Are company water coolers good for morale?

Just when you thought morale couldn't get any lower, some companies are pulling the plug on a workplace icon – the water cooler.

The city's top water delivery distributors are reporting a drop in business as corporations cancel the service, citing budgetary concerns. Some industry experts worry though, the cost-cutting measure could backfire on companies, big-time.

"People forget that the water cooler is more than a cold drink," says Tina Dacin, director of the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Queen's University School of Business.

"Nowadays, organizations deal with problems that are complex, multi-dimensional. You need lots of people to come together and chat and share good ideas. And where you get these ideas shared is in these sacred spaces – like mailrooms, bathrooms, parking lots, coffee rooms and around the water cooler. When you take away the water cooler, where do people come together?"

Dacin recalls the story of a manufacturing plant in the U.K. that tried to cut costs by reducing the time employees took for their two 30-minute breaks, during which they boiled water, brewed tea and drank it. With the labour council's blessing, the plant installed a vending machine to dispense tea more efficiently.

So what happened?

"You got low morale, all the way to having sabotage on the shop floor," Dacin says. "It actually cost the company a ton more and the plant was never functional again."

The average company in Canada with a water cooler has nine employees, says Gara Hay, chief operating officer of Canadian Springs.

Hay says an 18-litre bottled water cooler costs roughly $40 to $50 a month, which includes the cooler rental, water delivery and the little paper cone cups.

Craig Hayhoe, vice-president of Cedar Springs, notes: "Now, if it's a big office, maybe a couple hundred bucks a month." Cedar Springs is the largest privately owned home and office delivery company in Canada.

Both executives say their companies have fielded recession-related cancellations.

"We track our reasons for canceling and `closing business' has gone up a bit and `cost-cutting and budgetary concerns' is another reason," Hay says.

This week, the Privy Council Office revealed the federal government has spent more than $15 million in the past five years on bottled water. Myriam Massabki, a spokesperson for the office, said its portion of that spending related to buying 18-litre water bottles for areas where a water fountain was either not installed or not functioning.

Dacin, a professor of strategy and organizational behaviour, would like taxpayers to consider the broader benefits before expressing their outrage. "It's a symbol of goodwill from the organization that they care about their people. What's the goodwill cost?"

Michelle De Los Santos, a senior business consultant at CIBC downtown, brings her own half-litre glass pitcher to work and figures she fills up at the water cooler three or four times a day.

"It's pretty basic," she says, grateful the corporation hasn't scrapped its water delivery service. "Nobody wants to go to the bathroom and fill their Thermoses with tap water."

Though Canada has one of the best public drinking water systems in the world, Hayhoe – not surprisingly – thinks Cedar Springs water is better. "It doesn't taste like tap water, let me tell you."

Faucet or spigot, it all really comes down to fulfilling a fundamental human need.

"They need to be liquidated, don't they?" he says, and then chuckles at his verbal slip. "Hydrated is probably a better word."