Even if you love your job and your company’s culture, there are times when you just don’t want the weekend to end. The bummed-out feeling known as the “Monday Blues” is more than just a near-universal joke, it’s a real phenomenon that’s been observed by workplace productivity experts and psychology researchers.
Alexander Kjerulf, an expert on workplace happiness, describes Monday mornings to Forbes as a common trigger for “depression, tiredness [and] hopelessness.” Unfortunately, the Monday Blues are contagious and can impact your entire workplace. Employees who’d rather be out playing frisbee golf than sitting at their desk are up to 20 percent less productive, motivated and creative.
In addition, pessimism can quickly spread through teams and lead to less-effective collaboration and a drain on your company culture. What gives? And is there any chance that, with the exception of lobbying on Capitol Hill to make Mondays illegal, that you can cost-effectively put a stop to office-wide frowns on Mondays?
Why Cold Brew on Tap Can Stand Up to Monday Mornings
The best and most cost-effective way to proof your culture against a nasty case of the Mondays that bleeds into Tuesday and Wednesday may not be as high-cost or effort-intensive as you think.
One 700-person study on workplace happiness and productivity found that simply providing people with snacks or drinks can act as a “happiness shock.” Workers provided with beverages and food significantly outperformed their counterparts on tasks.
While the act of being fed at work could be enough to combat the Mondays, coffee and more specifically cold brew could actually have a real impact on how your people work individually and in groups. MIT research reveals that coffee helps people work better alone and in a group setting.
Until you hit five cups a day or more and enter overcaffeinated territory, research reveals that coffee has a pretty significant impact on how effectively individuals retain information, solve problems and think abstractly about workplace projects.
Why Cold Brew Beats Hot Coffee
Coffee is the magical elixir of workplace happiness and collaboration, but there’s also evidence that cold brew can provide a particularly valuable edge. Research continually confirms that there’s a strong connection between workplace environment and how people work, including temperature.
During the hot summer months, waiting for a hot cup of coffee to brew just doesn’t have the same refreshing impact as a smooth glass of nitro-brewed, cold coffee. Plus, cold brew is one of the hottest drinks of the moment.
When you go above and beyond basic brewed coffee, chances are your workers will congregate in the break room to pour themselves a glass of morning cold brew, enhanced with simple syrup and cream or simply enjoyed black.
Voluntary group breaks have a significant impact on your organization’s performance and employee happiness as an opportunity for employees to form relationships, share ideas and engage in impromptu collaboration. By providing a beverage that your employees really want to drink, you can ensure they’ve got the fuel needed for the beginning of the workweek without having to head to the nearest coffee shop.
Real Companies Offering Cold Brew
For many companies, offering a keg of craft beer is a common way to thank their employees at the end of a long work week. However, nitro-powered cold brew coffee may be a bit more apropos for Monday mornings. You could even argue that, unlike beer, cold brew is a keg of productivity.
From Boston-based Tony Massari’s perspective, this is pretty much a no-brainer when it comes to cost-effective office perks. Per Massari, having a keg of cold brew in your break room “saves people from taking a break to go down the street” and better yet, “you’re giving employees a $2 coffee to stay” and congregate in the office break room.
The popularity of cold brew and the benefits of providing high-quality perks on-site is why companies like Uber offer cold brew on tap. While cold brew is officially sweeping the nation as the hottest office perk of the moment, corporate culture pros may only be seeing the beginning of this wave of productive, collaborative, happy teams powered by caffeine that’s served chilled.
According to Joe Simonovich, Chief Growth Officer at Corporate Essentials, “There is something about coffee from a kegerator that people love… we simply like to think of it as an office-culture fueling station.”
Cold Brew Isn’t the Only Way to Chill on Monday AM
While Google Trends reveals consumer search volume for “cold brew” has more than tripled since March, offering more than just nitro-powered brew expands how you show appreciation for your employees.
Many of today’s most collaborative organizations are expanding beyond cold brew on tap to offer more chilled beverages on-demand to employees. A few options via Corporate Essentials include:
- Coconut water
- Cold-pressed juices
- Energy drinks
- Probiotic beverages
Making Monday a non-issue could be significantly aided by a very important secret ingredient: cold brew coffee on tap. Not only does coffee have a measurable impact on productivity and mood, the “cool” factor of coffee served up in a keg and the temperature of chilled coffee could give you an extra edge.
Corporate Essentials offers cold brew on tap brewed with Irving Farm’s sustainably sourced, high-quality roasts. Clients of Corporate Essentials can enjoy the convenience of kegerators delivered, filled with non-bitter, flavor-packed cold brew coffee that can be drunk plain, or enhanced with cream, sugar and flavored syrups.
