… you understand 2 coffee shop lattes are like the same price as the entire bag of ground beans, right? But the bag will make 10-15 times the coffee; the price difference is phenomenal. Its only saving grace is that my budget is dominated by rent, really.
There are cheaper shops, yes … but the coffee is terrible. I can do far better myself.
> As far as interruptions, a lot of offices have conference rooms engineers can use whenever they want
If any significant number of people even attempted this, it'd be ended immediately. There's not enough to go around.
> the newer telephone booths. Usually all soundproofed.
… so lug keyboard and monitor into a phone booth, and proceed to hog it for the day?
> I guess that's not feasible in like a 10-20 person office but I've been in offices for up to 75-100 people and it wasn't that difficult.
It's not feasible in any office of any size that I've ever been in, because the resources you're talking about are can only simultaneously serve like 2–5% of the office's population at a time.
>… you understand 2 coffee shop lattes are like the same price as the entire bag of ground beans, right? But the bag will make 10-15 times the coffee; the price difference is phenomenal. Its only saving grace is that my budget is dominated by rent, really
And you can't bring in a small bag of beans/pre-ground beans from your favorite roaster?
Every office I've worked in had a coffee maker or espresso machine or both, and if you prefer to brew with say a Hario V60 it's not that big a deal to keep one at your desk and just bring a bag of beans lol.
You don't even have to lug it to work every day with all the easy ways to order beans these days. And if you're buying your own bags and using those beans you're not spending any more than you would otherwise.
Not the OP but some of their points are genuine things. Quite surprised they didnt mention the obvious - the added personal costs and time.
Everything thats mentioned as a counter point is a compromise to working from home, almost like a "well you could work from home, and save money, and have your own coffee...but why do that when you can come to work and bring coffee with you".
I'm sure some thrive in a typical open plan office. Most in technical roles however do not, and find it extremely counter productive.
> Quite surprised they didnt mention the obvious - the added personal costs and time.
I'm not sure what personal costs are, if you're referring to my comment? DIY coffee is considerably cheaper. As for time … because it's mostly a wash? While I think the coffee shop will win out, you still have to walk there, wait to order, order, wait for them to make it, and walk back. It definitely takes me less time to make coffee myself; it's the washing of the equipment where the coffee shop might then come out ahead.
In terms of personal costs I was thinking more car/petrol/public transport costs to get to work, the personal time (which could be counted as a cost) it takes to get to and from work, having to get up earlier etc)
> And you can't bring in a small bag of beans/pre-ground beans from your favorite roaster?
Literally no? I've basically had a mix of … industrial coffee vats, managed by the office? IDK what they're really called; and machines that make jarring noises & reconstitute coffee from what feels like freeze dried ingredients (touch screen interface, constantly breaking due to clogs).
> Every office I've worked in had a coffee maker or espresso machine or both,
I've had an espresso machine exactly once, but that's sort of the thing, it is the exception, not the rule. (I did like the coffee, then.)
When we had the espresso machine, the beans in use were a very low key office politics thing? (In a friendly way.) There was one guy who liked a particular brand that the rest of us pretty much didn't, but the rest of us weren't too picky otherwise. Just … not that one. Nobody much minded, since it's really not that big of a deal, of course.
Our espresso machine had a hopper, so you're not realistically grinding "your" beans. You can bring in some, but you're sharing, and it'd be until the next time the hopper needs a fill. Easier to just get it on the office shopping list.
… you understand 2 coffee shop lattes are like the same price as the entire bag of ground beans, right? But the bag will make 10-15 times the coffee; the price difference is phenomenal. Its only saving grace is that my budget is dominated by rent, really.
There are cheaper shops, yes … but the coffee is terrible. I can do far better myself.
> As far as interruptions, a lot of offices have conference rooms engineers can use whenever they want
If any significant number of people even attempted this, it'd be ended immediately. There's not enough to go around.
> the newer telephone booths. Usually all soundproofed.
… so lug keyboard and monitor into a phone booth, and proceed to hog it for the day?
> I guess that's not feasible in like a 10-20 person office but I've been in offices for up to 75-100 people and it wasn't that difficult.
It's not feasible in any office of any size that I've ever been in, because the resources you're talking about are can only simultaneously serve like 2–5% of the office's population at a time.