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  mikestew
  My wife and I, both now-retired former Microsoft employees, were discussing such a topic just this morning (in relation to a HN headline that will become evident in a moment). Basically, I was commenting that we both worked at MS in that brief moment of time that employees were treated really well, like they really wanted us to stay there. The beer at morale events was small, local breweries (Mac and Jack's, typically). The morale events themselves were on a regular cadence. More t-shirts than I had days to wear them. Need a new monitor? If it's been a few years, "go ask your admin", and one just shows up. Yes, we had private offices. Some big things, like the offices, but also a lot of little, popsicle-like things that added up to, "wow, I feel like they want me here."Then the morale events started becoming less frequent. The beer went from local to Bud and Bud Light. Then according to my wife, it went from Bud to Kirkland (the brand you find at Costco). Morale budget went from $WHATEVER to $40/head/year. Even the employee stock purchase plan discount went from 15% to 10%. You can look up the famous "shrimp and weenies" memo at Microsoft. I was on board with that, we didn't need shrimp. But now they don't even get the weenies.And now Meta is recording your every keystroke and mouse movement, and I'm sure if they even get beer, it's no better than Microsoft has. Employees seem to be viewed as a liability now, or at best, code-producing cows to be milked out there in the open office feed lot. I don't care how much it pays these days, I've tasted how it could be, and no amount of money would get me back. All because companies can't spend an extra $100-$200 on their >$200K employees.
• uxhacker
  This theory comes from what Kano calls delighters. In the 1980’s Noriaki Kano came up with the a product framework called the Kano model.Touchpoints come in three ways. Delighters as already mentioned, a popsicle delivered to your room, or a chocolate on your pillow. Then there are performance needs. In the case of a hotel this could be the quality of the view, or the case of an employee the basic wage, and then next is the basic needs. Using the hotel example this would be something like the air conditioning.You complain if it does not work, but nobody writes a review about how perfect the aircon was.
• compiler-guy
  The problem with free is that people get entitled. You can see some examples in this thread."Everybody likes free. But free can be dangerous, too. Today's show is about what happens when you take something that was free and you give it a price. That is a highly risky move. And the damage can be enormous."https://www.npr.org/2020/01/08/794592539/episode-386-the-cos...
• wxw
  There’s a lot of value in making someone feel cared for.Whether you do that with a popsicle or with the staff and infrastructure of a $700/night hotel room is kind of a wash.
• bayareabadboy
  for me the takeaway is more if I have a business what can I do for my customers like offer a free popsicle that can keep them happy and coming back cheaplySpeaking as someone on a salary. Idk.
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  bluedino
  Does DoubleTree still give you fresh-baked cookies when you check in?