Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday November 13 2015, @04:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-price-of-free dept.

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?
...
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."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2015, @05:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2015, @05:56AM (#262524)

    You seem to have this completely backwards. You said"

    wait for co-workers to go to meetings or the bathroom. treat their desk like it's the lunchroom.

    When what you meant to say was"

    wait for co-workers to go to meetings or the lunchroom. treat their desk like it's the bathroom.

    More instant results guaranteed, you bettcha!