A new employee says they were reprimanded for drinking too much coffee.
The user took to Reddit to detail the situation, which unfolded at a job they’d started only a month prior. Each morning, they used the coffee machine and company-provided K-Cups and creamers. However, one day, a floor manager called them in and told them it was not typical to drink coffee every single morning.
“I don’t imagine my boss having anything to say that would make this situation better, and I think it would just be unnecessary trouble,” the user wrote. “I do not want to be seen as someone who picks problems with people for small things.”
To mitigate the problem, the new employee said they will bring their own K-Cups and creamers into the office moving forward. They also plan to document future interactions with the manager. “I need this job more than anything right now so I’m willing to look the other way since I’m not in the position at the moment to make any demands,” they said.
Office culture
Many of the user’s fellow Redditors immediately sided with them.
“Even when free, I’ve never once heard of a single person being told they’re drinking too much. Especially not at one per day; that seems bizarre,” wrote one user.
Another commented, “As an intern, I was drinking five cups a day, and nobody batted an eye. It got to the point where the office manager told me where to restock the coffee pods if I saw we were running low. This is a super weird thing for them to be concerned about.”
Experts say the user’s now-lingering tension over coffee usage could potentially lead to a deeper issue around comfort and safety at the workplace.
According to data from a national study by the Harris Poll, 60% of American workers report currently having a toxic supervisor, with more than 60% admitting they actively avoid their boss at work.
“This type of behavior dramatically reduces psychological safety at that workplace. As a result, that new employee is more likely to quit and more likely to engage in activity to damage the company’s reputation,” Russell Clayton, an associate professor of instruction in the School of Management at the University of South Florida, told Inc.
According to the Harris Poll, 61% of workers plan to switch jobs because of their boss as soon as the market allows. A separate survey done by the MIT Sloan Management Review analyzed 34 million employee profiles and found that toxic culture was the strongest predictor of employee attrition and was 10.4 times more important than compensation in predicting turnover.
Get 1 Smart Business Story delivered straight to your inbox when you subscribe to Inc.’s free daily newsletter.
—By Moses Jeanfrancois, News Writer
This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
