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 - nothing provided except at boiling water tap. In previous jobs, there's either been a kitty for coffee/tea/milk or I've taken my own. Now I'm only in a couple of times a week, and got a promotion. I just buy it from an overpriced coffee shop 😆

Work for a charity.

Tea, instant coffee, decaff, sugar and fresh milk all provided. Used to have filter coffee on the go all day and a pod machine with pods supplied but that stopped after covid cost savings came into force (fair enough IMO!)

I work for a charity in central London. We have free coffee and tea (various kinds - redbush, Earl Grey, green etc) plus milk and biscuits.

Private sector - global company. Teas, coffee, milk, water (semi / skimmed / oat) all provided, and we also get the fruitful office deliveries too.

My previous job was a tiny company and we all stuck in a fiver every payday to cover it all.

NHS it's provided for us. We take it in turns to buy dishwasher tablets. We provide our own cups.

Public (primary school). Used to get nothing provided so everyone brought their own in, including someone who used to padlock their milk 😂. New headteacher started and very kindly pays for teabags, coffee and a weekly milk delivery.

I must admit to being envious of people who work in glamorous/profit making places who get nice perks like biscuits etc.

In my backpacker days I worked in a fruit processing factory in NZ and they had all their products available in the staff kitchen-jams, fruit cordials etc as well as milk for your cereal and your hit drinks. They also had a Mr Whippy machine and used to roll that out occasionally when it was hot so we had ice creams on our break-it was awesome.

Education - we bring our own and there is a Costa on campus. I work across 3 campuses so easier to be milk free (herbal tea or black coffee) as only have my own desk at 1 site

Public sector. tiny kitchen with fridge, boiling water tap, microwave and sink. No toaster allowed for fire risk. Overpriced kiosk in building. Have to bring in everything and risk your milk getting pinched. I bring a flask of milk in a small coolbag and keep it at my desk. Work did a "wellness" table pre covid with leaflets, herbal and fruit tea bags and tissues etc on. Un surprisingly the tea bags disappeared within hours

Secondary school, tea and coffee provided in staff room at break. If we want it in our offices we provide our own.

Public sector and charity (2 jobs). It is provided but I take my own coffee because I’m a bit of a coffee ponce and don’t like instant.

Nhs- absolutely nothing is provided. We all bring in what we want... Or we should. There's normally upwards of 40different bottles of milk in the fridge. I've had to report multiple senior staff for blatantly taking others milk and sundries without asking. They earn triple or more what the lower band staff earn but still think it's ok. I once brought in 2 pints Monday 9am, unopened. It was dregs by lunch time because a senior had used it to brew up multiple rounds for everyone in their office (I don't work in the office and no one asked). It was the end of a really tight month financially, I was supposed to be having cereal for lunch that week as it's all I had in. They didn't replace it or pay for it when I complained so my options were dry weatabix or nothing. Not a sore point at all. 😒

Same! We all have a stash of our own tea bags etc. I don’t take milk but colleagues share/buy their own. Our own mugs and cutlery.

Private sector work provide everything Tea, coffee, sugar, milk, hot chocolate, biscuits & fruit.

I do take my own full fat milk as only semi skimmed in work.

Public sector; nothing provided so we pay £5 a month kitty for milk, tea, coffee, sugar, squash, salt, pepper and ketchup for our team.

Then an extra chip in when the kettle breaks. General rule of if you break a mug you replace it.

Secondary school. Nothing is provided, we have to bring our own. There isn't even a kitchenette area. We have a (secret) kettle hidden in our small office so can make an emergency cuppa, but the only washing up area for our mugs is the staff toilet cubicle which is quite grotty, so we end up taking our mugs home every night to wash!

Public sector, £12/term for full time less if part time. We have to buy absolutely everything ourselves including washing up liquid. It’s accountability with the public purse innit…

Nhs buy your own

NHS non clinical. I buy my own tea bags and milk. We used to have a tea/coffee/milk kitty but it was a nightmare to administer and now many of the team are partly wfh, it's even more difficult to organise fairly. Ancient falling apart kitchen has sink, fridge, water boiler, and microwave which is a colleague's old one. We provide our own mugs and cutlery but we are able to get washing up liquid and sponges from our department's central stash.

Public sector - kitchen area with instant hot water tap on site and fridges for storage. Tea/coffee/milk provided by individuals or some teams have a tea club (although think this has fallen apart since pandemic/wfh).
I take a pint of milk in on a Monday and anyone is welcome to help themselves to it - for tea/coffee (not cereal like one CF used to do).

Canteen on site selling overpriced hot drinks. If we have meetings and are providing refreshments we can order from the canteen, if it’s individual visitors we either stump up the cash for a canteen cuppa for them or make from our individual supplies.

School- bring our ow

Small private company - all tea, coffee, hot choc etc provided, kettle and microwave, biscuits and occasionally cake too! Someone will go and get milk with petty cash when it runs out..

My workplace have always provided milk. In the past we had to bring in our own tea and coffee but following a staff survey on how management could improve the workplace free tea and coffee was a request so it’s now provided for us.

It used to be provided. That stopped with lockdown and has not been reintroduced. It’s a pain if you have visitors.

My job in the public sector, nothing provided, we have a kitty for milk.
Dh private sector everything provided including copious biscuits and chocolates.

Yet I am always being told there's so much waste in the public sector?!

Global corporate, I work in a recently refurbished office with hot taps, free tea (various kinds), coffee (instant only), squash, milks. The host team keep things clean and tidy, we have plenty of drinks stations throughout the office, mugs are washed in dishwashers. A few times a month the host team put on free snacks, biscuits, cakes, etc, usually around some kind of theme or international day of [insert here].

The main kitchen has a bank of 12 microwaves and several large fridges that are cleared out on a Friday night, so you can bring a week of sandwich fillings, etc. It's all very civilised, although I do sometimes yearn for more free biscuits. Better for my waistline that we don't have them all the time though!