circulation, etc. All of these make me more productive, not less.

KoryFerbet 15y ago

Hmm...I think it would have some benefits. The biggest issue I could see is that people need to walk around. I know when I walk down the block to get a coffee it's less about the coffee and more about getting the chance to walk outside and stretch my legs a little bit. You also might have to introduce a system to give everyone a catheter since the more coffee you drink the more trips to the restroom you'll be taking.