How Can I Create a Fair Policy to Manage Excessive Coffee Consumption at Work?

Dear Seniors,

Hope you all are sailing in the pink of your health. I need your help as I am stuck in a small problem. I need to draft a policy for the misuse/overuse, or you can say excess consumption, of coffee at our office. The staff here is consuming too much coffee numerous times, which is again disturbing the monthly budget. If any of you are willing to help me in this situation and give your valuable suggestions, I would be very grateful to you and welcome all your comments on the same.

I'll be eagerly waiting for your reply; you can also send it to my email id: ubudhani@gmail.com.

Will be waiting...

Regards,
Uma.

If you are using a vending machine in the office, you can give instructions to your pantry boy to lock the machine after a particular time. For example, you can lock the machine from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm.

Hi,

We also faced the same problem in our office. This is how we dealt with it:

- Strictly instruct the pantry boys to provide coffee at the employee's desk only twice a day. Lock or switch off the vending machine for the rest of the day.
- Alternatively, allow employees only one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening for a tea break. Lock the machine for the rest of the day.
- Don't order coffee powder for a month and distribute tea bags to all employees (1 or 2 per day). Order milk powder for the vending machine. They will prepare their own tea. This will serve two purposes: a) The lack of time required to make tea may discourage employees from having more than two teas a day. b) The cost of coffee compared to tea will be reduced.

Check out the above methods. Happy coffee!!

Regards,
Parul

Dear All,

Any company can implement these ideas for cost-cutting. Sometimes employees argue that we are not able to work without coffee or tea. We need it more than 2 times a day. After all, it affects company work. What should we do in this situation? We are already suffering from this situation. Please guide us.

Thanks & Regards,
Bhrugisha
HR - VCANTECH

VCAN Tech: Web Design, Branding, Multimedia, Web Application Company

Dear Uma,

Please confirm, does excessive consumption of coffee hamper the work or productivity of the staff? If yes, then you need to restrict it to 1-2 cups a day. Otherwise, please don't restrict the staff from having coffee...

Hi Uma,

This will be taken as a small gap. You can just modify the policy of giving coffee for free to a 60-40 split. Tell them to pay 40% of its cost, and you will cover the remaining 60%. Additionally, you can now serve them with a different snack with coffee on alternate days. This approach may help them accept the new policy.

Dear All,

It is also a matter of health. Excessive consumption of anything is bad. You may want to advise employees if you feel they are excessively dependent on it; otherwise, it's okay, after all, it's coffee. 2-3 cups a day are okay. More than that, I guess people will end up with a bad stomach.

If you approach it as a cost issue, it will really be looked down upon. And it is not really much of a cost. There may be people in the company playing and cheating with lakhs and crores, and most employers look at such small costs that it should not be a huge issue.

Consider another method of cost reduction - maybe a different brand or try negotiating with a dealer who may be able to give you extra beans at a good price. :-)

Hi,

I am Namrata Agrawal.

I completely agree with Mr. Ashutosh Mishra, the HR manager at L&T.

I was working at a corporate company, and we faced the same problem over here. In the initial phase, me being the HR manager was asked to control a lot of stuff like consumption of coffee, use of stationary, consumption of Bisleri water in the office, and so on. Later, the company wanted to cut salaries and also asked employees whose salary was above 20K per month to leave the organization with one day's notice.

I feel that whatever the situation, there are employees who need to refresh themselves, and hence they have some tea or coffee at regular intervals as it helps them to be alert and have a better focus on their work.

Hence, I would not be in favor of drafting any policy on this matter as the worst scenario is that you may lose some assets (good employees) from your company. (This is a true example).

A solution to this problem would be an email as an alert to all employees requesting them to try and have some control over their coffee consumption.

Regards,

Namrata

Hi Uma,

Drafting a policy on coffee consumption is excessive and unprofessional. Our friends have given a few suggestions that I believe could work out. It would be better for you to simply send a common email to all employees regarding the coffee issue or restrict access to the coffee machine to specific times and assign the coffee boy to manage it, rather than an employee. Trying the above suggestions will surely yield positive results.

Regarding Mr. Ravi's coffee issue, this is also an HR matter. If possible, please provide your suggestions; otherwise, feel free to refrain from the topic.

Thank you.

Hey, this is philanderous. Coffee or no coffee, I'm sure you must be thinking about how to talk to them about the benefits of switching over to healthier alternatives like buttermilk and lime juice rather than just pulling the rug from under their feet.

You can take away one benefit and substitute it with another healthy alternative. Your approach should make the healthy choice more appealing rather than enforcing a policy on coffee usage, which could make employees more frustrated than they already are due to other factors that you cannot gauge.

Please keep in mind the relationships that could sour if a move is wrong, even though the intentions are right. Remember, patience is bitter, but the result is sweet.

Hi Uma,

I hope you are doing well. Many people have shared their valuable insights. I just want to suggest introducing health care sessions in your office conducted by a doctor. You can schedule an appointment with the doctor and ask them to discuss the disadvantages of excessive coffee consumption. This initiative can help in reducing company costs and also be beneficial for you.

Thanks & Regards,
Hasan (HR Executive)

Hi Uma,

This is what we do in our office: We have 2 tea breaks of 10 minutes each and 1 lunch break of 30 minutes. Other than that, the employees are not served anything at their desks by the office peons. This has helped us cut down our expenses on tea/coffee consumption.

Hope this will help you a bit!

In my opinion, it's a situation which normally we all refer to as 'PENNY WISE POUND FOOLISH'. Look at the amount of time you have to spend on reviewing the suggestions/opinions on the policy statement that you have requested on this site. You will be spending time developing a policy document, getting it reviewed by management, and collecting feedback from employees through their department managers and so on. Finally, you will probably see a good policy document with a lot of employee demotivation. All this effort just to save a tiny fraction of the total cost of the company!

Instead, consider sharing health-related tips on how excessive caffeine intake can adversely affect human health.

We are in an emotional society. If you cut something, this will immediately invoke a negative response. Hence, try buying small cups. This will automatically reduce your cost. You may also be able to reason this towards health awareness. Arrange for a health consultant to visit and talk about health, etc. in the cafeteria during lunch and do this in a planned manner. Best of luck.

Regards,
Venkatesh Madalambadi

In certain threads, queries have been raised as to "why HR is a thankless job" and "why HR is most hated in an organization."

The ANSWER, I think, has been presented beautifully in this thread. So many HR talents are busy discussing the DRAFTING of a POLICY for EXCESSIVE COFFEE CONSUMPTION... (actual drafting will, hopefully, take place later, maybe after 20-30 pages of posts and discussions). POLICIES for this and that... for everything an employee is supposed to do or not to do. I guess even toddlers are not put under such DISCIPLINE. No wonder one can understand how employees feel about HR. Hope the posters to the following threads get some food for thought.

https://www.citehr.com/217882-why-al...hr-people.html
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Warm regards.

Better have a discussion with your employees openly, involve them in making a proper decision on cost-cutting in coffee! That's impossible and very cheap.

Hi,

In our office, we were also facing the problem of excess use of coffee and tea. I feel it is best to keep a register near each machine that needs to be signed by the employees if they are having coffee or tea. At the end of the day, compare it with the reading in the vending machine. In this way, you can monitor whether the excess use is from the employees or the office boys who consume it more.

Hope this would give a better idea on how to create a track on the excess usage.

Wont this make employees feel that they'd rather not have coffee? Please do let us know the honest opinion of employees on this system. To my observation, it is such kind of an act that results in the total failure of employee motivation.

I understand when people say that the management is tough on such decisions, but for once talk back and ask them, "What difference is it going to make by stopping or highly monitoring them on coffee consumption except for lowering their motivation?"

Monitor performance, guide employees if their attitude is failing. On such kind of allowances, we should not set a limit or rather a "monitoring system".

The majority of us are of the opinion that HR should not encourage going ahead with reducing consumption of tea/coffee. Use the HR position to the benefit of both employees and the employer. Use the power of this position and let the employers know that it makes no sense at the end of the day! (The power here is the ability to present the employees to the management) - In a diplomatic, yet a strong message conveyed manner.

EXACTLY!!!! Moreover, one need not go around making POLICIES for such small issues, then issuing CIRCULARS and Notices (which you can be sure, none will take seriously) and then keeping an eye/monitoring employee usage follow-ups. We tend to TRIVIALIZE HR by doing all this.

If one wants to effectively drive home the message; then switch off the vending machine for a day (or a few hours for a few days); put up a small sign nearby - "PLEASE AVOID EXCESSIVE & WASTEFUL INDULGENCE." Utilize the time in hand to make GOOD POLICIES which tend to motivate employees, thereby enhancing productivity. Warm regards.

Hi All,

I'm in total agreement with Mr. Ashutosh Mishra. Consuming excessive amounts of tea or coffee can be harmful to one's health. Please remember to moderate your intake.

Please take it easy.

Regards,
Ajay Sharma

Dear Uma,

You can stipulate coffee/tea only twice a day &ndash; once at 11.00 AM in the morning and the second at 4.30 PM in the evening. You need to educate your employees about the management policy through meetings and lectures, as well as the ill effects of coffee/tea on health. Present yourself in a way that shows your concern for your employees.

Thank you.

I'm strongly against any such suggestions of a 60-40 ratio. All these craps indicate the work culture of a La-La company.