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Intel reinstates free coffee for employees after mass layoffs
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Iwan-Zotow 2y agoand paid water
- barbazoo 2y agoLet's do bathrooms next. Why are those free, right? /s
- ozgrakkurt 2y agoGreat idea, let’s also lower salaries so they can’t afford the toilets so they use them less, means more work and less expenses. Also we will make money on the toilets
- erik_seaberg 2y agoGoogle had bidets in MTV. Unmetered wifi was probably bad for toilet availability, though.
- TheUnhinged 2y agoThat’s hilarious.
- joecool1029 2y agohttps://archive.ph/WtaQc https://archive.ph/WtaQc
- pengaru 2y agoThis company is done.
- chipdart 2y ago> This company is done. This is hard to understate the importance of this. If a company feels obligated to cut spending by cutting small expenses on consumables, such as coffee or even free fruit programs, then they are at a level of going through the proverbial couch cushions hoping to find a coin to meet the budget.
- jszymborski 2y agoMy impression is that these employee creature comforts are the absolute first thing to go. It's when the scope of business is narrowed or segments/IP is sold off that I would start worrying. I have no special insight on this, however.
- ac29 2y ago> My impression is that these employee creature comforts are the absolute first thing to go. Is that even such a bad thing? Given the choice between cutting expenses on food/drinks and firing people, I cant really blame a manager for choosing to keep the people and lose the coffee.
- chipdart 2y ago> Is that even such a bad thing? Given the choice between cutting expenses on food/drinks and firing people, (...) The whole point is that if you're already faced with the choice if cutting coffee or firing people, you will already fire people regardless of how much you cut in coffee. It's futile and specious reasoning, which at most only work as signaling.
- mrandish 2y agoI agree with you but I think there may also be an element of signaling in some of these actions.
- xhkkffbf 2y agoSo you can either have a coffee XOR a friend with which to share it. Only one. Not both.
- jszymborski 2y agoSee, now not only are you paying for the cost of coffee beans and hot water, but also the hours lost socializing /s
- mola 2y agoMaybe they fired the coffee whales
- otikik 2y ago> The company’s free fruit program, for example, remains discontinued Is this real life? This reads like an article on The Onion
- cbhl 2y agoI'm pretty sure in the Bay Area most larger tech companies cargo-culted offering employees free fruit (and sometimes vegetables / crudite) -- the argument being that having employees eat these instead of bagged chips/candy would reduce your health care spend in the long run.
- jszymborski 2y agoAm I wrong in thinking that this sounds sensible? I would imagine a corp can even probably directly negotiate a discount with their insurance provider by instating such measures.
- tomcar288 2y agoit sounds super sensible since metabsolic syndrome diseases people go to a doctor for are mostly preventable. But, these days I think most companies have sufficient layoffs to where the employees don't last long enough for it to matter.
- polotics 2y agowell, not quite: more fiber in your diet => less time per day spent on the toilet
- canadianfella 2y ago[dead]
- water-data-dude 2y agoFiber supplements are life changing. You go into the bathroom, you SCHLOOP out your business in ~15 seconds, and you’re done, like a deer in the woods! Wiping is practically a formality! It’s like getting years of your life back.
- yapyap 2y ago[flagged]
- generj 2y agoI’ve always found it unfair coffee is generally free at any employer but soda or flavored water is not.
- kylehotchkiss 2y agoCoffee increases your AM code output. Back to work!
- polygot 2y agoIt can also increase your PM output, at the expense of next day's AM output
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- s1artibartfast 2y agoNot an apples to apples comparison. Coffee is a lot cheaper and has a wider audience.
- vel0city 2y agoLoads of places switched to coffee pods for the free coffee. Those things often run like $0.40-$0.50/ea for name brand varieties, not including the cost of water filters and what not. Probably cheaper per unit if you just serve large carafes of it. A 12oz soda from a soda fountain has a marginal cost of like $0.10. Even then cans of soda can be had wholesale for ~<$0.50, especially off-brand varieties.
- antifa 2y agoAnd you could get a sodastream machine for the office.
- IshKebab 2y agoI agree. I don't drink tea or coffee. What free thing do I get? Definitely more equitable to offer it for a reasonable price and just pay people slightly more (yeah yeah I know what you're going to say).
- jauntywundrkind 2y ago> Intel’s chief people officer, explained that the company had been spending approximately $100 million annually on free and discounted food and beverages I haven't done any napkin math or anything but that seems like a colossal figure. Ok, napkin math... Intel was at 125k employees, trending down. So $800/employee. If every employee was 5 days a week and used the free-coffee/food-discount every day (obviously not true) that'd be 365*5/7 = 260 days. $800 / 260 = $3/day. That's at least somewhat believable, in the ballpark of plausibility.
- chrisandchris 2y agoAnd that's 5 billions just for salaries if the average salary is 40k (which maybe is not so far off), and then 100 million is "just 2%" of the salaries.
- roughly 2y agoA problem for large organizations is that all the numbers look big in isolation. $100M seems like a lot of money, but 2% of $5Bn doesn't quite have the same sound, and the 5% efficiency drop because your workers are now having to go figure out where their coffee is coming from and/or updating their linkedin because you've just signaled you don't particularly value their time doesn't seem to register either.
- hyggetrold 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(Animal_Farm) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(Animal_Farm) "I will work harder!"
- Clubber 2y agoSoon they'll bring back pizza parties for bonuses.
- sneak 2y agoI cannot imagine paying an employee six figures usd and not giving them every possible free consumable while they are physically present in the office. How stupid are these people?
- jerlam 2y agoIt's a large, fossilized company run by accountants who find it easier to increase profits by slashing costs instead of developing good products.
- ac29 2y agoIntel has about 25 million employee workdays a year. Someone did the math that spending even an extra dollar or two per workday is a lot of money. It is a lot of money, but close to a rounding error compared to total payroll spending.
- more_corn 2y agoLife imitates Dilbert? https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/86lm3/dilberts_wally_on_the_importance_of_free_coffee/?rdt=64005 https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/86lm3/dilberts_wally_...
- y-c-o-m-b 2y ago> Other changes include scaling back its air shuttle service between California and other Western states Makes sense... > as well as raising the eligibility requirement for its employee sabbatical program from four to seven years. Ah, there it is. Classic Intel; run into problems so we'll double-down on our already toxic work environment and obliterating morale. That alone should demonstrate how they have no real strategy for getting out of this mess. They're grasping at anything to keep those shares afloat.
- black_13 2y ago[dead]
- elzbardico 2y agoAfter over 100 billion of stock buybacks since 2005.
- s1artibartfast 2y agoThat's not some gotcha. buybacks and dividends are the entire point of a company. Product sales and employment are simply a byproduct and tool to achieve that goal.
- saulpw 2y ago"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don't want to run out of gas on your trip, but you're not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn't be about the money." - Tim O'Reilly
- s1artibartfast 2y agoI think that's really good advice for governing one's personal life or running a lifestyle business. I don't think it is a accurate reflection of the desires of shareholder owners - they aren't there to enjoy the ride.
- SturgeonsLaw 2y agoThat's the difference between being a shareholder and running a business. For those who are actually driving things, they need to focus on more than just money to really be successful. For shareholders who have some distance from business operations, they can make do with "number go up".
- s1artibartfast 2y agoSure, it requires a broad set of tasks and strategy to make the money go up. It would be stupid to think otherwise. But that is still the end goal when running a business for someone else. Fun, cool tech, employees, or whatever else is in service of that goal.
- wg0 2y agoIntel can't afford some two cups of coffee per employee per day or 40 cups a month per employee?
- selimthegrim 2y agoThey used to charge $1 apiece for fruit to green badges 10 years ago.
- monksy 2y agoAt times it makes me wonder how they can even hold shareholder calls without the investors getting super concerned. How can you deliever or invest in your own product if you can't even afford self created coffee. (~$0.10 a day)
- andrewinardeer 2y agoYes, SF Chronicle. I do have an adblocker on.