Doris the Tea Lady - Can you come back?

Ahh, the coffee run.
Seen by many as a right, and a sign of social standing.
Where I currenly work, we have a fancy, brand name coffee machine and all pods milk, sugar and bisciuts supplied, but people still feel they can just get up and dissappear across the road for half an hour. Certain individuals, who appear to have no shame, will drift into the office late, log on, and shoot straight out to get coffee, often in a large Percolate, (which, I believe, is the collective noun for Coffee Runners).
The worst of them will spend half an hour wandering up the street for their coffee, then on returning to the office, sit in the tea roon for their allocated 15min break.

Wow, thats better.
Thanks for listening.

We had tea ladies for many years, and one was actually called Doris. And tea lady meant tea. No coffee. There was a tea room and two large pots of tea and cups and saucers would be sitting on the counter for the staff. Then the tea ladies were done away with. The tea room continued, but staff had to make their own tea, or (instant) coffee. We were too far from any place to zip out to and buy coffee. Then the tea room was done away with. If staff wanted tea or coffee they had to make it at their work area; health and safety considered. Most staff stopped taking the ten minute morning and and afternoon breaks and worked on, because there were now no tea rooms.

Going back MANY years.

DFAT

The ex tea lady (promoted upstairs) who struck dread into any minor dippo who had the temerity to sign on late at the attendance register.

Toes, you are remembered.

John Moulis said :

Ah, the tea lady. I remember when I was at Finance in the mid 1970s one of the guys in our office always referred to “the dulcet tones of the tea trolley”. I went for an interview at Education in the old MLC Tower, Woden and I told them back at Finance that the tea lady came in during the interview and had a full selection of cream biscuits on the trolley. The union delegate in our section almost called a strike and demanded to know why our tea lady didn’t have biscuits on her trolley as well.

Ah…the good old days. Have to say that my dear tea lady added a bit of character to the place and was a cheerful addition to the place. Pot plants and drinks machines just didn’t cut it.

Incidentally, when I was a minister, I used to make coffee at our machine for whoever wanted it. very egalitarian but missing that je ne sais quoi!

Evilomlap said :

This has absolutely no bearing on my ‘productivity’. It’s not the hours you spend at work, it’s what you do with them. I have colleagues who spend 8-10 hours glued to their office chairs who are less ‘productive’ than those who take a smoko every 2 hours and go on ‘coffee runs’.

In my experience (as a manager) there are generally two types of staff: those who measure hours and those who measure output. Output-oriented people tend to get their tasks done regardless, and should be left alone to get their stuff finished. Clock-watchers tend to be a lot less concerned with achieving anything useful.

If people want to walk for a coffee, I don’t think it matters much. Similarly, providing coffee and tea tends to reduce the excuses for the clock-watchers.

Ah, the tea lady. I remember when I was at Finance in the mid 1970s one of the guys in our office always referred to “the dulcet tones of the tea trolley”. I went for an interview at Education in the old MLC Tower, Woden and I told them back at Finance that the tea lady came in during the interview and had a full selection of cream biscuits on the trolley. The union delegate in our section almost called a strike and demanded to know why our tea lady didn’t have biscuits on her trolley as well.

I keep instant coffee at my desk. It saves me a lot of money considering take aways are about 4 bucks a pop. This has absolutely no bearing on my ‘productivity’. It’s not the hours you spend at work, it’s what you do with them. I have colleagues who spend 8-10 hours glued to their office chairs who are less ‘productive’ than those who take a smoko every 2 hours and go on ‘coffee runs’.

My former department supplied fancy expensive coffee machines, milk, tea (black and green), instant coffee and even milo.

After getting grilled too many times at Senate Estimate regarding the cost to maintain and stock tea & coffee for the plebs, the supplies slowly dwindled and it was decided once the coffee machines broke – they wouldn’t be fixed or replaced. Staff had to bring in their own milk, tea or coffee.

With no (decent) coffee shop in the immediate vicinity, staff took to then disappearing for 30mins at a time to walk to a better coffee shop, wait their turn before returning. I highly doubt anyone declared this on their flex sheets. I sure as hell didn’t on the off chance I ducked out for a hot beverage.

I was sadly mogged to another department before the milk supplies were cut off, but the new department I was moved to supplied nothing. (No biggy for me, I drink tea – no milk, and supplied my own) But they had the worlds smallest fridges, each day you’d hear about someone stealing someone elses milk, or their lunch got thrown out to accommodate for more room in the fridge for everyone supplying their own 2L bottle of milk each week. It was a disaster !

Personally I’m all for the department providing tea & coffee. I think it increases productivity by having staff go to the kitchen for a coffee and not the coffee shop a 10 min walk away and helps with staff moral by not dealing with milk thieves.

We (private sector, white collar, professional) have purchased two nespresso machines to do away with the need for regular coffee runs. Sometimes there is still a need to head out, especially for an off the record chat with someone. We have caffeine on hand, it saves the staff a considerable amount of cash (3 coffees a day at $4 each adds up) and while it is difficult to calculate the caffeine based productivity increase, I’m sure we are better off.

Harking back to tea ladies, on a recent trip to Japan was speaking to a corporate executive about productivity and their aging coupled with a compulsory retirement age of 60. He responded that even though many jobs seemed menial, they still were done with pride by the workers, but lamented that with many people retiring and a very low birthrate for the last generation or two, they would have to do away with many of the positions and bring in contractors.