[antonymoose]

I had a manager years ago tell me to pay attention to the free soda / coffee. It costs them basically nothing. If they can’t pay that how are they going to pay your salary.

Wise words, years later I worked at a fancy place. All kinds of snacks and drinks and weekly lunches. One day we got moved off into a smaller, worse office. Our old Herman Miller chairs were missing and our nice fancy desks were replaced with bottom barrel IKEA furniture. The weekly lunch was cut. The snacks were scarce.

I got a new job within the month. By the following month the entire company went bankrupt.

[ichorio]

I was at a company that tried its best to keep those free things going all the way until the end.

(The company only went under because of an investor tiff, apparently two of them met for lunch, and the one who was left out pulled funding)

[embedding-shape]

> apparently two of them met for lunch, and the one who was left out pulled funding

Yeah, I could kind of understand that, somewhat. Big sign that they're planning on pushing you out anyways if they meet in secret without you to talk about the business, so better GTFO quick rather than try to force-staying.

[kawfey]

Sometimes the opposite is true.

My century-old fortune 50 workplace does not have free. Autodrip coffeemakers are provided, but the coffee isn’t free. Employees bring it in with a jar to collect “coffee club membership fees.”