Tea/Coffee at work

[Belowhuns]

Hey! I'm interested to know what your tea and coffee situation is at work? Is there an expectation you take in your own or does work provide it? If they don't provide, does that generally work for you? If they do, how do you manage things like milk as obviously this would need to replenished more often? Any feedback welcome 🙂

Public sector, small team. I provide tea, coffee, milk sugar and then cakes for our monthly meeting.

I'm finding this weirdly fascinating reading!

Medium sized business in private sector - everything is provided including fruit twas a few different coffees and squash. we can make requests some asked for decaf teabags and got them

I thought we had it great until I saw someone else was getting biscuits!

Tea and Coffee all provided. We buy whatever we fancy with petty cash. Selection of breakfast tea, green tea, fruit tea etc + instant coffee as no machine. Milk is also provided, whoever brings it will claim in from petty cash.

Such an interesting thread!
private sector, small company, all provided inc breakfast foods, snacks and even alcohol regularly.
conversely husband’s company provides nothing at all - private sector, billionaire owner. Grim in my opinion

Third sector - tea, coffee, sugar, splenda and UHT milk are provided. Fresh milk/non-dairy milks are not. Most people bring their own.

Always had it provided except at public sector and one job that was ex public sector.
The problem when it's not provided is who pays for the visitors.

My work all provided. Husband's work he takes in milk the person he works with most takes in tea bags. Husband supplied the kettle. Other people there take a flask.

Oh and hot chocolate, filter water, cordial...when we were full time in the office we used to get porridge, cereal etc but we stopped buying these now as not in the office that often and will go dry / stale.

Teach. In our dept we bought our own fridge and microwave. We buy our own tea,coffee and milk.on training days school usually provide some refreshments

School (state). No tea, coffee milk provided in staff room. In team room, we have a microwave, kettle, pod coffee machine that various people have brought in and there is a bit of an odd assortment or fruit teas etc that people have brought in.

discounted vending machine. Also have fridges and a hot tap so we can bring our own stuff in if wanted.

I have seen the inside of about 50+ offices due to having to work on various sites.

Private sector - standard to provide tea, instant coffee and milk. A few places provided posh coffee, fruit/biscuits and a few the other way either had kitty system, a machine that spits out something almost (but not entirely) unlike tea, and a very few memorable ones had a paid machine which did the same.

Public sector - almost all seemed to have some sort of kitty system. My last actual work place was public sector but provided tea, instant coffee and milk. It made much more sense to me because there's not constantly work time being spent on organising the tea rota etc. One memorable one was a hospital where I was told only clinical staff were allowed to use the hospital paid for milk and everyone else had to buy their own...I solved that one by just taking in enough milk every week for all the admin staff in my area because it mightily pissed me off.

Charities were about 50-50 between public sector and private sector attitudes.

All provided where I am now but I previously worked at a doctors surgery (nhs) and the other support staff clubbed together to purchase these items.

Social enterprise - tea and coffee provided. Our CEO brings in snacks too.

Free tea and herbal, coffee, milk, squash (yuk)
Medium private.

Large public sector, provided tea-coffee-some milk. Not mugs or any way to wash them. I buy washing up liquid & sometimes bring a sponge in.

I run a cafe now so all free.

Previously ran a pub and you weren’t allowed the machine coffee (or post mix) never worked anywhere so tight. Every other pub I’ve worked at that has all been free.

Offices and shops usually we’ve taken turns to buy instant coffee.

I used to work private sector where teas, coffees etc were all provided as well as fresh fruit AND 20% discount at some local restaurants. Those were the days.

Various types of tea, coffee and milk provided, it's a university with a dining hall so I just pop down there to make a drink whenever I fancy it. Breakfast and lunches are cheap and excellent. There is a cafe is you want fancy (paid for) coffee and cake.

Private, large multinational company.
Cassette coffee/ tea machines on every floor, water dispensers. Moved to mugs pre Covid, with dishwashers and company mugs provided; back to disposables now, although these days they are recyclable.
Unlimited in terms of visits per day, but the hot chocolate always runs out between visits by company who manages machines.

Instant coffee, tea and sugar is provided, but we have to provide own milk. Small regional professional firm

Public sector here (teacher). We have to provide everything ourselves. We even had to buy our own kettle for the staffroom (of about 18 members of staff) the last time it broke. We also provide cloths, washing up liquid etc ourselves too.

Retail. Tea/coffee/herbal teas supplied. I buy the milk, my Earl grey and the biscuits/cakes.

Massive college. Nothing provided. People tend to bring in jars of coffee etc. Some keep them on their desks but most put them on the sharing table

I bring a flask as the milk situation is too haphazard for me 🤣 I bring biscuits every week. People bring in cake / leftover Christmas sweets etc

To add to my own answer, my husband works for a very profitable and large private company and everything is provided for them. They also get a company meal provided once a month. This can be anything like pizzas, tacos, burgers or even jacket potatoes.