It's not you. It's not your product or service. It's
not even the restroom, though that's close. If there's one
thing that your business couldn't survive without,
it's--without question or argument--coffee.
Can you imagine what would happen if you refused to let your
employees sip coffee at their desks or, if not there, in the
company break room? You would likely be strung up to the ceiling
fan and left to spin the day away, while your employees went off to
sip mocha lattes and plot your ruin. Your business would curl up
and die. As well it should. Coffee and the workplace have had a
symbiotic relationship for some time now.
The first coffee break as we know it likely happened around the
turn of the 20th century. Howard Stanger, a professor of management
and marketing specializing in industrial relations and business
history at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, says it was in
1900 when the Larkin Company, a hybrid soap manufacturer and
mail-order company, began giving employees free coffee to drink in
break rooms. As far as he knows, this is the earliest example of an
official coffee break.
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Like many businesses of the time, entrepreneurs were concerned
that their female employees not be subjected to their brash male
co-workers and the harsh conditions in the factories. Since women
couldn't completely be shielded, "companies often tried to
create domestic spaces where they could take a break," says
Stanger. "In photographs, you'll often see [break rooms]
decorated like a middle-class home." Offering coffee in these
refuges was an amenity that would lead to future amenities, like
health benefits and pension plans in the 1920s.
Today, of course, coffee at the workplace dominates much more
than a few minutes a day, because people appreciate the drink for
the same reason their counterparts did 100 years ago, observes
Stanger: "They drank it for the caffeine jolt, the warmth and
the comfort."
Bean There, Done That
A timeline: Great moments in the coffee/work
relationship, from the bush to the break room.
850 A.D. First known discovery of berries containing
caffeine. As legend has it, an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi
noticed his goats were friskier after eating red berries on a
shrub. After trying them himself, the goatherd realized he felt
happier, too. Kaldi had just created the world's first coffee
break.
1475 The world's first coffee shop opens in
Constantinople.
1600 Coffee reaches Europe. The first coffeehouse opens
in Italy in 1654.
1674 Not everybody is consuming the drink. In London, the
Women's Petition Against Coffee declares: "Coffee leads
men to trifle away their time, scald their chops and spend their
money."
1901 Instant coffee is invented. Offices across the world
slowly, but surely, recognize what this means for them.
1920 With Prohibition in effect, martinis during business
meetings fall out of favor, and coffee sales take off.
1971 The first Starbucks opens in Seattle, launching a
chain that currently boasts more than 8,000 locations
worldwide.
1972 Mr. Coffee enters the market, inventing the
automatic drip process. It becomes a staple in office break rooms
everywhere.
1999 Over 81 million Americans drink coffee in their
workplaces, according to a Gallup Poll survey; 52.3 million obtain
it from their offices.