Hmmm... doughnuts....

Round of teas: 50p
Doughnuts for the office: £4.50
An office full of people on a sugar high: priceless.

It's all about the biscuits

I figured it was about time I wrote a post explaining this blog's tagline - "it's all about the biscuits".

I believe very strongly that of the many thousands of pieces of advice that can be offered (and we will continue to offer) about how to improve your office morale it can be broken down to something very very simple. It's all about the biscuits.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't pay your staff a decent wage, be flexible about working hours, listen to them and encourage their individuality and creativity. But while you're doing all that, just make sure there's some decent biscuits available. For the sake of a couple of quid a week you can get nice chocolate digestives, hobnobs or just a decent selection box.

The very worst thing you can do is have biscuits available for meetings and then not allow your staff to eat them, or have different 'classes' of biscuit - good ones for meetings with important people, mediocre ones for less important people and cheap ones for your staff. Classism by biscuits is not a healthy message to be sending.

Splurge occasionally and bring in Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Get in cakes for people's birthdays and anniversaries at work. If money is a bit tight, encourage people (and set a good example) to bake cookies and bring them in.

From Indexed

Over the last few weeks in my office we have had cake to celebrate a birthday and someone's 10th anniversary with the company, champagne to celebrate someone's engagement and lots of leftover food from meetings because they intentionally over-cater so there's enough for staff. That cost may be 50quid and increased office morale a huge amount, it made us feel like a group of colleagues rather than just isolated individuals.

It's also a good opportunity for everyone to get together and chat. It's not a formal meeting but it's a good chance to listen to staff and find out what's going on. Why not just knock off work half hour early every Friday, get some sort of food in chat about how the week's been?

See Also
Sometimes it's about tea