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.