4 ms·

Perhaps there's a difference in culture between bottles versus kegs? The former suggests restraint, the latter doesn't?

JTon 13y ago
I agree with this. And as a side note, it brings me back to the days where my student house would come together to try and finish a torpedo keg. We always failed our mission. But I believe we came out the other end closer friends
lazerwalker 13y ago
It all depends on the context. Out of the beer-friendly offices I've worked in, I've preferred the ones that have kegerators because it means I can pour myself half a beer at 5pm instead of going for a full 12oz.
rev_null 13y ago
A really classy startup would stock wine, or perhaps a collection of single malt whiskeys.
adwf 13y ago
Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. Just the presence of a small bottle fridge says to me - "We're a relaxed and fun place to work. We take your mental wellbeing seriously and don't mind you unwinding a little on a sunny friday afternoon." Whereas a keg just says "Drink up, there's plenty more". Either way, I think that having beer in the office is less of a perk and more of a culture indicator. In one easy move you've made the company looked relaxed and friendly. You don't even have to be drinking the beer regularly, just have it available for special occasions or somesuch.
- tptacek 13y ago
  We don't have a small bottle fridge because we want to seem like a relaxed and fun place to work. We have a small fridge to hold Fresca, and enough people that really appreciate craft brewing that the bottom shelf of that fridge tends to have good bottles. There's no company policy that keeps the fridge stocked; it's something that arose organically from the people that work in this office. Our MTV and NYC offices don't routinely have beer (the MTV office has the empties of the Dark Lord we bring them when we get out there). A deliberate company policy of keeping the office plied with alcohol sounds to me like another one of those signals that maybe your company's relationship with alcohol is a bit fraught. (But that's easy for me to say; maybe I just like to drink so much that I can't see how fraught my existing relationship with drinking is? Who knows.)

JTon 13y ago

I agree with this. And as a side note, it brings me back to the days where my student house would come together to try and finish a torpedo keg. We always failed our mission. But I believe we came out the other end closer friends

lazerwalker 13y ago

It all depends on the context. Out of the beer-friendly offices I've worked in, I've preferred the ones that have kegerators because it means I can pour myself half a beer at 5pm instead of going for a full 12oz.

rev_null 13y ago

A really classy startup would stock wine, or perhaps a collection of single malt whiskeys.

adwf 13y ago

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. Just the presence of a small bottle fridge says to me - "We're a relaxed and fun place to work. We take your mental wellbeing seriously and don't mind you unwinding a little on a sunny friday afternoon." Whereas a keg just says "Drink up, there's plenty more". Either way, I think that having beer in the office is less of a perk and more of a culture indicator. In one easy move you've made the company looked relaxed and friendly. You don't even have to be drinking the beer regularly, just have it available for special occasions or somesuch.

tptacek 13y ago
We don't have a small bottle fridge because we want to seem like a relaxed and fun place to work. We have a small fridge to hold Fresca, and enough people that really appreciate craft brewing that the bottom shelf of that fridge tends to have good bottles. There's no company policy that keeps the fridge stocked; it's something that arose organically from the people that work in this office. Our MTV and NYC offices don't routinely have beer (the MTV office has the empties of the Dark Lord we bring them when we get out there). A deliberate company policy of keeping the office plied with alcohol sounds to me like another one of those signals that maybe your company's relationship with alcohol is a bit fraught. (But that's easy for me to say; maybe I just like to drink so much that I can't see how fraught my existing relationship with drinking is? Who knows.)