Intel brings back workers’ free coffee, seeking to stem morale decline

[Dave Hess]

Intel brings back workers’ free coffee, seeking to stem morale decline​

Intel brings back workers’ free coffee, seeking to stem morale decline

“We know this is a small step, but we hope it is a meaningful one."

www.oregonlive.com

Intel told employees this week that it will bring back free coffee and tea at its work sites, one of many benefits the chipmaker eliminated last summer as it sought to slash $10 billion from its annual budget.

“Although Intel still faces cost challenges, we understand that small comforts play a significant role in our daily routines,” Intel wrote on its internal messaging forum, called Circuit. “We know this is a small step, but we hope it is a meaningful one in supporting our workplace culture.”

Intel declined comment. The company did not resume offering free fruit, another perk eliminated last summer.

Employees say privately that morale has been devastated by Intel’s poor financial performance and by cutbacks aimed at returning the business to profitability.

The chipmaker is eliminating 15,000 jobs this fall through layoffs, buyouts and early retirement offers. Intel laid off 1,300 Oregon workers last month and more than 1,000 others at sites in California, Arizona and Texas.

In addition, Intel permanently grounded its air shuttle that flew workers between its offices in Oregon and other western states. And the company scaled back the duration of its employee sabbatical while raising the threshold to qualify, from four years at the company to seven.

Intel told employees at an all-company meeting last week that additional changes are coming in the structure of their annual stock bonuses, which caused additional consternation.

At the same meeting, employees asked about restoring the coffee program, and executives said it wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Christy Pambianchi, Intel’s chief people officer, told employees that Intel had been spending $100 million annually on free and discounted food and beverages and couldn’t afford to keep doing that.

“Until we get into a better financial health position, we need to be suspending those,” Pambianchi said, according to an account of the meeting reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
By Wednesday the company had reversed itself, committing to keep its employees caffeinated.


This company needs to provide free coffee to all Intel employees.

 

[Pew]

Small steps but maybe intel should figure out why they're a sinking ship in the first place.

 

[gfh77665]

The stories I could tell, LOL.
I will say this, it envolved a bowl of cheap candy put out 1/week in the conference room. LOL

 

[PF52]

I'm more interested in that employee sabbatical. I wonder how long it is for? I feel like I have to move heaven and earth to take a single day off of work and it always stabs me in the back because no one picks up the slack in my absence.

 

[mk378]

$100 million annually on free and discounted food

They have about 125,000 employees. That works out to about $3.00 per day (weekdays only) per employee.

 

[cptbarkey]

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

 

[bdcardinal]

We have coffee for customers, mostly used by employees. But no tea anymore. The $10 for 312 teabags from Costco wasn't an expense the owner was willing to authorize.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

What kind of office job doesn't provide coffee? Genuinely didn't know that was a thing.

 

[Shel_B]

Did I overlook the part about cutting executive pay and perks?

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Did I overlook the part about cutting executive pay and perks?

Employees can't have coffee but the company jet probably has a $5k cappuccino maker lol

 

[Jango]

As Jim Cramer says: "When the chips are down, sell! sell! sell!"

 

[Dave Hess]

Small steps but maybe intel should figure out why they're a sinking ship in the first place.

25 years ago they were a powerhouse and leader.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Small steps but maybe intel should figure out why they're a sinking ship in the first place.

Don't they have a fundamental flaw in their microprocessor design?

 

[Dave Hess]

I'm more interested in that employee sabbatical. I wonder how long it is for? I feel like I have to move heaven and earth to take a single day off of work and it always stabs me in the back because no one picks up the slack in my absence.

We get 5 personal business days + 2 floating holidays we can take that does not count as vacation time.

I agree it’s hard to take time off and not fall behind on work.

 

[y_p_w]

What kind of office job doesn't provide coffee? Genuinely didn't know that was a thing.

I've been a guest at Intel a few times - interviewing or there working on behalf of a third party. I won't give any big secrets (and they wouldn't tell me any) but they're kind of different than other tech businesses. They have no coffee machines in the kitchens. If you wanted coffee, tea, or other beverages, it usually meant going all the way to one of the cafes (not in every building) and it absolutely needed to be covered when transporting it around. I think security would even stop anyone with an uncovered mug or unsealed container. If one didn't take a disposable cup with a lid, they actually had disposable lids for a very specific foodservice coffee mug. You could take everything from the cafe (including food) on a tray and leave it on top of the kitchen trash can for pickup. However, I don't think there was any place to sit in the kitchens.

They did typically have two vending machines in each kitchen - one for beverages and one for snack foods. At least at one site they had ice and water across from each kitchen.

On interviews my host would usually take me for lunch in the cafe and there was a voucher with a limit that was usually enough to get any beverage including coffee with lunch. As a third-party worker, I wasn't allowed the free fruit or free beverage, but sometimes the cashier wouldn't charge me for it, probably because the majority are regular employees. When employees got coffee or a soft-drink they'd typically just walk out with it.

This was a thing for a long, long time. Getting rid of that tiny perk was a big deal.

As far as the air shuttle goes, that was huge. They had regular flights between Hillsboro, San Jose (near Santa Clara), Sacramento Mather (near Folsom), and Phoenix-Mesa (near Chandler). I think I heard PA announcements for when the ground transportation to the airports were ready to board.

Intel Air Shuttle - N486FM E175 LR

N486FM is an Embraer E175 LR, originally owned by Alitalia CityLiner, now in the possession of the Intel Corporation for use within their Intel Air Shuttle service. That's right, Intel has an airline. Intel Air Shuttle is a service that the Intel Corporation operates for its employees to easily t...

forums.x-plane.org

 

[y_p_w]

Don't they have a fundamental flaw in their microprocessor design?

I don't think so. There isn't a single product this complicated that doesn't have an errata sheet that's basically a book. Hardware problems are typically fixed with software workarounds.

However, their big competitor these days probably isn't AMD but ARM.

 

[goingplacesanddoingstuff]

Small steps but maybe intel should figure out why they're a sinking ship in the first place.

Because they can no longer use anticompetitive tactics to suppress challenges to their prior monopoly. This should have happened 20 years ago in the Pentium 4 and RAMBUS days, but due to shady practices and a miracle chip out of their Israeli mobile division, they stayed afloat.

 

[y_p_w]

Because they can no longer use anticompetitive tactics to suppress challenges to their prior monopoly. This should have happened 20 years ago in the Pentium 4 and RAMBUS days, but due to shady practices and a miracle chip out of their Israeli mobile division, they stayed afloat.

They used to be extremely competitive because of the performance of their semiconductor processes. I think even fairly recently they were even considered better than TSMC and Samsung. "Intel Foundry" where they offered production in their semiconductor fabs was supposed to be a big game changer. Altera was their first big foundry customer, and they ended up buying them.

 

[Pew]

25 years ago they were a powerhouse and leader.

They sat on their laurels for too long and got too complacent. The Core series was so awesome that AMD took 10 years to catch up....but catch up AMD did while Intel decided kind of side step performance improvements for like 8 generations.

 

[Leo99]

We get 5 personal business days + 2 floating holidays we can take that does not count as vacation time.

I agree it’s hard to take time off and not fall behind on work.

I have discretionary time off. There is no set limit. It's at our discretion. If we're falling behind on our work, we need to discuss that with our manager. It's wonderful. Someone covers for me when I'm out and I cover for others so there's no pile of work to come back to. We have free coffee and tea. Fancy coffee. Not that I drink it.