>no free food/drinks
It's sooooo important.
It's sooooo important.
Of course, that's just me. I'm not saying you should be deprived. I like getting a free beer or two on Thirsty Thursdays but if I were a recovering alcoholic I would hate it.
But I would not be shocked if at least some of the people who I know never come do so because there's a not small percentage of the population for whom being around alcohol is incredibly challenging. I'm like that with food - and truth be told, on those Thursdays I tend to eat too much. But eating too much doesn't have the same impact professionally as getting drunk (it's still not great, though).
https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...
Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers.
Plus (and this is dependent on the company handles the providing free food business), food cooked or prepared on site is potentially healthier and tastier than whatever calorific sandwich and chocolate bar you picked up on the way to work. Healthier and happier employees are a win for both parties.
My last company was in an office park in the middle of no where and I don't drive. There were no stores within walking distance either. So if I felt like having a snack or something to drink that wasn't water I'd be SOL. So it was nice that we had snacks and drinks available and made working in such a remote spot much more tolerable.
It is, though, for the employer. I think the GP was trying to say that free food/drinks are a bad place to start saving money.
I always (in the past) tried to drink the kool-aid as much as I could ... (until that got abused) ...
If I start a business, one of my main goals is going to be to build a team that does justice to the passion that it's members put in to it.
Many of the people that I work with are pretty passionate about what they do as well.