Office perk backfires badly
In 2007, a company doubled breakfast supplies for two merged workforces and they vanished within days. The fix was to cut the perk. This is how shared benefits fail.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
A company perk can die of its own success when it is shared between groups that don't feel part of the same team. The company ended up scrapping it.
The story is simple. In **2007**, one company buys another. To save costs, it puts both workforces in the same offices. The newcomers came from a place with no shops or cafeterias nearby, so the company gave them yoghurts, biscuits and other breakfast items every month. Everything went fine as long as each group had its own.
## The day the two worlds collided
When the offices merged, one workforce's perk became available to the other. At first nobody touched other people's stuff, but coexistence soured when the boss started making cutbacks and the office filled up with new people. What had been a nice gesture turned into loot.
## Doubling the ration fixed nothing
The company responded by doubling the amount of products. It didn't work. What used to last a month disappeared within a couple of days. When consumption outstrips any forecast, the perk stops being a reward and becomes a bottomless expense.
## The only way out was to turn off the tap
Unable to control consumption, management cut the benefit. There's no data on how much it cost or how many employees there were. Just the certainty that a badly designed perk ends up dying of suffocation.
If this sounds like your office, beware: shared benefits policies need clear rules or the first hungry person to come along will eat them alive.
The story is simple. In **2007**, one company buys another. To save costs, it puts both workforces in the same offices. The newcomers came from a place with no shops or cafeterias nearby, so the company gave them yoghurts, biscuits and other breakfast items every month. Everything went fine as long as each group had its own.
## The day the two worlds collided
When the offices merged, one workforce's perk became available to the other. At first nobody touched other people's stuff, but coexistence soured when the boss started making cutbacks and the office filled up with new people. What had been a nice gesture turned into loot.
## Doubling the ration fixed nothing
The company responded by doubling the amount of products. It didn't work. What used to last a month disappeared within a couple of days. When consumption outstrips any forecast, the perk stops being a reward and becomes a bottomless expense.
## The only way out was to turn off the tap
Unable to control consumption, management cut the benefit. There's no data on how much it cost or how many employees there were. Just the certainty that a badly designed perk ends up dying of suffocation.
If this sounds like your office, beware: shared benefits policies need clear rules or the first hungry person to come along will eat them alive.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (4 replies).
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