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: 2) by physicsmajor on Friday November 13 2015, @06:24AM
The worst still seems entirely fine to me.
I use Republic Wireless, and my bill is usually under $15/mo. They use Sprint, and the service is fine everywhere I've been. This includes, recently, nine different states.
Perhaps you can't always steam 4k video, but for reference, chat, email, talk, and maps I've yet to notice any meaningful difference compared to Verizon. Perhaps the building penetration isn't as good, but Republic uses Wi-Fi there.
I have to wonder if anyone who hates on Sprint actually uses Sprint, or if there is some other reason they are promulgating that position.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday November 13 2015, @08:57AM
Agreed. I'm going into my 3rd year with Ting (plus several years on other Sprint MVNOs before it), and service has actually improved dramatically even just in the last year or two, so that I reliably have service everywhere I go in my region.