Discussion - staff refreshments

[Paul Bulpit]

I have always provided kitchen, tea and coffee facilities to my staff, at my own expense. It has always been my understanding that this is not tax-deductable, so the expense is not put into the 'accounts'. As we have grown, so the amount of 1.5kg coffee tins, 1,000 packs of teabags & 5kg sugar from Bookers and copious gallons of milk has increased.

Currently there are twelve of us. One, who starts before everyone else, gorges on (the supplied) 'all-milk' coffee in the microwave. A couple of youngsters do not partake at all, as they survive on fizzy cans (and crisps and chocolate) that they bring in themselves. One only drinks herbal tea, again she supplies her own.

How do you treat your staff? Do you supply, do you have a kitty, are they left to their own devices?

It irks me that some are greedy and others don't benefit.

Discuss.

[Jan]

We supply bottled water, tea, coffee, sugar and milk. All worked fine until our latest member of staff joined. She drinks very strong coffee all day long and a jar of coffee that used to last a month will last a week. When we went on holiday for a fortnight in the summer, we left enough milk for 3 weeks but it was used in 1.

It seems petty to start to charge but the usage is just ridiculous so I might have to. One of the staff mentioned that her old company supplied a certain amount each month and when that was used up the staff had to buy their own. I might do that. Or ... I might introduce set tea / coffee break times and have her stick to those .. I feel mean.

Regards,

[Mike Hughes]

It has always been my understanding that this is not tax-deductable, so the expense is not put into the 'accounts'.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'tax deductable' but I would have thought it's a genuine business expense so should be offset against the profit of the company (thus reducing the tax liability).

As far as employees are concerned, HMRC consider it a trivial benefit so it's exempt from charge. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM21863.htm

Mike

[wesleythorne]

we supply bottled water, the rest is up to them unless they want my soya milk and red bush tea!

They do get an ample supply of sweets though.

What about filling up a kettle to the top and only making one cup of tea, waste of electric!

You can get those water machines that also do hot water, maybe supply of of those and let the staff supply what ever flavour of coffee or tea is in fashion.

Wes

[Freeze]

We supply unlimited tea / coffee, but milk is "capped" at 4 pints per day. People using milk for breakfast is seriously frowned upon, but not stopped. Some people bring own "specialist" milk.

Buy a plumbed in "urn" -- instant hot water, no boiler.

[saucysal]

Only the best

We supply instant coffee, which has to be Kenyan as we have a Kenyan employee who is fussy, PG Tips (not any old rubbish), full cream milk, sugar, Splenda sweeteners. We did have some initial complaints about the coffee not being fresh ground "real" coffee. We have 6 full timers who partake (younger people not interested) but we get through what seems a disproportionate amount. I suspect one or more may drink the milk straight.

We have set break times 3 times a day, plus I have an additional coffee at 8.00 am made for me. As part of my paying for their refreshements, I expect a coffee on my desk most of the time.

Sarah

[Paul Bulpit]

Only the best - blimey. Kenyan coffee and full cream milk - have you got any jobs going? Can't remember the last time I had full cream milk - I'll bring my cornflakes............

Anyone remember 'gold top' on the doorstep with sparrows pecking at the foil? Takes me back forty years.....

Oh, and PGTips = monkeys.

[Duncan Rounding]

Anyone remember 'gold top' on the doorstep with sparrows pecking at the foil? Takes me back forty years.....

Oh, and PGTips = monkeys.

I remember the birds pecking through the foil tops very well. I also remember that there was so much cream on top that it was difficult to get to the milk - if the birds had left any!

I really miss the taste of proper milk, it's so much better than today's homogenised rubbish.

[chris ashdown]

We must be all good , the 8 of us get through 4 pints a week, instant coffee and pg tips, once a month we buy some biscuits or chrisps or cakes as a treat

[pinbrook]

Yuk yuk yuk I hate tea and full fat milk!

[Paul Bulpit]

Do you believe this?

We must be all good , the 8 of us get through 4 pints a week, instant coffee and pg tips, once a month we buy some biscuits or chrisps or cakes as a treat

or is the bloke just 'tight'?

Duncan I lied (slightly) - you can get Taste The Difference Jersey full cream milk in Sainsbury's (but only when the wife's away). Special treat.

[Jan]

My greedy staff member left and now we are back to 1 pint of milk a week.

Regards,

[NormanRouxel]

...which has to be Kenyan as we have a Kenyan employee who is fussy

I know of a ships captain who discovered two stowaways when sailing up East Africa. They were scared when discovered, so to befriend them up he offered up tea. They were emphatic that they only drink coffee!

[cbarling]

At Actinic Towers we supply free tea and coffee and chilled water from a cooler.

We have a kitchen area with a fridge and microwave where lots of staff eat their own lunch.

Chris

[saucysal]

Full Cream Milk

Back on the full cream milk thing:

I was brought up with gold top Jersey milk, which was yellow and very creamy. Then later it became fashionable to be eat low fat, and when following Weightwatchers I switched to full-skimmed. It took a while to get used to, but eventually it tasted normal and full cream milk felt fatty. More recently, since 2003, I have been following Atkins, where the "thicker" the milk or cream the better - the lower the carbs. Milk contains lactose, a form of sugar, so the more fat, the less lactose the better. So thick double cream is OK on Atkins, but not skimmed or semi-skimmed milk. As one is burning fat for energy because of insufficient carbs, the fat is being burned off. Atkins followers tend to have lower cholesterol levels than others.

Hence we have full cream milk.

Sarah