Bonkers

[Aaron Trevena]

On 07/05/07, Paul Makepeace <paulm at paulm.com> wrote:
> I'll say one thing though on the food is that in my experience there's
> a raft of non-financial equivalent benefits to ..not having to carry
> loose change to pay for food, ..not have to have that continuous
> background assessment "do I really want to spend 3.75 for $portion"
> ..not have to queue to pay (sweeet!) ..having decent food always
> available ..not having to run to Benjy's/McD's/$local_shop (and
> select, queue, pay). These little hassles and small-time cognitive
> burdens are really great not to have any longer. And of course having
> restaurant--not canteen--quality food is nice.

Easy access to decent affordable food saves a fair ammount of money
and time - buying a sarnie, can of coke and bag of crisps at ~ 3 and a
bit quid a day adds up to 800 quid a year (after tax), and encourages
you to eat at your desk instead of taking a healthy screen break.

Going somewhere they do decent food and affordably avoids having to
worry about making your own sarnies in the morning (which in turn
avoids worrying about buying food in london which can be a PITA late
in the evening after a commute when you arrive at home and just want
to veg out), gets you away from your desk and (hopefully) chatting to
people around the office. I think I learnt as much or more about the
business I worked at on my placement year when we went to the pub for
lunch, than I did in the office.

Something I place value on is having shower and changing facilities -
I've cycled to work in a couple of jobs, and if I ever have to work in
the big smoke again, I'll probably cycle to work then - so a shower
and changing room make a huge difference (as does having somewhere
secure and dry for your bike - a dripping wet bike surrounded by
mangled wheels and beer cans and graffitti makes for a miserable
journey home after a long day of work).

Heck - I'd have loved a shower when I was commuting from ealing to
liverpool street on the tube in the summer, or from stansted to
wimbledon.

A.

-- 
http://www.aarontrevena.co.uk
LAMP System Integration, Development and Hosting