To arrive at work and make a cup of coffee?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

I have been criticised today for arriving at work and after logging on etc making a cup of coffee. Doesn't everyone do this? Or am I living in the dark ages and I should arrive and start work straight away? Maybe I should delay my first cup of coffee for a half an hour or some such?

I always arrive early for work. I make a cup of tea, computer is on and I start work about 10 minutes before my actual start time. It would be frowned upon to arrive dead on time and then start faffing around with coffee / tea making.

Totally reasonable, Funnys, a lot of people cant function without a nice cuppa, me included, it's sociable and nice to have a quick chat when your PC is booting up. Honesty your boss is being "beyond petty" (great description) and it means they are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Counterproductive, that style of management - always makes me that they are the type who wont bat an eyelid if they delay you from leaving, then it's "oh can you just do one last thing..." No bugger off, why should I!

The thought of not having my first cuppa gives me the shakes (actually, I go to the gym first thing so I could murder a Full English gets out frying pan from bag but think Id be taking the piss!!

I'm going to try this! I'll log in, take my form's register and make myself a cup of coffee! Sounds good to me!

MoveYourArms do you work in the Apple call centre in Barcelona? You've described it to a T. Apparently.

We all arrive about 8.50; PC on to boot, kettle on, argue about where the milk is, wee, chat then start at 9. I'd be very confused if I couldn't keep to the routine.

it depends on how you are paid I think

I am salary, I always work over my standard hours and get my work done to schedule

I get to work at 7 30, log on and get myself a tea, which I drink while answering emails , eating breakfast and planning my day

however if you were working to clock and taking the Michael with long breaks that could be annoying

I think we should work on trying to find Moveyourarms a new job. No conversations or filling water bottles!

It would be mutiny in my office if they tried to limit coffee time. Our new starter induction includes barista training so we can work the coffee machines (personal and client coffees). We are encouraged to drink as much coffee as we want. I couldn't handle working somewhere where they monitor your time usage so closely...

I don't think it's unusual, but I did have a team member that I had to 'talk to' about this kind of thing. She was perpetually late and would then arrive, log on and immediately go off to the canteen to buy breakfast and nip out for a fag break. Her job was time critical in the morning (dealing with setting up meetings) and other people were covering for her. She felt that because she was physically at work it didn't matter that she wasn't around for the first half hour.

Most people do this in my office, including me, and I think it's fine. Computers take a couple of minutes to start up in any case, so it's something to do while people wait. As the boss, I have no issue with this.

However, I did have to speak to one member of staff who told her manager that she started work at 9am but couldn't attend a 9am meeting because she needed time to make her cup of coffee first. Now that's just taking the piss!

I started a new job this week and my initiation was as follows.
You make tea for everyone. So that's 10 cups to make.
5 teas and 5 coffees.
The coffee is fresh filter coffee every time.
So you go and the put the coffee on.
Collect cups and wash
Put the kettle on at some point in the next 10 mins.
Make it all
Almost drop it all by trying to open the door to the office.
Then everyone is always very very happy to have a cuppa given to them.
It's about 20 mins all in.

Mind you we also had a YouTube half hour with the boss yesterday.
So yes it's fair to say I am loving my new job!

Do you only get paid for the amount of time you are logged on? If not I really can't see the problem. Maybe whoever pulled you up is not very good at time management. It's not hard to catch up the 10 mins it takes to make a coffee, and you ate probably more effective for it! You can't judge quality of work by time sat in front of computer screen.

In an office environment it's a given, we take it in turns for our banks of desks. It would be a crap atmosphere if we weren't allowed, plus we are paid to do our jobs and as we are so damn efficient tea/coffee making does not hinder our peformance.

I get in half an hour early every day, unlike those that rock up late every day boss has given up on them

Hope you find a new job asap, Funnys.

Totally unreasonable & very perrt.

I've worked in places where this would be a problem, and others where it was expected that the coffees get made as first order of the day.

Some organisations have issues with staff logging on THEN making a drink as once logged on you are on paid company time, and your first act is to go make yourself a drink instead of starting the work you are paid to do. This is most important in an environment where logging in time is recorded, because then you are taking the piss a bit.

Most companies with start times or set hours expect employees to be at their desk ready to start work at a certain time or at log in point - you aren't doing that. You're logging in before you are ready to start work then wandering off.

It depends on the ethos and rules of your workplace, in some I've worked in you would be told in no uncertain terms, by management, to pack it in. As someone has mentioned it you should listen.

Make your coffee before logging on - and if that isn't possible because you haven't time before you are meant to be logged on that's your evidence that you were taking the piss. If you have to arrive five minutes earlier or leave five minutes later to facilitate making a coffee before log on - ditto.

If it makes no difference to any of the above then it won't make any difference to you anyway. But it probably does, in which case you have been out of order.

presumably there is a difference between having a coffee 'on the go' and taking a definite coffee break. I drink a lot of coffee during the day, but never actually take a break from work. so I wonder if the people who equate having a cup of coffee with taking a break may see me as being lazy - although if they looked harder they would see me working as hard as ever.

I'm a teacher so can make tea and coffee at any time I'm not physically teaching. Lots of goodwill at our school though which is why I've checked my email 10 times in the last 16 hours. :)

Depends on the job. When I was teaching, no, certainly couldnt have done this. I had my coffee en route, and was on the job the minute I walked in the door.

One of the reasons I left teaching

What is super fascinating here to a researcher is that, a) log ons are taking up ludicrous amounts of time (one of my colleagues does research into this and quoted me the number of waking hours of a person's life that is spent doing this. I can't remember what it was, but it was mental), and b) what has developed on the back end of this log on issue is a kind of liminal space, as social anthropologists would call it, or a kind of social or psychological buffer zone between work and home, where people do at work things they would probably have done at home in years gone past. This is probably partially because of dead time waiting for computers to do things, partially because formal canteen meals are largely a thing of the past, and partially a bonding ritual.

Eh my line manager does this every single day. I normally have coffee at home then just drink water at desk but I'd say probably at least 50% of people do the same as you in my workplace, so seems bizarre for anyone to criticise what is clearly normal behaviour.

You would probably be murdered in a call centre environment for doing this.

I get in to work and my hand goes from the door knob to the kettle knob. We are all fuelled by caffeine. Any boss that doesn't realise that it is wise to pick their battles is a bit silly really. It is a non issue if everyone works as they should and smacks of the sort of micro managing that builds resentment.
My boss would know that if he mentioned the coffee /biscuit consumption his workers would cease the working through lunch if need be and the hanging on for an extra ten minutes here or five minutes there (5 hours for me once) and the going the 'extra mile' we all do on a frequent basis. He would also be getting his coffee with various extra ingredients also. Why piss off a workforce for something so petty?

Also not sure if 'logging in' is now the equivalent of 'clocking in' when there used to be card stampers and things? (God I am old! I had those when doing pt cleaning as a student, they were quite fun actually). I don't always log in to my computer first thing as I'm about 75% lab based so often drop my bag at desk then go into lab to check on things that have run overnight. I hope I'm not being recorded as working shorter hours because of this!

I'm salaried but if I start at 8am, I have to be at my desk and logged on for 8am. So I could make tea/coffee then go in which is what I do but couldn't log in and then go out
Probably different as our computers are on 24/7

Thanks Magi I am working on it! and Custardo great advice

I am in a professional office environment working at a senior level and everyone else makes coffee etc. When I used to buy a coffee as opposed to making one when I got in I was described as 'wandering in with a coffee'. I had to have serious words yesterday about respect and understanding that working hard could be displayed as quiet efficiency rather than running about shouting about how busy you were.

The woman in question is rather a nasty controlling type and so I think I will be happier elsewhere. She has form for this type of thing ie with her immediate staff saying stuff like 'oh were you doing your clients shopping too' when people were back from appointments and she thought they had taken too long.