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?

The cleaners at work do this and it pisses everyone off.

They are actually only there four hours.

They clock in.....

Make tea and toast - talk about tv he night before
Make a move 15 mins later then are back again a hour and half later for another 15 mins.

They manage to waggle half hour break with out actually beng entitled to one. It's not fair n the other employees who have to start when the clock in.

It causes resentment amongst the other staff.

Don't get me started on people that pop out side for five mins for a fag - 10 tens a day!!!

So YABU make your morning coffee in your own time!

but i can drink my coffee while i work, at my desk. it is my fuel.

who pays the cleaners mishmosh, do you?

I don't think the OP is having a half hour break while discussing 'last night's telly' mishmash
She is talking about making a cup of tea/coffee before sitting down to do her day's work.
Not exactly the same thing.

No it's not me that pays the cleaners but it's me the other staff complain to.

What wrong with coming in five mins earlier ? Some people do not want to be in work one second early, yet expect employers to let them start five mins later so they can have a nice brew.

It all depends on how relaxed the work place is and the job spec. Some company's have a tea/coffee person that offer drinks while working but some employers expect employees to start work when they should, not stood in the kitchen brewing up while everybody else has started.

That does cause resentment.

Clearly op has been pissing some one off for it to be mentioned.

If I'm taking a meeting and it's scheduled for nine o'clock , everything is prepared before 8.45 . Paperwork, projector, refreshments ....

If I start fannying about insisting I need to make myself a coffee before I can get going, leaving every one waiting,it looks unprofessional and I'm not ready for the day.

But like I said above, it depends on how relaxed the office/work set up is.

In my yoof I worked briefly as a PA for a firm of actuaries who sent round an old fashioned tea-lady with a trolley stuffed full of different types of hot drinks and biscuits. When the partners had birthdays, we also got cakes. If you needed extra coffee in the meantime, there was staff room with more of the same. Newspapers were also free. I loved it so much I considered going back to university to read maths so I could join them. they made a lot of money, and their staff were really loyal.

I want an office job

I start work at 8.30 so if I want a coffee I make one early, so that when 8.30 comes I am already sitting down with my coffee.

We are allowed to sort out our own workload, so if we get a spare 5 mins we can make tea/coffee during the day, no problem. We would drink it whilst working. However, the first cuppa is made on your own time, it seems like taking the piss otherwise.

I generally get in first, bring the milk upstairs, unload the dishwasher, boil both kettles and make the coffee for me, and the 5 staff members who work in our section. If I am late, someone else will make the coffee.
If an employee wants a coffee or a glass of water or to go to the toilet or stretch their legs or have a cigarette, they have my blessing, they just go, its not a drama. They all work very hard, come in early or stay late if needed, eat lunch at their desks, I do not need them to be in place from 9-5, as long as the work is getting done, which it is. We are the most productive department

Obviously, Brian the Mole, my comment was alluding to the work ethic and attitude displayed by so many on here. No one said having a cup of coffee alone would spell the downfall of the economy. But the attitude displayed by so many is bizarre to me.
I go to work to work. Tea, coffee, breakfast is obviously eaten beforehand.
Imagine if you had an hourly cleaner and s/he turned up for work and stuck the kettle on when they walked in. Had a nice cup of coffee whilst waiting for the iron to heat up and the washing up bowl to fill with water... Or perhaps the nursery teacher could have a nice drink whilst waiting for the children to take their coats off...
Perhaps it's just office workers who have this strange attitude. I don't know.

well, I don't have a cleaner but if she worked hard and did the job well, then I certainly wouldn't begrudge her a morning cup of tea before she cracks on - bit mean-spirited. And I love someone to tell everyone in the building trade their not allowed tea on the job!

Obviously not all jobs lend themselves to being able to do this - but they don't to a lot of things. Should I stand up all day because, I don't know, a hairdresser's on her feet all day?

Also, a lot of people don't eat their breakfast before - I think some people really struggle with eating early on. Again, if their workplace lends itself to it, why not have breakfast mid-morning, as long as your productive, what can it matter?

they're, not their - tsk.

I wouldn't have a problem with a cleaner making themselves a coffee whilst they worked. Crikey, why would I? . And my ds's nursery teachers do have a cup of tea on the go when I drop off in the morning. They sip it in between taking the coats off. And thats fine too. I've never even thought about it, let alone considered it an issue. And I'm more than happy with the work they do, and ds adores them. Ds has made huge progess since starting nursery. So their habit clearly isn't impacting on their ability to be good nursery teachers.

This is the most bonkers thing I've ever heard. I would not last a day in a workplace where enjoying a coffee/tea was frowned upon. Yes we are there to work, but work can also be enjoyable. God forbid employees should bond over the communal making/fetching of a brew.

Also I cannot eat before work. My body simply isn't capable of holding food very early in the morning. Quite a lot of people are like this.

I generally arrive 15 to 30 mins before my official start time. I make tea and eat breakfast during that time. I would not take kindly to someone telling me that I couldn't make tea in my own free & unpaid time.

I also make a drink during the day, should I want one. Usually just the one, as I work bloody hard and don't have time for more. I once had a job where I have two paid tea breaks as well as a whole hour for lunch and you were forced to take them or the senior staff would start muttering darkly about unions. /wistful

Some people would do so well in a totalitarian state. Would you begrudge a glass of water? Is it because tea and coffee are... exotic? Incredible.

I wouldn't have a problem with a cleaner making themselves a coffee whilst they worked. if that was aimed at my post brian then making a coffee whilst working wasn't an issue .

Clocking in THEN making a brew whilst sitting down and chatting about previous nights tv IS an issue. Why clock in ' before ' making the brew? Because they want it logged they have started work. But they haven't have they? They want management to know they were ready for work ! But really they are in the kitchen making shit coffee. If every one did this, was just milling around, bonding ,what would be a reasonable amount of time before they had to crack on?

Peoples attitudes and behaviours have an impact on other employees. If you work in a relaxed informal environment - cool. But if it's not, farting about in the kitchen is gonna start pissng people .

Depends on the job, the atmosphere of your company.
I have never worked at a call centre where they expect you to log on by 9.00 am and 30 seconds late = warning.

My old job was horrible for this.
My current job is lovely. The company buys coffee, tea, milk, squash, cakes, biscuits.

We make tea for each other. We have 'rounds'. I make for the other 6, say once a day. I get 6 cups if tea made/ offered in return. Tis FAB!!

If all you coffee guzzlers are doing such great work why are businesses failing day after day while you wander around with your much needed teas and coffees.

Do you have any evidence that it's the companies with coffee guzzlers where businesses are failing

Because we have coffee guzzlers, and yet our annual results have been some of the best for years. I don't think there's a negative correlation between failing businesses and coffee consumption, but if you can show me a report to the contrary, I'll read it.

I probably won't even bother getting dressed before I start work tomorrow morning on an early maintenance. I will have something to drink, though. (And I will get dressed before I drive into the office later in the day. They would rightly object to me being in the office in my pyjamas, even my best ones.)

I was responding to Arielles post Mishmash. Sorry, I hadn't noticed yours. But in response to your last post, it is entirely possible to drink coffee and carry on working too. Drinking coffee doesn't = sitting down for a chat. Well if it does for some, then no I don't go with that either. Its possible to do a good job whilst having a coffee at the same time. Obviously.

Although when I worked in an office I used to turn my computor on and then go make a drink. Because it took over 10 minutes for the machine to actually get to the log on screen. So I made myself a coffee rather than sitting there waiting. And, I never took took lunch, and did unpaid over time . So I was entitled to make my self hot drinks to keep myself going. Now I have my own company and work from home. And I'm happy for my employees to make themselves drinks through the day too. As long as the work is done, then I care little.

I also wonder if the anti-coffee/tea brigade think that making a cup of tea / coffee automatically = brewing cup of tea / coffee, then having a leisurely chat with drink & biscuit and doing nothing at all productive until all the drink has been drunk.

Obviously that would be a problem in most workplaces.

But there's a huge difference between the above scenario and someone who makes a drink in the minimum space of time, and then takes it straight back to their desk and drinks it whilst checking e-mails, reading reports or doing other work.

Where I work my boss actually banned everyone from eating at their desks (not snacks, but breakfast/lunch etc).

He believed it important that people took the opportunity to take a walk, leave the office or at the very least just eat away from their pc, emails and phone for a bit by eating in the staff room/canteen.

People moaned initially but have since seem the benefit and it's actually increased informal communication in the office as people now chat in the staff room over breakfast/lunch with people in other depts wh they would never have spoken to if they'd just stayed at their desk.

A lot of informal networking and relationship building happens in offices around water/coffee machines. Without it they can become very unpleasant places to work

I think people chuntering on about work ethic possibly don't get the reality of some jobs. I'm not a machine, chuntering out data automatically. My work involves deep thinking at times and that can happen anywhere - eating breakfast at work/in the shower etc. Also might spend five minutes gossiping with a colleague and then when I go back to my work I can think freshly about something. Or we might drink our coffee while I advise them how to handle a tricky file. My manager obviously doesn't mind my work style as I've just got a pay rise. Similarly when I am chatting with colleagues in other departments I am also networking and often tease out issues which need addressing which it hadn't occurred to them to bring to us (in-house legal).

I regularly work late into the night once my son is in bed, so its a bit much to assume anything about someone's work ethic from the timing of when they have a hot drink

That's true about thinking anywhere. I'm sure my director lives the mails he gets from me, "While I was in the bath just now, I had this idea..." (To be fair, I don't usually bother mentioning the bath bit.)

As long as you get the work done. Why does it matter? If your boss wants you off on the sick with stress in a few years, by all means carry on whipping you and chain you to your desk.