IT Workers To Get Fewer Perks, No Free Coffee

dasButcher writes "While the economy is showing signs of recovery and tech stocks posted double- and triple-digit gains in 2009, IT workers are facing a less hospitable workplace in the coming year. Many employers say they're going to continue trimming budgets, particularly in human resources. Rather than giving up head count, they're planning to trim 401k contributions, eliminate bonuses, curtail travel and, dare we say, shut off the free coffee (it wasn't that good anyway)."

Comments

So?

[Anonymous Coward]

Every job is different. Every career is different. Things ebb and flow. For a long time, IT workers were spoiled primadonna. Now they're just another cost center. Guess what, the economy is jacked up. Budget cuts have to happen. IT is a necessity, but so is efficiency, cost control, etc. Welcome to the real world you big f'ing crybabies.

Re:So?

[armanox]

Now they're just another cost center. .

No, we (IT) has been viewed as a cost center since the 90s. And sometimes as glorified janitors...

Re:So?

[BitZtream]

You say that as if its not the truth ...

Reality check: We ARE glorified janitors and automobile mechanics.

Very few in IT are actually worthy of being treated as something special, and regardless of how many people here don't understand it, most slashdotters are not 'special' with their skills today. 10 years ago, slashdot users had automatic street cred, today, its just another haven for wanna-bes with a few geeks still mixed in from the 'good ol days'

Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[Gothmolly]

The more you screw your employees, the more they will find ways to screw you. Turn off Gmail and Slashdot? Fine, I'll take a once-an-hour smoke break. Hack my 401k? I'll sit and stare at the ceiling. Bust by balls about travel costs? See if I don't have a "family thing" next time and can't go. People will take what they feel (rightly or wrongly) is their due, whether you give it to them or not.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It seems particularly counterproductive to do so on the really cheap; but warm and fuzzy, nonmonetary perks. In even modest quantities, the unit cost of a cup of mediocre coffee isn't quite zero, but it sure isn't high. Certainly lower than the per-unit cost(either for you or for your employees) of having them nipping out to Starbucks for 15 minutes, rather than the kitchen for 5).

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[arkham6]

Please.

You are at work to work, you are not at work to read slashdot and gmail.

You have this awful sense of entitlement. Free coffee? Have to justify travel expenses? C'mon the company does not exist to serve you, you exist to work for them and provide value at a minimum of expense.

The companies responsibility is to its stakeholders to provide maximum profit. Employees are the largest expense a company has, so in lean times like these, they have to cut spending of all expenses to survive.

So suck it up and be happy you have a job, and not be part of the 10 percent who wish they had one.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[Gothmolly]

I bet you also think that your employer "pays half" of your Social Security tax. All those things I mentioned, which you classify as perks, are part of the whole package - your salary, your benefits, your coffee, it all equals X dollars per year. If they remove one or more of those, its a pay cut, pure and simple.

I earn my job, which is why I have one. Do you ?

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[nine-times]

You have this awful sense of entitlement. Free coffee? Have to justify travel expenses? C'mon the company does not exist to serve you, you exist to work for them and provide value at a minimum of expense.

No, we really don't exist to work for companies and provide them with maximum value at minimum expense. Thinking we do... now that's an awful sense of entitlement.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[Another, completely]

The travel expenses thing has gotten crazy for me. It's like the accountants think the company is doing me a favour letting me go to an exciting foreign hotel, experience the interior of exotic taxis, and meet the charming foreign customs officers. I do not consider it a perk, and being treated as guilty until proven innocent in claiming back the expensive "approved" hotel (instead of a more affordable and convenient one that's not on the list) is just enough to let me accept the less productive option of constant telephone meetings with people whose faces I have never seen.

That is, I suppose, their goal. Reduced overhead looks good, while lost business and reduced productivity just looks like market forces that are being proactively addressed by more careful attention to reducing expenses. The accountants are taking important action to tighten belts and address the failing ability of the business divisions to deliver top-line growth. The damage they do to the company actually looks like a responsible way to address the business situation. I think they have cause and effect backwards, but it's their decision to make, not mine.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[arkham6]

Exist may have been a wrong term. Try "You are at your job to work for them...."

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[Anonymous Coward]

I am at my job to exchange my skills (brain time; me thinking about your problem), for money and benefits.

I will attempt to do so at the rate the market will bear.

If the company wants to lowball their skills vendor; the one with whom they've had a long-term positive relationship; the one who has institutional knowledge that helps the vendor understand their unique business needs ... that's up to the company.

You may find somebody else to put at my desk, but you will *never* be able to replace me. That's why you pay me the big bucks.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[MadKeithV]

If the company's only options are laying you off or cutting benefits to save costs, suck it up and be happy you still have a job.

If you think you can do better, feel free to walk.

The ones that *will* walk are the ones the company really doesn't want to lose.
Then again, an organization that thinks eliminating free coffee will be a real benefit to the bottom line would not know better even if they get stuck with all the people that are too rigid, dumb or lazy to find a better job.

And even then, if it's a large enough organization, with a smart manager, you might see someone shelling out the money for the coffee themselves just to keep the good workers happy. If you want to survive as an IT company, stop treating people as interchangable resources.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[Afty0r]

It seems particularly counterproductive to do so on the really cheap; but warm and fuzzy, nonmonetary perks.

Every good manager knows that it is far more effective (from an employee motivation POV) to spend a reasonable amount of money providing small and helpful perks like this, than it would be to take the same amount of money and distribute it among the employees as part of their next raise.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[aes123]

Hate to break it to you, but employees are one of the stakeholders at a company. Contrary to popular belief, a company's sole responsibility is NOT to its shareholders; a company needs to properly balance its responsibilities to it shareholders, employees, and customers. Employees are not ONLY an expense; very often, they are also the reason that a company has a profit to worry about in the first place. If a company spends .1% of its revenue on employee perks like coffee and it earns them 1% in productivity, that sounds like a fantastic return. Focusing on expenses only is back ass-wards, shortsighted, and often counterproductive.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[JaredOfEuropa]

That last paragraph sums up exactly what is wrong with a lot of companies these days, what happens when you let the MBAs and the bean counters run the place. Cutting corners like this, but also outsourcing or the practise of firing staff and hiring contractors, sure looks good on the balance sheet... often because the cost is the same or higher but it'll be OpEx instead of CapEx, or comes out of a different budget. The truth is that in many cases these things end up costing the company dearly.

Remember what they say about accountants: they know the cost of everything, but they don't have a clue about the value.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[WinterSolstice]

Agree with that - when people are pressured to leave, the first ones to go are the ones who can easily find jobs. You know, the best talent.

The people who can't find jobs stay.

I'd make a comment about loyalty, but being loyal to a company in this era is like being loyal to an abusive spouse.

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[Sobrique]

They'll do it, because they can. When times are tough, companies will squeeze you, even if they don't technically need to. That's because it keeps them 'competitive' which means they can get better profit off 'the market'.
If you can move on for something better, then do so. If you can't, you get to shut up and take it. It's not very nice, but it's how it is - if you can't do better, then your skills aren't worth as much as you think they are.
What a lot of companies don't understand though, is that loyalty cuts both ways - it's _VERY_ easy to do a half-assed job in all but the most trivial of situation (e.g. number of labels stuck to number of boxes) and even then it's not exactly hard. You make your employees miserable, and they won't quit, nor will they outright fail to deliver, but standards will drop, because they just don't care enough to do any more than just the minimum to keep their job - no point busting your balls for more pay, if there's no more pay to be had, right?

Re:Paging Mr. Vader - something slipping through

[IANAAC]

You may find somebody else to put at my desk, but you will *never* be able to replace me. That's why you pay me the big bucks.

I used to think that way about my kills too. When you grow up, you'll realize that there are indeed people who know as much as (or *gasp* more!) than you do.

And here's another little tip: they'll do it for cheaper too. That's one of disadvantages of competing globally.

Hacking off your nose to spite your face

[Zey]

Anywhere that would cut out coffee from the budget is quite frankly insane. It's a minuscule expense compared to the HR budget and improves productivity dramatically when people would otherwise be flagging (early mornings for night owls, afternoons for early birds).

The ability to provide free, legal performance enhancing drugs is one of the few negligible-cost productivity boost techniques available. You'd have to be both petty and highly incompetent as a manager to do away with it.

Re:the school district model

[DJRumpy]

Yeah, we've gotta be more concerned about feeding that CEO machine...

401k????

[Lord Ender]

Wait: we don't get pensions anymore. 401k contributions ARE our retirement plans. Cutting 401k is the same as saying "we care about you SO little, that we hope you die hungry and cold in your old age."

Fewer 'perks' please?

[rve]

Some company perks that I just don't want and will never use:
- I don't want a company celphone. I have my own phone, I don't want to have to keep track of business and private calls, I don't want my boss to get a list of all the calls I make in a month, and I don't want to have to carry around two phones. The company phone is lying in the closet, unused, the subscription fee is being paid for nothing.
- I don't want a company laptop. I don't need one for my work (customers *naturally* never allow machines on their network that they didn't provide themselves). For private use, it's useless. It does not have the specs I would have chosen for my own laptop, and I'm not free to modify it or change the software on it. It's been lying in the closet, unused. It's worse than useless, as I can't justify buying one for myself as long as I "have a perfectly ok laptop gathering dust in the closet".
- Company presentations preceeded by Paintball or Casino: please keep it serious and treat me like an adult. I don't come to the office to play games with colleagues, just give the presentation.
- Free coffee: I don't care. It's nice if it's there, but it's such a minor issue that if they want to save the shockingly huge amount of money that goes into rent and support of these machines, by all means do so, I'm not going to work less hard if I have to buy my own drinks.

Re:Fewer 'perks' please?

[SharpFang]

You're wrong about company phone.
Company phone is what you switch off the moment your work hours end. You use it on business travels, you use it during rush and in case you promise to be catchable.
Private phone number is the one which you keep secret.

As for laptop, YMMV. If you're a field technician, your company laptop will be invaluable for you because it has what your work requires, not what you would buy for yourself.

Free coffee... only as long as I know the money they save on my coffee land in -my- pocket, not CEO's. Otherwise, I prefer to get the free coffee if I can. I worked where I had to buy my own and it really adds up if you count it over a year.

When did coffee become so expensive?

[Lazy Jones]

While in larger companies doing away with free coffee could be a sensible alternative to laying off perhaps 0.5% of the work force, you have to wonder about the margins and sustainability of a corporation that actually *needs* to do that. As for smaller companies - if they can't even afford free coffee, it must really suck to work there.

I can only recommend managers to think about how much free for employees (good) food and drinks actually cost you compared to the part of the salaries that goes towards pizza/drinks at work otherwise, what the benefits are (healthier employees, less time wasted ordering stuff or going out to buy it) and how it may or may not make people feel more attached/loyal to your company. As for coffee - think of the headaches from caffeine deprivation you might induce if you don't provide it. ;-)

Re:When did coffee become so expensive?

[Sandbags]

Coffee is a cost like any other. To support employees, certain costs are expected. A computer to sit at, an ergonomic chair, pens and paper, ink, janitorial services, bathroom supplies, phone and DID number, and more.

A complete coffee service costs less than $1 per employee (that drinks it) per day if bought in industrial bulk. there are dozens of other costs that far exceed that. many companies simply use an honor system and place a can with a slot near the coffee pot and ask folks to spare $0.25 for each cup, and many not only break even on that, but actually profit, and use the money for company and area parties.

As we roll out IT improvements, costs there are shrinking, making us more competitive. As we roll out the IP phone system, we're shifting a whole building of employees into at-home workers (we already have about 3,000 of them), which is not only a huge facility cost savings, but there's tax incentives to do it too. Desktop imaging pretty much has put the quash on most helpdesk calls. going paperless for most things is also reducing costs greatly. Salaries have been flat for 2 years in a row. We're more profitable than EVER in the company history. Curring coffee would be seen as nothing more than an profiteering decision and a slap in the face to HR and productivity, and we'd actually loose some good employees over it I'm sure (Hots mainframe operators LIVE on coffee and coffee alone it seems, and those guys are REALLY hard to come by and claim way in excess of $100,000 salaries).

It's An Employer's Market

[RobotRunAmok]

Twenty years ago, companies jumped-up IT guys and made them "Web Masters" -- coders, server maintainers, content creators and (in their own minds) designers -- giving them six figure salaries. Every company, no matter how small, felt it needed to have a "server room" and maintain their e-mail service locally. The Marketing secretary always needed help figuring out how to print her boss's agenda out of Lotus Organizer.

Times changed.

Now, companies buy website templates for sixty bucks non-exclusive (three grand exclusive) and they're sitting in a server room at a place called Dreamhost or Hostgator. The content is maintained via a CMS run by the Marketing secretary. Employers and employees are using Gmail and other cloud-based e-mail systems because the lines between personal and work IT space have become so blurred. Nobody needs help printing anymore, because an entire generation has been raised on the Internet and personal computer systems.

People will take what they feel (rightly or wrongly) is their due, whether you give it to them or not.
And employers will replace them with 20-something go-getters with better attitudes and more up-to-date skills, and at half the salary.

Re:It's An Employer's Market

[tsstahl]

And employers will replace them with 20-something go-getters with better attitudes and more up-to-date skills, and at half the salary.

Where is this elusive species to be found in quantity? The specimens I am familiar with have a hard time spelling "Word", much less using it. To them "The Web" is Yahoo, Gmail, and Facebook. And finally, SMTP is text slang for Suck My Teats and Poonani (less vulgar translation).

Yes, they can print and download, but in my experience deep knowledge of the plumbing behind the Internet is fading, not expanding.

Re:the school district model

[SnapShot]

IMHO, getting rid of free coffee is a huge mistake. In the scheme of things it's a tiny expense and you're going to lose far more in terms of people bickering about the coffee fund, people running out "on break" to buy coffee, and the basic office environment.

Re:the school district model

[farrellj]

Back in the olden days of Computers...like 10 years ago...I was one of the many who was against unionization of IT workers. Now, having been badly treated by both small companies, and one of the largest single-digit level manufacturers of computers, I see that I was wrong. Today's 'sweatshops' are in computer assembly factories, and in call centers. They both use Skinner like systems with seemingly random rewards and punishments to keep people in line.

These days, digging ditches is a more profitable and satisfying job...fully unionized, with guaranteed vacation and benefits, and a grievance system that actually works!

ttyl
          Farrell ...note, I don't dig ditches.

Re:the school district model

[MBGMorden]

My guess though is that if you're spending $80k per year on coffee, then it's for a hell of a lot of people, and that $80k expense (and a single job) IS tiny on that scale. If an $80k expenditure costs a job but improves morale of a few thousand employees enough to make up for it in productivity gains, then it's the right thing to do.

Re:No Coffee = No Code

[SharpFang]

A cow is a machine that converts grass to milk.
A programmer is a machine that converts coffee to code.

Re:the school district model

[Enderandrew]

Unions are great in concept, but I've yet to see an example that I like. My buddy works for a large company where it was basically required (even though it is illegal to do so) that he join the union to be hired. He pays dues. He gets no real benefit. And they tell him what he can and can't do.

Most strikes hurt employees considerably more with lost wages than they gain in negotiation. Humans are corrupt. Just as management is corrupt, so is union leadership. It just becomes another thing for someone to flaunt around in a pissing contest, rather than use the position to better life for union members.

Conversely, there is the free market model. My last job kept laying people off, and gave me two pay cuts. I assumed there weren't better jobs because of the economy, but I finally looked. I moved to a much better company where not only am I treated better, but I almost doubled my salary.

The reason my last company was able to cut salaries and treat people terribly is because we allowed it. When I was hired there about 3 years ago, the IT staff was about 50 people. When I left it was maybe a dozen. I was one of 3 SysAdmins standing, and they weren't even filling my position when I left. I've since heard the other 2 SysAdmins have put in their resignation. Now the company will be forced to try and hire a new staff in a hurry. More than likely, they're going to pay more to hire new staff than keep those they ran off.

Re:the school district model

[SnapShot]

I found a quick quote that claimed "the general rule of thumb for office coffee service pricing is $60 to $120 per employee per year." So he's talking about a business with at least 667 employees and probably close to 1000.

So, if the average employee is 0.1% more productive with free coffee getting rid of the free coffee was a bad business decision and the Cxx (COO, CFO, whatever) who made that decision should be beaten to death with his own intestines or fired.

Re:the school district model

[Lisandro]

Preach on, brother. Coffee is the REAL vitamin C!

This post...

[sean.peters]

... is a mixture of pure unsupported assertations, and anecdotes pretending to be data. Any evidence to show that "strikes hurt employees more through lost wages than they gain in negotiations"? In fact, there's a lot of history that shows that unions did, in fact, make lives better for not only their own workers, but for everyone - and not only in the form of wages, but also in things like medical benefits and safe working conditions. For example: the five day work week - brought to you by the AFL-CIO.

Enough with the union bashing, already. Read a little history of the labor movement, and then see what you think.

Re:This post...

[Unlucke]

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Just sayin'

Re:This post...

[Uberbah]

Bullshit. The problems in Detroit are due to executive mismanagement and the lack of universal health care. But way to hate on your fellow workers, for daring to negotiate decent health insurance and retirement benefits.

Re:the school district model

[datapharmer]

While that may have worked at your business I disagree. I recently had a discussion with someone at another IT company and we were bashing just this practice. It seems that every couple months there will be a round of paycuts or firings followed by bowling night/movie night/new fancy coffee maker and donuts in the break room... to the point that those who have been around a while shudder every time they see or hear about any "perks". This may work in some places, but in general engineers and IT people are not morons.... we can see a trojan horse when it is placed in the break room.

Re:the school district model

[geekoid]

I'm in a engineer Union, COPPEA. It's awesome and works well.

"Most strikes hurt employees considerably more with lost wages than they gain in negotiatio"
False.

"so is union leadership. "
Yes they can ebcem corrpupt, but that doesn't mean they wil;l or that the employees can't change that.

"The reason my last company was able to cut salaries and treat people terribly is because we allowed it. "
If only you had a common group that appointed a leader to negotiate with management~
Unions are how you don't let an organization treat you terribly.

It's sounds like that company is positioning it self as an attractive to potential buyers.

I work 4 10s, have great benefits, and have protections so I can discusses merits of an idea without worrying about recourse or in fighting.

Your argument that humans can be corrupt and therefore everything is corrupt is laughable myopic and quite frankly, stupid.

I got 25 paid days off

[SmallFurryCreature]

Not including official holidays.

You want better working conditions? Then stop kowtowing to the man every chance you get.

US (and british) companies have become VERY good at making employees think they are doing them a favor by employing them. It works great for them and allows them to fire people and make the rest glad they got a job in a recession that is SO bad not a SINGLE big company executive has had his/her bonuses cut. Odd that. 10% unemployment yet the bonuses for the top happen the same as before. Gosh I wonder where they got the money from. And all the rest of the sheep think is "well thank god it isn't my flesh the farmer is getting fat on". Probably because no sheep can think ahead to next year.

You are willing to trade "perks" like free coffee (and really, if that is a perk you got amazingly low standards, is free toilet paper a perk as well? Free tap water?) for real free days. Great, that is smart thinking sheep. Just what they want, and next year, they change the traded for days back to forced days again.

Years ago, when the company in the 21st century thought it was okay to turn vacation days into forced vacations, people should have walked out. They didn't.

Oh and for a history lesson, find a SINGLE year in history in which companies have NOT had an excuse to make cutbacks on personal. The recession, 9/11, the bubble, Y2K expenses, crash of the yen, cost of the dollar... there is always a reason. Now find a SINGLE year in which any of these reasons have led to a salary reduction for the people deciding that their should be money saved.

Re:the school district model

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, what timing. This morning when our company announced that it was canceling the coffee service to save money, I immediately asked what that savings would be. $200 a month was the answer, for our location which employs roughly 130 people. I was floored. If our financial situation is that serious, maybe I need to start looking for another job?

  - Long time lurker, first time commenter.

Re:the school district model

[Jawn98685]

The answer isn't to unionize to get paid more than the job is worth, the answer is to find another job.

Really? It seems to work quite well for the ditch diggers, or rather, for the ditch diggers who were smart enough to organize and negotiate a living wage through collective bargaining. Meanwhile, the Fox News-watching ditch diggers are proudly toiling for $11 an hour and no benefits.
I'd say that "the answer" is to get that union card.

Re:the school district model

[KC7JHO]

And now that all the IT people are from China, we need an HR manager that understands the culture... and keeps the same time schedule... and that feels more approachable to our new employees, and is payed along the same lines as our new IT staff. Hmmmm yes, you just outsourced your own job... idiot!

Re:Fine, but I want more vacation

[kionel]

They'd define it as "The Civilization that regularly has the best quarterly statement."

I'm horrified by how abusive Corporate America has become. Their avarice is astonishing. Worst of all, no one seems to have the guts to just say "No!" any longer.

Allow me to explain: I left a fairly good self-employment gig in mid-2009 to rejoin the corporate workforce. (Family medical reasons made me look back to the corporate world.) Even in this crap economy I found myself working for an IT organization within two months of starting to look. Figured I'd got lucky.

Ha!

My firm is a nightmare. The company expects people to live to work. No discussion. No expectations. Your life is your job. It's utterly Dickensian.

There is no hyperbole here. 14 - 16 hour days are common. Co-workers regularly put in 20+ hour days (yes, days) and are expected to be in the next morning. A friend of mine was dragged away from his cancer-stricken father's bedside on Christmas Eve by a Senior Director, despite not being on-call and being on vacation, because the SD demanded he look into a problem.

Here's the weird part: Most of the employees love it here. Oh, they are the most unhealthy co-workers I've ever met (at least a quarter are dealing with chronic health issues), and their productivity stinks, but they all insist through fatigue-glazed eyes that this is "...a great company." Worse, they even go as far as to say "Just look at our stock price."

Sadly, I'm the only one of the group who says wacky things like "You're putting your health at risk working like this!", or "If you continue to do the work of three people -- badly -- the company will never realize that we actually need three people."

It's a wasted effort. The employees have drank deep of the Kool Aid, and don't want to even consider a different world view.

Given that -- and given that Corporate America in the post-Bush years is still too powerful and unchecked -- I'm actually giving real thought to using my dual UK citizenship and heading back across the pond. Sure, I'll miss some things in the states, but not enough to kill myself for a freaking quarterly statement.