Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1950)
Coffee in Offices By CAROLINE BIRD MENUEZ Field Research Division, Paper Cup and Container Institute, Inc. Whether management likes it or not, n i n the office to stay, and it appears that the custom is on the increase. Reasons are hard to pih down, but |th^^B||er|0æ^ have some thing to do with the growing informal l y °f manner|^^ra»the decline of breakfast as a meat Statistics are necessarily hazy, but it’s probably conservative to say that a majority of business establishments permit their employees to have coffee during working hours. The National Office Management Association puts the figure at three out of four o®iioi|s/ while over half the 70 major corpora tions inf ormally que-wredù-b\Bhe Field Research Division of the Paper Cup and Containe^mroBMute g ^ w d the coffee habit. Despite the serious at tention being paid to industrial feed- ing, the Institute found that 12 of the companies which tho i r offices made no ; p r O S B n for coffee breaks on their production lines. A Break in the Morning for Coffee Is Desirable Companies agree that the coffee break is desirable, whether theffirofoS vide for the refreshments or simply allow employees to find their own ways of getting it. Most of them, how ever, tgO i the assets are intangible. Thirty-six • pf those questioned by the In^Kute.- cite the promotion of a friendly feeling as the main advaht j ^ i while 24 think that the office breaks may have some effect in reducing fa tigue. Nine guessed that coffee breaks increased production, but even these were not very sure. Firty-five report ed no effect on production. “At times it may hold up production—I couldn’t say it ever i ncreased it,” one tyfdeal answer reads. Two flatly stated that the time lost cut the volume of work turned out in the day. One realiaffifc;; respondent said that coffee on the job reduced tardineB on the part of em- ployees who simply could notI¿train themselves to get up in time for break- Whether' welcomedBl|l|. morale buil der, or suffered as< a' necessary/„-espi, coffee periods, present a number of mechanical p r o b l e m s management; would like to solve. Shall employees be allowed to bring containers of coffee 'tb their desks? The ans w.ei;--depends on the typQ &f work, the amount of con-, tact workers havpt with the public* the facilities for distribution from a'.’cen-f fjO B O feteria or outside restaurant, and the'; amount of staff time required in ordering, making change,O ld cleaning up. Should coffee be available only at scheduled rest periods? If not, how much actual working time is . lost by individuals visiting a coffee vending machiné? a lounge where coffee can .be brewed My the employees', or even restaurSt a^^^^R e l-sfreet9 I It is ever advisable for the company to pay for the coffee, and if not, should some arrangements be made for col- lecting on a weekly basis? Should em ployees be allowed to make their own coffee on the R emises? Personnel managers can almost al ways reduce the^wraM. ir r iH io n ,: and lost time for coffee with some com- ^ ^ ^ S r o v i d o d ^ ^ -yice. If they don’t, employees will make shift themselves' at greater expense of time and some- times at considerable sacrifice of sani tary B a n ^ ^ ^ ^ C o f fee maçiê on an el- ectri|jfplate on the radiator, and s'ervqd in cracked china cups is messy and ban be a source of contagiòn during the » in te r ^ j ^ w ason. If cold drink paper cups from the water cooler are Used to eliminate the danger of injection, spilled coffee it lik ely^ o result. For satisfactory coffee^e'ryice, it is neç- essary to use a waxless’ hot drink pa per cup.
