At a smaller company, you just never know what range of duties you will experience in a day. You might start your day in serious negotiations about data storage center space and end the afternoon with a conversation about what kind of single cup coffee machine for the office you should. For many, however, the difference in these two ends is what they love about their days at work.
A morning conversation about what the extra charges will be if the number of help tickets exceeds the set maximum number is manageable because the later conversations about office coffee providers will provide a bit of a break. These smaller company workers have to be able to understand the implications of 300 help desk tickets costing $5,000 a month, as well as the cost of deciding to provide single cup coffee machine for the office lounges and reception areas.
Many of the best office managers will explain that it is nearly as important to know that if you submit fewer help tickets it is still the same flat rate as it is to know that business coffee solutions are important to many employees.
Whether you are in charge of an office that is paying several thousand a month in data storage center fees or you are running a smaller office that only has three laptops if the office at any one time, understanding and valuing the needs of your employees goes a long way toward maintaining a productive work place. And while you may not always think that a morning cup of coffee is that important, consider some of these caffeinated habits of the nation as a whole:
- 46% of U.S. workers say coffee helps them stay productive at work.
- 54% of Americans over age 18 drink coffee every day.
- The average U.S. coffee drinker consumes 3.1 cups a day.
- Research indicates that 200 mg of caffeine can help a person identify words and phrases faster than they could do without coffee.
- 62% of respondents indicated they had a cup of coffee the previous day, according to a 2017 National Coffee Drinking Trends report.
If you think that a cup of coffee is not important when it comes to how an office runs, you have likely never been part of the informal conversations about data center storage and systems software solutions while people are waiting in line for their first cup of coffee for the day. Encouraging your staff to have lunch together in a shared space, as well as stop for a cup of coffee together on the way into the office often sets the stage for many important decisions that will be made during the day. From the selection of a single cup coffee machine for the office to the contract for a data storage provider, office managers are involved in many kinds of conversations, especially if they work at a smaller office.