By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

A recent article caught my attention. It described a growing sense among employees that joy at work is fading. One example stood out: companies eliminating small perks like free coffee.

At first glance, this seems trivial. Coffee is inexpensive. Removing it appears to be a rational cost decision.

But it is not trivial. Moreover, it is rarely just about coffee.

It is about how food, context, and human experience interact to shape health, energy, and performance.

The Hidden Role of Small Food Rituals

In many workplaces, coffee is not simply a beverage. It is a ritual.

It creates a natural pause in the day, a moment of recovery between tasks, and an excuse for informal human connection

These moments matter more than most leaders realize. They are part of the context in which work happens. And context shapes behavior as much as the work itself.

When you remove something like free coffee, you are not just eliminating a cost. You are altering a daily pattern that helps regulate stress and sustain energy.

Small Losses, Large Reactions

Behavioral science teaches us that people react more strongly to losses than to gains. But there is an additional factor at play here: frequency.

A salary change is abstract and periodic. A cup of coffee is immediate and repeated.

Every time an employee walks past an empty coffee station or has to leave the building to buy or pull out coins, currency or a credit card to pay for what was once freely available they experience a small, repeated signal: something has been taken away. That signal accumulates.

From Micro-Frictions to Macro-Effects

What replaces that lost ritual? Usually, friction.

Employees leave the building, lose time, or skip the break entirely. Informal conversations decline. Moments of recovery disappear.

Over time, these small changes produce larger effects: increased cognitive fatigue, reduced social cohesion, and fewer opportunities for informal problem-solving. 

They also reduce the often productive impromptu conversations that occur at the coffee machine. Steve Jobs believed in fostering "accidental encounters" to drive innovation, prioritizing having a shared coffee machine which employees would frequently visit over the convenience of having amenities located throughout the building or eliminating the free amenities altogether.

This is how organizations unintentionally drain energy, not through major decisions, but through the accumulation of minor ones.

The Health Consequences Leaders Miss

This is where the issue becomes even more important.

When people lose small, positive experiences during the workday, they do not simply become less happy. They change their behavior.

They are more likely to seek quick, less healthy sources of energy, snack impulsively rather than eat deliberately, or 

skip breaks that would otherwise reduce stress. My holistic medicine doctor told me years ago that consuming two cups of black coffee, once early in the day and the second at a mid-morning break was one of the best nutritional habits I could adopt and sustain.

In other words, the removal of small food-related perks can push individuals toward less healthy patterns, not because of the food itself, but because of the context in which food is consumed.

This is a critical point: health is not just about what people eat. It is about the environment in which eating occurs.

The Meaning Behind the Coffee

Leaders often view these decisions through a financial lens. Employees experience them as signals.

Free coffee communicates:

• “We care about your day.”
• “We trust you to manage your time.”
• “You belong here.”

Removing it, especially without explanation, can communicate the opposite.

This is not about entitlement. It is about perceived reciprocity.

When employees feel that the organization is taking more than it is giving, even in small ways, engagement declines. And when engagement declines, so does performance.

The Strategic Error

The deeper mistake is not the elimination of a perk. It is the failure to recognize where value is actually created.

Most organizations are disciplined about managing financial capital. Far fewer are disciplined about managing human energy.

Yet energy is the resource that drives decision quality, creativity, resilience and execution

Small rituals, especially those tied to food and breaks, are among the highest-return investments an organization can make in sustaining that energy.

What Leaders Should Do Instead

This does not mean every company must provide free coffee. It does mean leaders must think differently about these decisions.

First, never remove a source of daily energy without replacing it. If one ritual goes away, another should take its place.

Second, make the reasoning explicit. People are far more accepting of change when they understand its purpose.

Third, pay attention to the environment you are creating. Ask a simple question: does this change increase or decrease the energy people bring to their work?

Finally, recognize that culture is built in small moments, not grand statements.

A Broader Lesson

The “free coffee” example illustrates a larger truth.

Food and context are inseparable. The way people experience food at work, when they consume it, how easily they access it, and whether it creates connection or isolation shapes both their health and their performance.

Leaders who understand this design environments that support both. Leaders who ignore it often undermine both, without realizing it.

The question is not whether coffee should be free.

It is whether the organization understands how small, everyday experiences shape the health, energy, and effectiveness of the people who work there.

Ignore this, and you will slowly drain the energy of your organization. Understand it, and you begin to build a culture where health and performance reinforce each other every day.