Monday question: Coffee customs

I have never seen the "big pot" system work. People tend to get pissed off about some aspect of it - either someone else should have made the next pot or there's always a burned pot soaking in the sink. The "individual cup" systems seem to work best.

That said, as someone who actually likes coffee a lot, the coffee provided by the office is never very good. It's usually stale or weak or both. At best, it's ideal for cutting the sweet edge of hot chocolate.

If I'm seriously motivated, I'll grind my own coffee at home, tuck it into a one-cup filter, seal it in a plastic bag, and make my own at the office. Otherwise, I'll just have tea or water.

One of my friends, who used to organize, and therefore get criticized for, all the free food we used to get at work would say that we could get all our money back. So I make my drink choices at work *quietly* and feel grateful that for now, some basics are still provided.

Good morning! What a good issue for a Monday morning. I'm not a coffee drinker, so usually this doesn't affect me much. However, in our office we have a machine which costs $.25 in one part of the building and a large industrial coffee pot in another part of the building. The coffee pot has a jar next to it where people are supposed to deposit $.25. SO, it's not free, but it's not expensive. It'd be much more expensive to go out to Dunks. Especially if you have to drive to get there. I *think* that the last person to empty it make coffee, though there are a few people that either like to make it or have taken it on as part of their jobs.

Yes, my office provides coffee free. There are usually 3 or 4 kinds per day, including decaf. The mailroom guy also makes the coffee and puts it in big carafes, then if people notice it is getting low they make more. We also have an espresso machine that a few people use.

I have never been in an office without free coffee.

Coffee provided free of charge in a pod machine (Keurig). About a dozen choices for flavors, boldness factors, etc., including a few teas. No change in amounts since the recession.

Our company does not supply coffee. Two of us went for about $20 each and bought a Keurig single cup brewer. It's perfect. Everyone is responsible for his own goods. If someone wants to scarf a cup that's fine, they just have to buy their own coffee. It's nice because you can make whatever flavor you want. No fuss, no muss no baked mud in a pot at the end of the day.

It's especially good for people like me who only drinks one cup a day.

Why is it that people believe that they are entitled to free coffee at work? What if I prefer a soft drink and don't drink coffee? I am expected to pay at a vending machine for a soft drink. With all the advancements in technology today, I don't see it that difficult for people to make their own coffee at home before they leave. And if they need a few more at work, why not pay for it?

My company has not been doing well in this recession so this past summer they took away the free coffee and hot cocoa as well as the paper cups and plates, and plastic forks , knives and spoons. They then put in coin operated pod machines that only take quarters. People spend a lot of time trying to find someone who has a quarter to exchange for their nickles and dimes. It has decreased morale and productivity. People are still upset and its been three months now. The corner office just sees the dollar signs that are saved, and not the effects.

My office didn't provide coffee to all employees due to cost so I, as the Manager of the department, paid for a coffee maker and bought the coffee for the group. It was a general show of gratitude to my staff. Everyone pitched in to make the coffee and clean up, including me.

We have a pot that everyone cooperates on keeping filled. It amuses me, though, that many of the younger professionals, who complain about how tough it is to save money, are constantly going to Starbucks, rather than drinking the free coffee provided in the office.

Apparently to them, it's not drinkable unless made by a barista!

No free coffee here. Funny how many places can't seem to handle adult responsibility, though. We've just got a big coffee maker in the central kitchen area, and a "coffee club" that every that wants coffee kicks into. Someone goes after work occasionally and buys the coffee, filters, creamer, etc, and then we're all set. If you empty the pot, or it's close, you make another one.

Very rarely will it get emptied without someone making another, but how much hassle is it, really? People would rather spend 10 minutes complaining than 2 minutes setting up another pot. Personality types, i guess. That, or there's just not as much drama over stupid stuff at my office...

We get free coffee, tea, and cocoa. Really helps on those cold winters day and a definite perk. One person is responsible for the cleaning of the machine and the stocking of the supplies related to it.

We're lucky they provide us with potable water....and sometimes not even that. I got tired of buying coffee so I started using a personal push-pot with home-ground grounds, and then gave up coffee altogther.

Regarding coffee pot etiquette, I quote Terry Tate: "If you kill the joe, you make some mo'"

Our company provides free of charge pod machines (Keurig). Lots of choices for flavors, and includes teas. Company chose Green Mountain as the coffee vendor. No offense, but in my opinion, the pod machines work great, but I am a fan a fresh ground coffee taste

Similar to #4, we get free coffee (Green Mountain) with a Keurig machine. It's a nice perk and so far it hasn't changed. It wouldn't bother me a whole lot if they cut back or got rid of it, but I think having the machines & pods probably helps get people back to work sooner -- we don't have to go to one of the cafeterias (it's a big campus and the nearest one to me is in a separate building) or nearest Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee.

I used to work at a small company (

My office provides free coffee. Whoever empties the carafe makes the next pot. If I'm feeling industrious, I can manage to make my coffee at home, as the stuff at work isn't the best, but I'm not one to turn up my nose at free coffee.

My office has a machine that does single-cup coffee brewing. They offer about half a dozen types of coffee (in those little one-cup packages), plus tea and hot chocolate. They also have a vending machine for snacks and soda -- the cost is quite low, as the office subsidizes that. I love it, but it's also the first time I've ever worked in a place with this system. My prior two employers had no coffee/hot chocolate/vending. This company is a huge one and so I imagine they feel it's a fairly small cost for the morale benefits.

An office I worked at used to provide the free coffee,tea, hot chocolate, etc. Making the coffee wasn't really a problem, since the first few employees to come in would head off to the kitchen & start up those big industrial-type coffee makers and within 15 min or so, everyone had fresh hot coffee.

Then one day, without warning....the coffee, coffee maker, tea etc were gone, leaving behind a sad little water hose hanging out of the wall. The first employees in were baffled, and immediately thought we'd been robbed. After the initial panic, people left the building to go out for coffee.

TWO WEEKS later, an announcement came out from management that the free coffee had been discontinued (like we didn't already know).

Aside from the blow to morale and the grumbling about the way the coffee ride had ended, people got in the habit of going out for coffee, since there wasn't any place in the entire building to buy any. We worked in a busy, urbanized area, so choices were pretty good, BUT...you had to leave the building to get the coffee. People did...in droves.

So management decided to save $300/month by eliminating the coffee, but lost at least twice that much in lowered productivity, since getting a cup meant leaving the building instead of swinging by the kitchen on your way back from a meeting. Was that really worth it?

I've worked at a few companies over the last 5 years, and most of them have provided free coffee. While it might not be all that good, it does the trick in the afternoon and it keeps people in the office instead of making them wander off to the nearest coffee shop, potentially wasting 20-30 minutes of work time when all is said and done.

My office has a Keurig machine and provides the coffee for free. Lucky me. However, having said that, no employer should be required to provide free coffee or any beverage for that matter. Nor should any employee expect that coffee is an entitlement. Hopefully whether or not your employer provides the coffe isn't the measure of your job satisfaction.

At my last job, we had the free big pot. It didn't work out very well. There were always people who would leave JUST enough coffee in the pot so as not to brew a new one. A line would tend to form at 9AM and if you were the first one to a fresh pot of coffee, you'd feel guilty filling your cup all the way, knowing there are people behind you who will probably have to wait for the next pot to be brewed. Awful, awful system. And the coffee was terrible to boot.

Our company used to provide free coffee (and snacks) until the economy went south. Now, I and two other employees (we have a small office) use the one cup Keurig and split the cost of the coffee.

We have Coffee Pause deliver the coffee to us at the office once a month and we spend about $12-$15 each per month. We get 25 pods per box, for $12, unlike you would get at the grocery store at $8-$11 bucks a box for 12 pods. Works out perfect for us. And the coffee is much better than making a pot, Dunkin Donuts.

I work in an office with about 15 other people in a small office building with no vending machines. We have a pod machine with about 8 varieties of coffees and green tea, plus tea bags. The fridge is also always stocked with sodas and flavored sparkling water. We used to also have a lot of snacks in the office, but with the recession that has been cut to save money.

From what I've been told, the partners think it best to have these things on hand and available, that way if people need coffee or soda they don't have to run out to get it, thus keeping productivity going.

We have a big office -- Keurig hard-piped into the plumbing (2 on each floor) -- good coffee (so good I bought a home version). Never worked in an office that didn't provide coffee (though it was quite often terrible coffee). It would seem to me that the cost of providing it is certainly off-set by fewer people leaving the office for a Dunkin'-Dash.

In our office we have two coffee pots so people can make different types of Starbucks coffee at the same time. It has not decreased during the recession mainly because our CFO loves coffee. I don't drink coffee but I know some people have gotten annoyed with certain people making specific blends but I think people overall appreciate the free coffee. As someone else mentioned, there are still plenty of people who leave the office to get coffee elsewhere.

I am a professional in an educational institution. We have a set coffee break in the morning, and a schedule which clearly spells out who makes the coffee each day (as well as puts out snacks.) The schedule includes both professional and support staff. The only controversy is that the schedule is never changed and so there are some people who enjoy the coffee but never have to make it, and there are some people who never consume the coffee but are scheduled to make it, anyway. The coffee's free - but it is dumped out after our break as we are not supposed to be consuming coffee (or anything else) at any other time of the day, except lunch. (Don't get me started.)

Our office went to a free coffee system for the first time last year. We have a pod-based pot, which allows for coffee, tea, and cocoa. Oddly enough, we put in this machine *after* the recession started to pinch pockets. I don't drink the coffee provided (preferring to snag a Dunky on the way in), but the cocoa is a treat when it's cold. (For tea, I have an electric kettle, a supply of make-your-own teabags, and several kinds of loose tea. I prefer that to the pod tea.)

We have 2 options. Pod-style single brews on each floor (we have 5 floors of a small building) or on one floor, there are 5 different options (including decaf) in carafs maintained by a woman who runs a 'cafe.' We used to have a Dunkin and a Starbucks brew as well as French Vanilla and Hazelnut and the only thing we have recently done is traded those in for fair trade organic coffee which is similar in taste/strength to the others (better tasting if you ask me).
Oh, we also have an espresso machine but it is rarely used and often broken.

We have a pod machine on every floor. There are a whole bunch of flavors, but since I don't drink coffee, I couldn't say what it's like. They also provide tea and cocoa (and Crystal Light for those who want that instead). While I agree with "coffeefree" at work, that it's not fair that there is coffee but no soda, soda costs more. A lot more. Especially when it comes in cans. Fountain drinks are cheaper, but more of a pain to maintain. Coffee is really cheap in the grand scheme of things.

I have never been in an office that provided coffee. At my previous place of employment we only had 8 employees, and we would take turns running to a coffee shop down the street, often with the bosses offering to pay for us all. It probably would have been more convenient for them to pay for a coffee maker, but then, we were lazy. At my current place of employment, a non-profit with tight expenses, coffee is not provided, though disposable utensils and appliances are. One gentleman brought in his own coffee maker, but then banished it to his own office after he felt it was being "abused".

We have a Keurig pod machine as well. It brews single serving cups of coffee and tea, with multiple choices to choose from (free of charge!). I love it and consider it a great perk.

My previous employer provided a standard coffee maker. I think that it is a relatively small cost for a company to absorb (although the Keurig is more expensive) and good for morale. It can also keep employees in the building and away from DD runs. As far as post #6, quit complaining and grow up. It is not like you can brew a cup of soda.

Re

I'm currently working in a small office in the UK, so we have a cafetiere that we all use. As office manager, I tend to make the first pot in the morning, but if someone wants another, they'll make it and offer to everyone else (there are only six of us!). But it is provided by the company, as well as tea and milk.

The company I worked for in Boston had a pod machine that was fantastic. Paid for by the office, but you could have as much as you'd like in a variety of flavours. Very nice all around!

I also have never worked at a company that didn't offer it, though many people still chose to go out to DD or Starbucks sometimes.

Coffee provided free of charge in a pod machine (Keurig). About a dozen choices for flavors, boldness factors, etc., including a few teas. No change in amounts since the recession.

We have a communal pot (just a normal household 12 cupper), and whomever wants coffee first makes it. It's not made every day. We all contribute to a petty cash fund which is used to buy coffee, creamer, sugar, salt and pepper, and dishwashing soap, and coffee drinkers are asked to contribute to the change bin -- no set amount. If there isn't enough to buy supplies, everyone is asked to pony up. I don't drink regular coffee (decaf only), so if I want it, I make it at home.

As we try to be an environmentally responsible office, we have a communal corral of mugs, including a few travel mugs people got free at conferences. We also have a communal pile of real silverware so that we aren't wasting plastic utensils all the time. I contributed the silverware this past year -- $7 at Salvation Army, and we're down to a box of forks every year instead of every few months. Admittedly, you have to have an office where people are willing to take responsibility for cleaning up after themselves, but it works for us.

I'm a software engineer. My current employer has a Keurig machine and a box of teas. If a couple of dollars a day improves morale, it's money well spent. I usually bring in half-and-half since we tend to run out of mini-moos. On my salary I can afford a few dollars of dairy a week.

I've worked for a place that was still living the dot.com dream, with free snacks. I've worked for a government contractor that couldn't provide coffee because it wasn't in the contract, so there were pools. I've worked at a place where there were regular debates over French press versus filter cone, and the types of grinders, leaving us all well trained for our next jobs working at Starbucks.

What I find funny is that when I externed in the Brooklyn courthouse (with a s'bucks across the street, and dunkin donuts down the block) is that we always had coffee in the office. Granted this wasn't paid for by the hospital, but the psychologists/psychiatrists pooled money or resources. One of the docs who lived in Queens would buy coffee from Costco. One of the docs would buy milk/cream (even though she made her own tea). Someone would buy sugar. The assistant office manager would make a pot, or one of the docs would. And on Thursdays we went through 3 pots of coffee at the very least, because all the staff worked in the Brooklyn court office. I think we were on our own caffeine wise on the days we worked in the queens court office (it was smaller and didn't have room for a coffee pot). And honestly, those of us coming in from brooklyn caffeinated before getting on the subway....seeing as it took us well over an hour to get there.
The hospital did pay for our bottled water....and always lost the paperwork to have new bottles delivered. What the staff started doing was buying gallons of water to refill the bottle

Providing coffee is in the long run less expensive to the company than having their employees running out for coffee half a dozen times a day. If it helps people stay productive through the midday hump that's a win for the company as well. I understand the chagrin of non-coffee drinkers, but drinkable coffee is not available from vending machines. I always kept a single cup brewer in my office because I didn't want to get involved in the drama that inevitably surrounds the company coffee pot and also because I'm fussy about the quality of my coffee. However, the option of having one's own coffee pot is not feasible in every office. I also think that the location of the office (inner city or out in the boondocks) plays a role in what amenities the company should provide. In the case presented here where the company relocated to an inconvenient location I think that it should provide a few treats. One very important thing is that the company set up clear rules regarding the employees' obligations regarding the maintenance of the pot,etc.

I just poured a cup from the office pot. Company buys the coffee and tea, although every now and then someone stops it, and then starts it back up once people grumble (or we have a slightly better quarter). People just make it when they want it, and remarkably it usually gets turned off before anything burns. Nightly cleaning staff cleans it, but I think the coffee drinkers keep it pretty clean during the day, too.

ps- I run to Starbucks or Dunkin when I need a walk. I drink from the office pot when I'm feeling poor or just too busy to run out.

We've got an in-house cafeteria that keeps the coffee pots going ... New England Coffee, so it isn't bad. My last company served Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks, but each kitchen area had to make their own ... rule was if you empty the pot, you make the next one. We used those small glass pots there. Worked well.

I work at a nonprofit that just recently bought a Keurig single-cup brewer with all the fixings (about 12 choices including 2 kinds of tea and hot chocolate) cups, sweetener, mini-moos etc) for our staff room. I don't know why after about a century in operation they decided that it was finally time to offer coffee to the staff, but we appreciate it and I think it has increased productivity because way fewer people are now taking breaks to go out for coffee.

Smart companies provide free coffee because they recognize that the time that is wasted by people going to outside coffee shops costs a lot more money in the long run.

The office where I work now has the K-cup single brew machine and the coffee it makes is surprisingly good. They got rid of all the soda machines to encourage everyone to drink water instead -- it worked.

I've worked at a lot of different offices and there has always been free coffee. I agree with the other commenters who said that the "communal pot" setup is problematic. There's always resentment over who made the last pot or who drank the last cup, and similar drama ("I won't drink it if Joe made it because he always makes it too strong/weak"). As a tea drinker with therefore an outside perspective, I find it kind of funny; but I doubt it feels that way to the involved parties.

My current office has one of the one-cup-at-a-time machines and it seems to work much better. The office also provides a pretty good variety of teabags, and hot cocoa. But yes, as "coffeefree" said, if you want a soft drink you have to pay for it.

I've worked at several small internet startups that provided a lot more than free coffee -- numerous kinds of soda, juice, bottled water, a huge variety of snacks, free lunches once a week, etc. Of course, most of those companies are now either defunct or floundering.

My office went from full coffee service (3 different blends, plus decaf, with whole milk, cream, and 2% milk. They have cut back drastically: now we only have 1 regular blend and 2% milk. No decaf. This really annoys me because I cannot drink regular coffee (high blood pressure). I find this highly discriminatory. I brought this up to our HR department and they said there's nothing they can do about it.

Our office has pots, the single serve green mountain coffee machine and a high end single serve Jura coffee/espresso/capuchinno machine all free of charge. A great perk and probably saves me $50 a month.

We have one of those POD machines, but they aren't buying the little PODs anymore. Because of the economy. Which is somewhat silly, because around 3-4pm everyone in the office gets sleepy and sluggish. So, our productivity either falls off or people start sneaking out to hit up dunkin donuts. I think a few bucks spent on coffee that would be on site would pretty much pay for itself.

we get free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. the cleaning folks actually keep the pots full so that's nice for us. I hate the coffee here, so I stop at Dunkin every morning. I have worked at both places where you paid a quarter and places where it's free. Love the people like the post above who whine about that fact that they don't drink coffee so no one else should get it free. get over it, it's a minor detail. I can get free coffee but choose to pay for it every day so I get what I like.
One thing I do know is nothing will cause a mutiny faster than charging for coffee that was once free. Find another way to cut the budget.....

From the early '90s to the early '00s, most places I worked or visited had free (or tip jar) pots. The quality of the coffee degraded over time, coincident with the global coffee market saturation which shifted from arabica (good) coffee beans to robusta (bad) coffee beans.

From the early '00s on, I found the machines (cup or pouch) getting more prevalent; I was a consultant and so worked in many offices so that I could build on a number of examples. In general, the higher end the business, the more likely they'd have a single cup machine. (Financial offices yes; manufacturing plants no).

The most fascinating change is that my workplace just changed from the K-cup system to the Flavia system because the K-cup systems are starting to penetrate the home market enough that people were stealing them for home use! The Flavia system has home machines, too, so I wonder how it's going to shake out in the long term.

I've had my own pot for my own brew, which I grind with a small hand grinder at work, and sometimes from beans which I roasted myself. But I'm a bit extreme.

Oh my, someone has to drive a whole mile to Dunkin Donuts? The horrors of it all. My town doesn't even have a DD's, although, there is a Honey Dew a couple miles away. Good luck to these folks if they ever move to the country.

My work has a cafeteria where you can buy coffee. Nothing is free.

My office has a Keurig coffee machine and we get our choice of 4-6 different kinds of quality coffee. I don’t understand why some people still go across the street to Dunkies or Starbucks; I guess some people just think that if it doesn’t cost them an arm and a leg, it isn’t any good! We also have tea, hot chocolate and soda. It’s all free! It’s a wonderful perk.

#43 - Are you for real? You really believe that you are being "highly" discriminated against because your employer stopped offering free decaf coffee? I am sure your HR rep had a good belly laugh over that one! It is no wonder that some employers offer nothing free to their employees, when they have to worry about people like you finding something to complain about. Good grief!

My office has a pod coffee machine that employees can use for free. Most people complain about the taste--calling it "swill"--and make Starbucks runs anyway.

Really, the Starbucks run is less about getting coffee and more about getting out of the office and taking a break. It's difficult to cross the mental barrier into break time when your computer screen is staring at you while you're sipping coffee.

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I join the Starbucks caravan just to get away for 15 minutes and chat about something non–work-related.

I run a small business and we have always provided free coffee (Dunkin) as a small employee benefit. The same goes for bottled water and seltzer - this way we have options for employees and visiting clients.

As for the coffee we brew it just about every day and the people that clean the pot and make it are the "old school" types like myself.Our younger staff are not HUGE coffee drinkers however and they tend not to take advantage of it. With a Starbucks, Dunkin and Peets all within five minutes of our office, they tend to favor these options.

We have a commercial coffee maker which can keep 3 pots hot at a time. The office supplies the coffee packets, filters, creamer, sweeteners, etc. If someone wants coffee in the morning, they make a pot. We don't have alot of coffee drinkers here, so we generally don't tend to make another pot when it's gone. Commercial coffee makers brew a pot in just a couple of minutes, so it's not a big inconvenience to make another pot when needed.

We are in a small office. Coffee is provided, free. It is a 12 cup drip system. The first person in the office makes coffee. Usually one pot does it. If a second pot is required, it is made by whomever wants it. The pot is washed by one of us. It works well and does not create conflict because we all like to contribute and get along. Besides, free coffee is worth a bundle and we don't want to blow it.

My office has a Keurig machine with 5-6 different types of coffee, including decaf. Also has an espresso machine, free sodas, snacks and cookies. No change since the recession. I have never worked at a place that did not offer free coffee, although some in the office will still make a "coffee run."

Seriously, #43, SERIOUSLY? You feel highly discriminated? Get a life.

we live the life - we have those little packet machines on every floor (quality ok, convenience high) and have a cafeteria that coffee is always brewed (convenience lower as it is only open till 2, quality pretty good)

Coffee is a great investment. It keeps people going, promotes discussions around the coffee pot, keeps people interactive, and it keeps people going. Drip coffee is provided freely by our employer. If it weren't, I would have a small drip machine at my desk. Those coffee pods that make one cup at a time are weak, lame excuses for coffee. We had one at the last place I worked and it sucked. I would buy my own outside coffee over using one of those lame machines. Green Mountain pods are like flavored water, where Green Mountain drip coffee from McDonalds is worth paying for. Make it good or don't make it at all. Employers that pay for coffee get their money's worth, I'm sure.

We provide coffee in the office. Whoever gets in first makes the coffee and whoever drinks the last cup - makes more....we have good stuff too, Godiva coffee and coffeemate flavored creams....its the ONLY indulgence I let the office have in these lean times. A happy employee (especially on Monday morning) makes a productive employee...

We are a small family owned business. My mom, the owner, bought the Keurig single cup maker. My husband and I, the managers, pay for the coffee for us and our employees. This is out of pocket and I am always glad to do it. Right now only one of our employees takes us up on that with any frequency, and we try to keep his favorite brew in stock. I am sure that now we are hiring two part timers that we will have more people keeping up the need for coffee. The truth of the matter is, that since we buy the coffee in as frugal a manner possible, it is cheaper to keep us all in k cups and half-and-half than it is for my husband and I to buy coffee out for ourselves only. The coffee is better, there is no coffee order to mess up, and the amount of time that used to get wasted running to Dunkin Donuts, resulting in poor productivity was ridiculous. This system works out well for us, and I wouldn't change a thing despite it coming out of our personal budget.

Hey Rob- where the heck do you work?!?! Not a DD in your town?
I didn't even know there was a town in Massachusetts that didn't
have at least 2- in my town, and most of the towns surrounding
me just north of Boston, we have 5!
For all you Keurig non-drinkers who think it is swill or too weak, you
just need to switch brands. New England coffee tends to be weak
and watery. If you switch to Coffee People and try the Kona or
Organic, you will see an amazing difference.

Hello. We have a coffee club. Anyone can be a member.
The coffee machine, a very heavy duty, stainless steel commercial monster was bought by the company. We the members buy the supplies, coffee, cream and filters. We charge ourselves 50 cents per cup that we place in a tin can. Who ever makes the coffee is entitled to one free cup. One person has been handling the funds for at least fifteen years. We manage to keep the pot, machine, and area clean with no prodding from anyone. At Christmas we donate the profits of the coffee club to the Pine Street Inn, around two hundred dollars.
This club has been going on for almost twenty five years, maybe longer.

If coffee (or lack of) is the biggest problem at your work place, I envy you!! Bring your own...there are so many one-cup machines available. I keep tea bags and sugar at my desk for anyone to use - and we have a hot water dispener at the water cooler. Not a big deal - if the employer gives you coffee, ok good deal. But if they don't... really not a huge problem. There are worse things in life :). No entitlement there...

@20, nobody said it's an entitlement. (I imagine you mean the way some people say employers ought to be mandated to pay for their employees health care.)
It's a courtesy, and it's pretty much win-win.
Job satisfaction? You'd be surprised how much of a difference little courtesies and trinkets can make. It may be less than one percent of total compensation, but morale and motivation can make a much bigger difference in productivity and retention. (I might KNOW I'm being played, but I don't switch jobs for salary, I will start looking over a series of insults, like childishness about the coffee.)
(I'm not a heavy coffee drinker, and I also drink tea and hot chocolate, but I'll take fresh, as in pods, over good but stale and burned any day.)

i've always worked in offices (big & small) that provided coffee free. when my current employer was

We used to have a coffee service that provided the coffee pot, and pkgd coffee and supplies. We used to have a Spring Water with a hot/cold unit. We no longer have either. Budget cuts. Bring our own now, or have to buy at the Caf.

I'm a coffee snob, which is why I never drink the free coffee provided in some of the places I have worked. If it's a pod system, someone will ruin it by using a flavored pod, which permanently corrupts the system. If it's a big pot, people don't realize you actually need to wash the pot out with soap and water after each use, so even if the office is generous enough to provide Peet's or Starbucks whole bean coffee and a grinder, the process will fail because of the unhygienic pot. Therefore, I nod in appreciation to those offices that do provide coffee for their employees, but bring my own if I plant to drink any.

At one of Harvard University's professional schools where I work we had free coffee until the university lost all that money. Then, the school decided to cut back on coffee since it was considered an extraneous expense that didn't warrant being paid. So, now you have a school where morale is low due to the lack of coffee, poor leadership, and a slew of other reasons. But, oh well, Harvard saved a few thousand dollars a year, right?

Our office has the coffee units that make one cup at a time (which is great so there is no horrible old coffee burning smell) the company only charges .25 a cup. This is awesome because we make so much money on the coffee it pays for a full assortment of teas (herbals, green, etc) that I get to drink for free......

Hi! I work in a small office. We do provide free coffee and tea. We have filtered water which is also tied to our coffee maker. We do rent our space out as meeting space as well which is why we have a coffee maker. The first woman who is in the morning makes the coffee and others make refills during the day. Last year we also started providing diet coke since that is what I drink. There was a thought for a few seconds of cutting out the diet coke until I produced the costs on coffee and water. Cutting these out would make no significant impact on our bottom line. (The 0% raises did). We also provide a small fridge, plates, and utensils for the staff.

Here in Kansas City there is no coffee provided. The kitchenette on our floor is already a mess because people feel they are at home and leave dishes in the sink and surrounding areas, leave the microwave with exploded food everywhere, and many other 'pleasantries'. My personal preference is to not have company-provided coffee, as mentioned by others it generally tastes pretty bad, and with the 40 year old adolescents I work with would end up making an even bigger mess!

Everybody does the coffee pot wrong. If you take the last cup, shut the machine off. The person who makes it deserves the first, freshest cup. It's unfair for one person to do the work, then another to come along and reap the reward. Of course, pods render the coffee pot system obsolete.

It seems that due to convenience, everyone is going to the pod or K Cup System and leaving to pot behind. I work for a company that is trying to build sustainable buildings, and institute a recycling program at work.

With all the knowledge we have regarding global warming, pollution etc, I find it unbelievable that we cannot go back to the pot system. Airpots do not burn the coffee and keep it hot and fresh for the next person.

@71 better yet, if you're the one getting the last bitter cup in the pot, dump it, clean the pot and brew a fresh batch. You did your duty and earned the good stuff. Better to be proactive than grumpy about life being unfair.

For years our office had a pot that was filled a few times a day. This lead to the usual problems, who makes it, who refills the pot, who takes care of the mess when the pot explodes. It was never more than nuisance, but there were times when a pot was made too late in the day and was still there the next morning.

This was fine for a while, but then the office grew to about 20 people we switched to a service that provides us with a plumbed coffee maker that makes individual cups of coffee. We pay for the coffee we drink, and the equipment is free. We also have a water purifier that puts out 200F water for tea, and 50F water for drinking that is part of the deal. The bosses love it because we're actually spending less per month on coffee and water since it's cheaper than having Poland Springs deliver bottles for the water cooler. It's working really well, we have one dark roast and one light, and now all of the tension in the office can be focused on old food in the fridge, and dishes in the sink!

Oh yeah, this is all free to employees, it's a great perk!

I work in a large, private special ed school which provides coffee in a pod system as well as snacks such as cheerios and raisons and fruit to all employees for free. Its managed by the school cafeteria, which is nice. The only problem is its only available from about 9-2 and most shifts start at 7 or 8 so you have to wait for your break to get coffee, so you can't depend on it in the morning, Its still very nice and much appreciated, especailly since we do a very demanding job for not much money.

I have never worked anywhere with free coffee, or free anything else for that matter! Right now, I'm in a large building with a cafeteria. When the cafeteria is open (7AM - 4:00PM for coffee and stuff, bfast and lunch limited hours and expensive), you can get coffee on the first floor. Any other time, you are out of luck unless you want to drive to DD. There are soda and snack vending machines on each floor, and there are plumbed hot and cold water dispensers. I buy my coffee in the cafeteria in the morning and bring in my own tea bags and have that in the afternoon. Fortunately, I don't put milk in my tea, so I don't need to bring that in. I'll occasionally take a few extra sugars when I get my coffee in the morning so that I can put a bit of sugar in my tea if I'm having the type that needs it.
Years ago, they had machines that cost, I think, a quarter in the break rooms, but they seemed to break down a lot (and the coffee wasn't very good) and one day they just disappeared. This was long before pod and Keurig machines.

Well, I'm self employed and work from home, so I make my own coffee and very rarely get into arguments with myself about it, though I do occasionally take both sides of the "should I make another pot, or will I be counting the cracks in the ceiling at 3 AM?" debate.

In my previous life as a cube-dweller, though, I became a huge fan of the various pod systems. It's easy to provide multiple flavors and roast styles, as well as teas; the machines tend to make little or no mess; and above all, there's never a smell of burnt coffee.

The coffee drinkers chip in and buy all coffee supplies and keep the area clean. This include the purchase of the coffee pot. Don't know if it's relevant, but I work for a nonprofit. Whoever is looking for a cup of coffee, makes a pot. There isn't any conflict. There are about 10 regular coffee drinkers in an office of 30 people.

We started with a communal 12-cup drip coffee maker, like the kind you see in diners. Then we switched to a pod machine. Didn't matter much to me because I don't drink coffee, but the choice of which pod machine & which coffee was the source of much controversy. Also, after the switch everyone, including the coffee drinkers themselves, started to refer to the coffee drinkers as the "pod people". :-)

We only have about 70 people in the office, so the pot system works for us. The only other option within four miles is a gas station whose coffee always tastes faintly of diesel. We have three household coffee makers in the break room (one for decaf). powdered creamer, sugar and splenda is provided. Everyone has their own mug and there's some donated mugs in a cupboard for visitors and such. Coffee is 10 cents a cup and various other snacks are 50 cents each. We also have regular cooking contests (cake-off, soup-off, pie-off) where people pay 25 cents a serving. The money that comes in has paid for microwaves, coffee pots and a new fridge for the break room (since the company won't pay for these "non-essentials".)

We have a group we call the "break room divas" who buy the coffee, snacks and supplies out of the proceeds. They also organize most of the social events, potlucks, after-work gatherings and regular cleaning-out of the fridge and coffee machines. When someone takes the last cup they make a new pot. It does rely on consideration, but it hasn't been a problem thus far. There was a bit of a battle between the folks who liked nice strong coffee and those who liked flavored water (yeah, not biased at all on that point) but it seems to have settled.

We have a keurig machine, with about 8 different varieties, and we also stock tea (herbal and regular) and cocoa. We also supply the little cup/package of half and half or whole milk. (want a different kind? Bring your own).

Having worked in a coffee pot environment before, this is way better, without a doubt. The cost/benefit of keurig expense vs. office drama and aggravation sells itself.

We have the Flavia pod system and I'd recommend it ahead of Keurig which we had before. Especially if you're out of reach of Dunkin, Starbucks etc. Flavia can make great cappuccino, latte and mocha (and even espresso), and Keurig can't do any of these. And Flavia also does a wide range of gourmet coffees, teas, and Dove hot chocolate.
And you can tell your HR that the great majority of offices in the US do offer free coffee. Good luck!

We have a Lavazza Blue Pod machine