December 20, 2014 at 11:23 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Kitchen Culture
December 21, 2014 at 10:53 pm
My current employer is a great company which provides good kitchen and break-out spaces among its many benefits to help the staff feel comfortable at work.
One previous employer was a company which sought 'engagement' one the one hand while paring back staff benefits with the other. It provided good kitchen and break out space when it fitted out larger new buildings so it could co-locate more staff in the name of 'collaboration'. I don't believe the improved kitchens made the staff love it more, and the office space (with more ambient noise and less privacy) certainly didn't.
Quite possibly here is the combination of not so good company and good kitchen? There has to be an exception to prove the rule, right?
December 22, 2014 at 4:22 am
I have worked at a lot of company sites located in old buildings (by UK standards) so often the opportunity to have an adequate kitchen was difficult let alone great one.
I found the correlation between encouragement to use/not use any lunch facilities and good/bad places to work closer than the quality of the facilities themselves.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
December 22, 2014 at 6:49 am
I work in a huge corporation. My building is in a small town and it employs nearly a thousand people.
Kitchen is a joke. I never eat there... i rather eat at my desk or eat out. Horrible facilities. Now that i think about it, only the front desk and some conference rooms are nice.
Morale is low and we get the "dead sea effect" in my team.
Article is spot on. Geez, I'm an upbeat person but this article ruined my Monday
December 22, 2014 at 7:43 am
I had a choice out of college of two jobs, pretty much the same benefits/salary for both, except one had a cafeteria and the other barely had a break room. Of course I chose the one with the cafeteria.
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December 22, 2014 at 8:22 am
I'm sorry Miguel!
December 22, 2014 at 8:43 am
Do you care about the space provided for lunch (or breakfast, or dinner if you prefer)? Have you seen a correlation between how that space is set up and how you feel about working there?
I eat tins of kippers at my work desk, thereby providing a scent of protest at the tiny size of the canteen.
December 22, 2014 at 8:56 am
I usually get no lunch two to three days a week, sometimes that includes all 5 weekdays. So I don't care if there's a kitchen or not.
As far as the article goes:
I realized a few years ago that management publications are a big part of the problem with our world of work. They make management believe that they can easily replicate success through a simple process, when it's really much more complicated than that.
Step 1 - force employees to do something that is totally foolishly unrelated to anything about their jobs because you saw it in a magazine like INC, or some other management / CxO oriented publication
Step 2 - employees now magically start with the creativity, or motivation, or efficiency or whatever the current buzzword is (it just happens to be creativity right now.)
Step 3 - Get MUH BONUS!
Management mags are just like the scam of management consulting, but with a lower price tag.
Also, the irony of management that is NOT CREATIVE and thinks this other cookie cutter approach will just make their employees CREATIVE is not lost on me.
There's a reason Dilbert is relevant.
December 22, 2014 at 9:04 am
Wow.. and i thought i was bitter.
honestly, I'm in the US, in the Midwest. The nice kitchen factor maybe an issue in the coast, but over there is no choice... really.
Can't wait till next year when I'll start working from home
December 22, 2014 at 9:06 am
Goofguy, that's right up there with burning popcorn!
tresiqus, I'll go along that no all ideas fit everywhere, whether they are from a magazine or a consultant, but equally I'd argue that being from those sources doesn't automatically make them bad. Sharing ideas, about SQL, managing, parenting, or anything else is how we grow and learn. Sometimes we take the right lesson and sometimes we don't. I wasn't making the case for saying all companies should have employees cooking lunch, I was encouraging readers to think about work culture.
December 22, 2014 at 9:10 am
I once worked for a company where the CEO wouldn't let us have a TV in our breakroom because she felt we should be reading on our lunch hour.
December 22, 2014 at 9:23 am
What's the popular saying now (or so I've heard): Culture eats strategy for breakfast? This sounds like a literal interpretation 🙂
I think it's an interesting topic. I believe people are more productive when there is a certain degree of comfort provided. At one place I worked at I raised my asking salary because it looked like a Stalinist labor camp... but the work was interesting. I didn't stay very long, but I gave it a chance. Today I probably wouldn't even bother.
December 22, 2014 at 9:25 am
Kitchen space has no influence on how much or little I like my job. The people I work with do.
December 22, 2014 at 9:28 am
No kitchens at my place of work - just coffee and snack machines around the place.
P.S. Nearly reported this thread as spam bearing in mind the title!
-------------------------------Posting Data Etiquette - Jeff Moden [/url]Smart way to ask a question
There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand (the world). There is no such thing as a dumb question. ― Carl Sagan
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December 22, 2014 at 9:38 am
GoofyGuy (12/22/2014)
Do you care about the space provided for lunch (or breakfast, or dinner if you prefer)? Have you seen a correlation between how that space is set up and how you feel about working there?I eat tins of kippers at my work desk, thereby providing a scent of protest at the tiny size of the canteen.
Egg mayonnaise sandwiches in an oversized tupperware box. Get's 'em every time 😉
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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