What part of "free soda doesn't scale" is irrational? I get that it signals a change in management priority -- specifically a change away from prioritizing staff and toward prioritizing money -- and I'd probably leave too. But I don't see how you have to lose your mind to achieve that perspective.
“free soda” doesn’t have to do with scaling, or being small, or anything other than what a company is willing to pay for their employees really.
A company cutting employee perks without further explaining what employees will get in exchange is irrational and being stupid. I mean even drastic lines like “you get to keep your job that otherwise we would cut” are usually explicitly stated to try to convince the employees there’s something in for them.
We decided to be hostile to you, soda-drinker, personally, we are some combination of tremendously greedy and out of money, and the trend is towards more bright ideas of this sort.
> What part of "free soda doesn't scale" is irrational?
All of it.
Free soda for 10 people is hard. They have different tastes. There are too many things to keep enough refrigerated at the same time to make sure you hit soda rush times of the day. And you're probably running to a local grocery store, at least sometimes, to make sure you don't run out.
With 100 people, you've probably settled into something more standardized, no more special Puerto Rican pineapple soda for that one person with the interesting tastes. Everything can be delivered by the same one or two vendors. You know roughly how much you need and when - much more predictable. And you have more fridges now, constantly stocked with more soda. Moreover, the free soda now costs less per person.
The only problem with free soda for a big corp is that people are more likely to take the mick and take more than their fair share, as they’re less likely to feel obligated to the company to be reasonable.
There's a fairly low natural limit to how much soda one human can drink. Yes if they're dragging pallets out to resell on the street that might be an issue - an issue of the company not paying enough such that hocking loose cans is worth it for their employees.
You're working very hard. Now and then, you grab a free soda. You work so hard that the corporation has a chance to grow. What is your reward for all that hard work? The chance to pay 50c for the previously free soda. From this point of view, there is nothing rational about it.
