[flashgordon]

Well it had to happen sometime. But I doubt the frugal measures like removing free lunches will have a huge impact on motivation. Given that the employees have been rewarded during good times, the expectation may be that this frugality is only a short term blip.

[snprbob86]

The thing about the free meals is that empirical evidence suggests that they get more bang for their engineering buck.

I found out first hand that if you feed me, I'll be in the office a lot longer. I will still work the same amount because I will take more frequent breaks to stretch my day out to accommodate dinner.

When I actually do work, I'm well rested and well fed. I'm easily over $10 dollars worth more productive and I used a lot my extra break time to attend mind-expanding Tech Talks. It would be more expensive NOT to provide free food!

That said, this is also one of the key reasons I chose Microsoft. I actually like spending some fraction of my life off campus being a normal person.

[ojbyrne]

I agree. And the article says at the very end, "So for now, at least, the free lunches are still a go."