4 ms·
There's a big difference between cutting soda because you're flaming out, and cutting soda because the company hired "professional management". The former is p
by timr 13y ago
There's a big difference between cutting soda because you're flaming out, and cutting soda because the company hired "professional management". The former is penny stupid, but the latter is pound dumb.
Unless you're filling swimming pools with soda or something, drink and snack expenses are rounding error on the salaries of your people. If it comes down to the free drinks, something else is broken. The real tragedy is when idiot bean-counters take over, and start imposing these sorts of nit-picky cost-controls because "that's what big companies do".
It takes a strong leader to stand up for company culture, because these sorts of issues often look like they're too small to be worth a fight. You grow to 200, 500, 1000 employees, and before long, you have to go out of your way to pull the Senior Bean-Counter for Drink Expenses aside and tell him to back off. That's when the bad stuff happens.
- __--__ 13y agoI'm not management, but I've had it described to me like this: cutting soda, while it may be insignificant and certainly isn't going to change a damned thing money-wise for the company, makes the management feel better about the situation. It makes them feel like they're doing something and something is better than nothing. It's also a CYA tactic. If the CEO wants to hold somebody personally accountable, the CFO can say "look, we did everything, we even cut back the soda!" Diversion warning: it's surprising to me how many management decisions get made solely to make people feel like they have control in a situation where they actually have no control. It's the same mechanism the government exploits when making decisions about the TSA.