Hey you there. Coffee person. That’s right you pouring your third cup before it’s even 9 a.m. You must be the HR benefits coordinator.
How did I know? Dunkin’ Donuts and CareerBuilder told me. The two of them teamed up again this year to survey workers about their coffee habits. Among other things, they found that HR benefits people are among the professionals who say they most need that cup o’ joe to get through the workday.
Now why would they do such a survey? Well, today, besides being Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, it’s also National Coffee Day. Spend a little money doing a fun survey about coffee, kick it out to us coffee-drenched writers (we rank 4th on the most-in-need-of-coffee list), and voila, a little PR for the two companies.
Why CareerBuilder? It knows a ton about jobs and workers. Why Dunkin’ Donuts? It actually has decent coffee and donuts, the staple of employee meetings everywhere.
As much meaningless fun as it is to know that scientists and lab technicians are at the top of the professions most in need of their coffee, the survey is actually scientific. It’s done by Harris Interactive and has all that statistical percentage probability and error calculation, which you can find here, should you care.
Among the little nuggets is the revelation that 61 percent of workers drink two cups each workday; 28 percent drink three. Hotel workers and lawyers and judges are most likely to take theirs black. HR professionals and personal caretakers take it with cream and sugar. That somehow doesn’t surprise me, but I can’t say why.
One more thing especially for the Millennials: 36 percent of workers 18-24 say drinking coffee has helped their careers because it gives them a chance to network with their co-workers. I’m presuming that happens as they stand around the coffee maker, waiting for the next pot to be ready.
Should CareerBuilder and Dunkin’ Donuts (I’m using their names again, since “mentions” are one metric by which PR and marketing people — 2nd on the most-in-need of coffee list — measure success), should the two companies do the survey next year, one thing I’m hoping they’d look into is why is it the person who takes the last cup never makes a fresh pot?