There have been coffee clubs at various jobs I’ve had, and they mostlyl ran the same way. Three wasn’t a price per cup, or even a price per week or month. Whenever supplies were bought, the cost was split equally among the members. The one that was different involved members taking turns buying supplies. Sure, the people who drink 5 cups a month won’t bother to join. Maybe not even the ones who drink 10 cups a month. But is it really worth it for you to lay out this money, wait to get the sheets back with the tick for each cup, tally everything up, print invoices and wait to get paid so that 10 cup drinker can save $10 a month over going to the coffee shop? There are probably enough people who drink in the 40-60 cup a month range to run the club without the infrequent coffee drinkers
Exactly!
kezami, they’re taking advantage of you, and will continue to do so, if you let them. Sure, it’s not a huge thing in the scale of things, but it starts to chip away at things.
doreen, that’s my name too!
My former office DID charge per cup - 25 c per. Ther was collection jar.
My boss paid a month in advance.
Brian
Here’s the way I look at it:
I’ve selflessly operated a coffee service for myself and my co-workers for about 18 years. At first we had a coffee service supply company deliver packets and loan us a commercial coffeemaker. I don’t exactly remember the reason but it was probably related to cost that we decided to buy large tins of coffee from a major grocery retailer instead and buy our own coffeemaker. Occasionally someone would treat the members to a pound of ‘goumet’ coffee. This made us realize how lousy the stuff we were brewing tasted and we voted to purchase the gourmet coffee. This decision resulted in a large increase in coffee expenses but I shouldered the cost as I had always done. Of course it was my time and gas expended to regularly purchase coffee, cream, sugar, filters etc. but I always considered it a donation to the welfare of the club. I’d get some positive feedback and recognition but not a great deal. I guess I didn’t really need it because as long as I felt I was in control of the club and it operated smoothly, that was enough of an ego stroke. The incident that got me to question my generosity was a call on my cellphone from one of the newer employees as I was on my way to work. She called me to remind me that we were out of coffee and to pick some up on the way to work (I had just visited Starbucks to pick up coffee). When I got to work I told her in no uncertain terms to not call me on my own time, that I was only offering an unpaid service, and that anyone else could gladly offer to buy coffee.
Shortly after that episode the club evolved into another person buying coffee since her daughter worked at Starbucks and could get a discount. Another person bought the cream. At the end of the 2 month reckoning period I would pay the coffee person and the cream person from my personal funds and then wait to receive payment from the 25 club members.
Last week the coffee purchaser said to me that her daughter was getting flack from work. She was only allowed to buy for personal use, not in the volume required for the maintenance of the club. She also mentioned that she heard that I had moved close to a Starbucks(hint,hint). So the club is now at a crossroads and that is why I’m soliciting ideas.
My feeling now is that people should buy their own coffee from the coffee shop or cafeteria because collecting in advance from a diverse group of coffee drinkers is too labor intensive for me.
In nutshell here is how mine works for me…
I walk in and get any dang kind of coffee we have…cappuccino, espresso…hazelnut…dark roast etc.
Did I mention I work in the “Biz”…
tsfr
This is the way you should go. If anyone complains, tell them they are welcome to continue the coffee club and pick up the beans, filters, etc. on their own time, but you’re no longer running the coffee club.
I never worked in a place where the office didn’t pay for coffee, but usually it’s been pretty horrible. So a small group of us would buy better coffee in turns, and share it all around. It didn’t really matter who drank more or less.
For years I shared an office with another confirmed java head/snob, so we would just trade back and forth between the two of us.
Since then I just brew my own coffee at home and bring it along.
Life is too short for bad coffee.
Coffea gloria mundi est.
Wow, I’ve never heard of this before. Every job I’ve had supplies free coffee. I don’t know if I’d want to work for someone who didn’t provide that…
Apparantly our coffee maker was brought down to a fiver under three grand, so that under the rules of the university our office could buy the machine ourselves, no idea they were that expensive :eek:
I’d like to have known a good way of getting money out of people, a cow-orker in the last office (spoilt brat playing to the stereotype of only child) owes eleven months of tea and biscuit money, which thankfully is someone else’s problem now I’ve moved on 
I remember getting chewed out by the office manager too for asking her to either contribute to the tea and biscuit fund or please stop taking what others are paying for. Before snapping at me she helpfully reminded me she only took when she didn’t bother bringing her own or no-one was going to the coffee shop for her :dubious:
In the UK at least, IIRC this is a worker’s benefit that gets taxed, so a lot of businesses let workers provide their own. I’d like to know if that’s true, my Dad (ex-banker) told me so for the moment I trust its true.
This is the system our office provides. It’s great because there’s no debate about who makes the pot, whether to make more, who cleans up the leftover, etc. They also provide sugar, Splenda, Sweet n Low, refrigerated half-and-half, creamer, etc.
Most places I’ve worked supplied the coffee, but not all. I have only been drinking it for a couple years, so I’ve never been part of any of the silliness I’m hearing here. I’d bring my own thermos each day if I needed coffee throughout my day. The Club arrangement seems to leave someone holding the financial or labor bag.
This morning I put up a notice in the coffee room stating that as of Dec 1 the current method of collecting will cease and that we will have to move to a prepayment method. I said that I will be soliciting ideas from the members, via email or in person. Also, I requested oustanding balances to be paid to me in a *timely * manner. I’m too nice.