I got to work a few days ago and, as usual, went to put my lunch in the refrigerator in the break room. As I did, I saw some signs on the coffee machines. I don’t drink coffee, but I do occasionally get hot chocolate, so I figured I should check out the signs. 

They basically said: effective immediately, these machines only serve plain coffee, and if you want flavored coffee, use the provided flavored creamers. 

When you’re running a business, every little bit of budget matters. Trust me; running GASP I’ve learned this. But when trimming the budget you also need to weigh the potential benefits against the potential downsides. In this case, the morale loss of not having flavored coffee options (mochas, lattes, espressos, etc.) might outweigh the small savings in budget the company will get from taking away those options. In fact, I’m pretty sure they will. 

I know some people (like my long-distance partner) keep their own coffee machines on their desks at work to make sure they get the coffee they want to drink. And we do have plenty of Nespresso and Keurig machines scattered throughout the building so if someone really wants flavored coffee they can buy their own coffee pods. But given that gas prices have shot up in recent months, and coffee pod prices have not gone down, I don’t think people are going to want to spend another $20-$30/month on gourmet coffee pods. 

Consider morale when you trim the budget. Just saying. 

Related to the pricing issue but not worth its own blog post: I was at the grocery store and for the first time in my life a bunch of green onions was more than 89 cents. It was only $1.09, but it’s endemic of a larger problem that was caused pretty much by one person presiding over (I hesitate to say “leading”) one country that thinks it’s better than everyone else. (Hint: it’s the country I live in, and the president I didn’t vote for.) Unfortunately I think this is all the new normal; once the businesses realize they can increase prices and leave them higher, they will do so.