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To boost its bottom line, Sprint decided last week to end the era of free office snacks for its employees. The move represents a tiny fraction of the struggling telecom's effort to cut $2.5 billion from its total operating expenses. Axing the free food will shave $600,000 from the budget. But at what cost?
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From the most cynical point of view, however, this isn't just a case of corporate largesse. Snacks keep workers in the office working instead of out foraging for sustenance during working hours. A 2011 study by Staples found that half of all workers left the office to get snacks at least once a day, with some people making as many as five trips to get their munchie fix. Snack runs account for 2.4 billion hours in lost productivity in the U.S., according to the study. It should be noted, of course, that Staples and your boss have a shared interest in keeping more people in the office.
There has been no economic study on the elasticity of perks. Proposing Phoenix's Law: "When free coffee, soda, and snacks go, so should you."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Friday November 13 2015, @05:27AM
Everyone says breakfast is the most important meal of the day and helps you think, so for only a few dollars per employee, you can make sure everyone can eat breakfast."
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I was essentially brushed aside. I can't remember what he actually said, but something generic and neutral.
Maybe it's one of the few cases where they can reliably spend with their families before rushing off to work. I'll bet the CEO eats a good breakfast, and considers it a competitive edge against the rest of the employees :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2015, @08:26AM
The last CEO I worked closely with surely had wonderful food. If nothing serious like a product release was coming up he would get into the office around 10am. By noon he would be out with the senior engineers and a couple department heads for their customary 1.5 hour long lunch, with drinks. If it was a nice day the same group would leave the office by three to go golfing. If it was not good weather, the CEO would leave just before or after the parking lot cleared out at five. In three years I never saw him put in a full 40 hours in a week. I practically lived at the place with several other people.