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My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

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Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#61

Post by freddie_mercury »

IshKebab wrote: post #54
freddie_mercury wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Have you ever done this? I've been on the other side of it. (I own my own company.) Get suggestions from staff & follow through. In the real world staff have lots of wants, nice ideas, and "wouldn't it be good if" suggestions. They have very little concept if other people are interested in their idea, if people would actually continue to use the idea once the novelty wears off, and so on. In my office her…

Those are totally normal and common things in the UK at least. My current company has them all, and the only one that I think makes little sense is the sofas (well it's more like armchairs, but yeah they are rarely used). Everyone has standing desks and they are often used. Not all the time of course but most people use them occasionally. Every company I've ever worked at has a microwave. Not having one would just be…

My point wasn't really about whether things are cheap or not. My point is that the post I replied to came across as typical developer "every other job in the world except mine is easy" that you constantly see in HackerNews.

"You don't need metrics - just a suggestion box." Implied: managing the comforts for humans in an office is easy! (So easy that places like Facebook and Google have entire Experience Teams dedicated to it....)

In the real world it is always more complicated. There are always tradeoffs -- if you put in couches then maybe there's no room for quiet pods or a PlayStation or a lunch room or whatever. Always have on-going maintenance costs (who orders & pays for the fruit when the office admin is on holiday? Yet another thing to always remember and have to handover), and just the mind space required to deal with things. How do you know the office manager isn't picking the most expensive option every time? How do you know you're serving the vast majority who won't put something in the suggestion box? Etc.

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#62

Post by speedplane »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #61
IshKebab wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are totally normal and common things in the UK at least. My current company has them all, and the only one that I think makes little sense is the sofas (well it's more like armchairs, but yeah they are rarely used). Everyone has standing desks and they are often used. Not all the time of course but most people use them occasionally. Every company I've ever worked at has a microwave. Not having one would just be…

My point wasn't really about whether things are cheap or not. My point is that the post I replied to came across as typical developer "every other job in the world except mine is easy" that you constantly see in HackerNews. "You don't need metrics - just a suggestion box." Implied: managing the comforts for humans in an office is easy! (So easy that places like Facebook and Google have entire Experience Teams dedicat…

How about something even more basic and central: your manager/boss/CEO has to balance challenging you to push the boundaries of what you can do without making you hate him and/or the company or burning you out.

Motivating someone to the near peak of their ability is generally the goal, but it's not easy... quite a bit harder than figuring out where to put the couch.

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#63

Post by speedplane »

noir_lord wrote: post #55
IshKebab wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are totally normal and common things in the UK at least. My current company has them all, and the only one that I think makes little sense is the sofas (well it's more like armchairs, but yeah they are rarely used). Everyone has standing desks and they are often used. Not all the time of course but most people use them occasionally. Every company I've ever worked at has a microwave. Not having one would just be…

Pretty much the same. I'm a programmer at a manufacturing company and our offices all have (well we actually have two) canteens attached, Microwave, 4 rack toasters and a paninni maker. Coffee/Tea/Water are available from a machine (you just put your token in and select what you want). We don't have Sofa's but everything else we do have, I have a whiteboard behind my desk (though that is because what was a meeting ro…

The perks you describe are actually pretty basic compared to the over-the-top silicon valley world, but they still get the same point across. The CEO/boss is hiring you for your brain, and keeping you happy and reducing stress makes most people's brains work better.

So no matter if your office has a personal sushi chef or just decent coffee, management's ability to empathize, see the pain, and compensate in some tangible way (not necessarily monetarily) can often be a huge motivator / confidence booster.

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#64

Post by noir_lord »

speedplane wrote: post #63
noir_lord wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the same. I'm a programmer at a manufacturing company and our offices all have (well we actually have two) canteens attached, Microwave, 4 rack toasters and a paninni maker. Coffee/Tea/Water are available from a machine (you just put your token in and select what you want). We don't have Sofa's but everything else we do have, I have a whiteboard behind my desk (though that is because what was a meeting ro…

The perks you describe are actually pretty basic compared to the over-the-top silicon valley world, but they still get the same point across. The CEO/boss is hiring you for your brain, and keeping you happy and reducing stress makes most people's brains work better. So no matter if your office has a personal sushi chef or just decent coffee, management's ability to empathize, see the pain, and compensate in some tang…

Beyond a quiet place to work (which I have) and decent management (which I have) I'm really not fussed about perks.

My boss insists I don't work over time (and if I need to do anything on a weekend I get the time back in lieu).

So while yeah they are basic perks I'll take no perks if I can have the above every day of the week.

For me as a programmer, 9-5 Mon to Friday every week, week in/week out is perfect - Work/Life balance is the best I've ever had since I moved to working as a programmer full time.

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#65

Post by detritus »

justin wrote: post #16

I'm a customer of Bevi. I got it for our office after seeing it in another startup. I think Bevi is pretty great - cuts down on La Croix can wastage at the office. Some things could be improved: sometimes it runs out of CO2 and everything comes out flat.

How many [somewhat efficiently recyclable] cans of fizzy drink product would it take to match the sunk cost of building this thing, with its own plethora of [recyclable?] components requiring periodic replacement?

And, is the end-product more enjoyable?

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#66

Post by dooglius »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #31
IshKebab wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not something that is measurable for office managers. I don't think office managers need metrics - just a suggestion box. Most thinks are really obvious, especially if you let people tell you about them. I guarantee if the had a suggestion box nobody would suggest an IoT water cooler.

I disagree. Have you ever done this? I've been on the other side of it. (I own my own company.) Get suggestions from staff & follow through. In the real world staff have lots of wants, nice ideas, and "wouldn't it be good if" suggestions. They have very little concept if other people are interested in their idea, if people would actually continue to use the idea once the novelty wears off, and so on. In my office her…

For a contrast, my company made a public suggestion page (with upvotes and downvotes), resulting in all the things listed here--and it has made the environment noticeably nicer. I adjust my standing desk at least once daily to my comfort. I now microwave my lunch and eat the available food, which has definitely had a positive impact on my health and all the things that come along with that. The couches are a nice place to relax with coworkers at the end of the day, especially after a stressful day. A lot of the time, people will come by asking the same sort of questions, and it's useful to have the project diagram you drew from the last time up right next to you. If the writing gets set in easily--don't you think that's the reason they would all have the same writing?

I was not the requester on any of these things, and in fact I was skeptical toward most of them at first, but each one was noticeably good, and over time has made me happier. These are precisely the sort of things I would look for the presence or absence of if I were to look for a job elsewhere.

How big is your company? How do you measure usage? Are you sure it's not just confirmation bias ("look at Alice using the microwave she insisted on having")? I would find it pretty surprising if you put out croissants and all but one person ignored them! If 90% of food is going uneaten... then maybe look for less perishable snacks and buy less at a time?

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#67

Post by jdietrich »

philliphaydon wrote: post #26
hellofunk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read about apples exported from China, covered in a toxic paint so they look red and beautiful, even though it is harmful, all to make a buck. I just wonder why humans have not evolved to, at a minimum, actually show some caring attitude toward others of their same species. I think we're all doomed.

Red apples usually are coated in ground up beetle to give the bright redness colour. It’s considered non toxic. Donno if that’s the same as what you’re referring to. I think it’s called Shellac.

Shellac is a colourless or amber substance, derived from a secretion of the lac beetle. It's used as a coating on many food products (including apples and citrus fruits) to inhibit moisture loss and enhance shine.

Cochineal is an insect-derived red food dye, but I haven't heard of it being used to colour apples. It's often labelled as carmine or natural red 4.

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#68

Post by jdietrich »

hellofunk wrote: post #15
dokem wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like evolution. Why does some weird, seemingly useless creature exist? Because it fills some crack in the ecological economy. Someone was willing to buy this piece of shit and that is explanation enough for its existence.

I read about apples exported from China, covered in a toxic paint so they look red and beautiful, even though it is harmful, all to make a buck. I just wonder why humans have not evolved to, at a minimum, actually show some caring attitude toward others of their same species. I think we're all doomed.

>I think we're all doomed.

No, we're fine. Malice is surprisingly rare, but people will cut corners to make a buck. Effective regulation makes cutting corners more expensive than doing things the right way.

Most western consumers have a justifiable trust in the food they eat. They walk into the supermarket, load up their trolley and don't give a moment's thought to whether their meat is tainted, their milk is watered down or their flour is bulked out with chalk. They don't worry about whether their candy has been dyed with toxic cadmium or cobalt pigments. They don't worry about whether their wine has been sweetened with lead acetate. They know that food is being rigorously monitored for safety throughout the supply chain, because the cost to a business of non-compliance can be catastrophic.

European consumers often worry about "e-number" additives in their food, but the entire point is that e-numbers are given to additives that have been rigorously tested for safety. I don't have the first idea what dodecyl gallate is, but I know that E313 is safe to eat.

Re: My company signed up for a $1000/year subscription-based water cooler

#69

Post by hellofunk »

philliphaydon wrote: post #49
hellofunk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m talking about a scandal from a couple years ago where apples were submerged in buckets of toxic paint to get a red color.

OH, I've not heard this story, got a link??? Unsure what to google for.

I think it was a Vice video or similar, undercover at a chinese apple export "factory" showing what they did.
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