[cascadecombo]

[Sourcecode]

Great thread.
I've been doing this forever. Only I switch up and buy random stuff.
Bojangles bo berry biscuits have become a thing.

My boss buys a cake and giftcard for every persons birthday.
Pays out of pocket. Almost every other week we have a birthday.

There is a fridge filled with leftover birthday cake .

I bring food into other departments just to grease people's fingers up. It's like buying favors at a discount.

People will put their lives in danger to help you out..because you bring food to share.


It's the same concept with business contacts.
I'll invite other bosses to coffee just to talk and see how their area runs.
Or to plant the seed for better positions, jobs ect.

When the time comes..I've had other departments send their work projects and stuff that will improve my department.

One guy gave me his entire book and evaluation for an incoming safety inspection..walked through and pointed out stuff we needed to fix.

Inspector gave us a better grade than everyone else.

I've spent maybe 70 dollars in food..But made the company hundreds of thousands..while doing less work.

[monster]

If a new person brings me donuts because they want my business, first I tell them thanks but I don't eat donuts but I'm sure the underlings will enjoy them. Second, I view them as a try-hard.

To me, I think - "Donuts? WTF? Who the fuck eats donuts anymore." Out of all the things to bring me, donuts is just about the lowest on the list. But I guess it depends on the industry you're in - a guy I know has a lot of success by bringing a case of beer to a metal shop he does biz with and it's gotten him better service. However, read the compang: If it's a young & trendy company PLEASE bring something more apropos than donuts!

With someone I'm already doing business with, I give the donuts to the underlings. While I appreciate the gesture, it has no bearing on whether I will continue to do business with them.

[SamuelBRoberts]

"If a new person brings me donuts because they want my business, first I tell them thanks but I don't eat donuts but I'm sure the underlings will enjoy them. Second, I view them as a try-hard."

If you're the boss in a sales-oriented business, you know the one trick about sales.

It doesn't have to work on you, it just has to work on the two guys next to you.

I think this would work.

[Mage]

Back when I was employed in office - I had a female college who did this - she baked pies and bought them to office weekly.

She was a chubby foodie and incompetent girl who's job performance was low, she had to be bailed out by male colleges on work regularly and since she was chubby the men didn't really like it. But she was very entitled and ambitious and thought that she deserved raises and promotions even trough she was the worst worker in our team.

She started bringing self baked pies and other sweets to office to get on the good side. It definitely worked on some collegues, but it caused me to hate her guts because:
1)I saw trough her charade.
2)I was working hard to lose some stubborn weight in that time and her sweet deliveries either forced me to eat carbs I didn't want to eat or forced me to self ostracize from the party by being the grumpy guy who stays at his computer and continues to work when everyone else is in office kitchen gorging on sweets and having a good time.

So I did my best to expose her tactic to others and generally undermine her reputation pointing out her incompetence whenever it appeared. She might have gained some friends trough this food tactic but she definitely gained an enemy too and other people were suspicious of her too.

In the end I kinda won - she started to feel increased hostility in office and quit the job - by doing what many low character women do in Eastern Europe - moving to USA and trying her luck among the beta males and feminized laws of Western World. I have seen her writing in social network that she finds American men - "meh" trough eventually she even failed there and returned back and asked if she could come back to our job, but she was denied.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I mentioned this to a friend. Her reply:

"Great idea, now I only have to find a place that makes donuts without sugar, flour, eggs, margarine and butter using only organic ecological ingredients!"

[The Catalyst]

(10-23-2016 03:21 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

I mentioned this to a friend. Her reply:

"Great idea, now I only have to find a place that makes donuts without sugar, flour, eggs, margarine and butter using only organic ecological ingredients!"

At least she cares about her health. Makes her a lot better than many girls these days...

[Elster]

Chocolate could work as well, only tiny pieces so you don t foster that guilt blame syndrome, specially amongst the females?

[Sourcecode]

To the people against this.
It doesn't even matter if you know the person is trying to butter you up.
There are people that know.. If all of a sudden there is food in the desk..someone may have messed up.

Unless you are cynical about everything ( more than likely, you aren't well liked where you work) you will appreciate the gesture anyway.

It's a placebo.

[RaulValdez739]

The Thing.....What about coffee with the Dunkin' donuts? Too try-hard. My office has our own coffee machine but the brand of coffee sucks. People will love the coffee more so. I may just do both at one time. Love the post.

[fiasco360]

I want to bring donuts into my upcoming interview but it still seems a bit "tryhard." I could easily see as a employee how this works well, but to an interview? Who else has experience with that? I'm an engineer for reference.

[Merenguero]

(10-23-2016 09:05 AM)Sourcecode Wrote:  

To the people against this.
It doesn't even matter if you know the person is trying to butter you up.
There are people that know.. If all of a sudden there is food in the desk..someone may have messed up.

Unless you are cynical about everything ( more than likely, you aren't well liked where you work) you will appreciate the gesture anyway.

It's a placebo.

I'm still trying to figure out why the hell any guy would ever be against buying a girl a drink and I think this donut thing is a really good idea.

[nomadbrah]

Terrific. We love donuts, we have the best donuts, don't we folks.

You sold me, write you next datasheet on copywriting.

[AneroidOcean]

(10-22-2016 08:10 PM)monster Wrote:  

If a new person brings me donuts because they want my business, first I tell them thanks but I don't eat donuts but I'm sure the underlings will enjoy them. Second, I view them as a try-hard.

To me, I think - "Donuts? WTF? Who the fuck eats donuts anymore." Out of all the things to bring me, donuts is just about the lowest on the list. But I guess it depends on the industry you're in - a guy I know has a lot of success by bringing a case of beer to a metal shop he does biz with and it's gotten him better service. However, read the compang: If it's a young & trendy company PLEASE bring something more apropos than donuts!

With someone I'm already doing business with, I give the donuts to the underlings. While I appreciate the gesture, it has no bearing on whether I will continue to do business with them.

Your comment reads holier-than-thou and funnily enough you STILL manage to state clear support for this concept. Sure, you may sort of point out that calibration should be used, but otherwise you indicate why it's effective and in the same paragraph go all "NABALT" (not all bosses are like that) while showing how much you despise your staff.

How many people have you had bring something to your interviews? How many people did you think were try-hard for doing so?

I hate this thread's title, and I think some additional examples should've been given to expand on how providing relatively miniscule amounts of value can pay you back tenfold, but your comment is bitter and very subjective (on yourself as opposed to whether this would work in general).

[one-two]

(10-22-2016 08:39 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

"If a new person brings me donuts because they want my business, first I tell them thanks but I don't eat donuts but I'm sure the underlings will enjoy them. Second, I view them as a try-hard."

If you're the boss in a sales-oriented business, you know the one trick about sales.

It doesn't have to work on you, it just has to work on the two guys next to you.

I think this would work.

An alternative to doughnuts would be bagels.

[fortysix]

Great post

I have had underlings and higher-levels bring bagels, donuts, home-cooked pies etc to work.

At first, I viewed this as "try-hard" and also thought these people were kiss-asses that were trying to get ahead at our company.

However, as time moved on I just learned to appreciate the gesture - so what if they are try-hard? They are just trying to fit in, and its a nice gesture by someone who cares about the direction their career is going - now I welcome it.

Of course, it by no means makes up for poor performance at work, but otherwise: someone took a few minutes out of their day to do something nice for you and your team, to get noticed, and to potentially enhance their status in your eyes - why hate them for it? Its like hating someone for caring about their appearance or for loosing weight - these things are also mainly done (except in some cases) to enhance outward appearance and get on people's good side (the opposite sex / colleagues / etc). Bringing donuts to work once in a while should be viewed the same way.

Of course, I'm not saying obnoxiously shower your workplace with donuts - but ordering pizza for the office (of which some you yourself will enjoy), bringing donuts, or some other thing once a month or whenever is generally welcomed by me. We have a guy at our office who regularly does this, and now I always say hi to him and stop and chat because hes indicated to me that hes a nice guy and wants to get to know the people at our office - I'm not gonna stop and chat with the recluse I met once in the past 6 months during an interview - the effect this will have on a person's career, long term, is noticeable.

[Eddie Winslow]

Oh man have I been waiting for the appropriate thread to share this story.

A young kid fresh out of college started working in our office a few months ago. He was fat and sloppy but seemed to be an OK guy.

His first day, he brought in a 6-pack of shitty Entenmann's donuts and left the giant, orange "SALE $2.99" sticker on the box. (FAIL 1)

At the end of the day, there were 4.5 donuts left in the break room. He took the box home with him before he left, which he probably ate on the way home (EPIC FAIL 2)

I couldn't take him seriously after his terrible donut etiquette. He ended up being a lazy piece of shit who requested to "work from home" two weeks after he was hired and then just completely ghosted from his $40K+/year position.

Moral of the story:: If you are going to give a gift to the office, no matter how small, put in enough effort and money into it to make it seem like a genuine gesture, even if it's not.

[262]

Here's another WEIRD TRICK to career improvement:

(10-29-2016 09:55 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

Just spent the day riding shottie in Silicon Valley while my old buddy did the Uber thing. Networking goldmine!

[nomadbrah]

(10-25-2016 04:31 PM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  

I couldn't take him seriously after his terrible donut etiquette. He ended up being a lazy piece of shit who requested to "work from home" two weeks after he was hired and then just completely ghosted from his $40K+/year position.

Sounds like he made out like a boss, 40K work from home in underwear and all it took were a box of $2 donuts.

[1818Steve]

+1 for the Joseph Sugarman copywriting style, OP.

[Merenguero]

(10-25-2016 04:31 PM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  

Oh man have I been waiting for the appropriate thread to share this story.

A young kid fresh out of college started working in our office a few months ago. He was fat and sloppy but seemed to be an OK guy.

His first day, he brought in a 6-pack of shitty Entenmann's donuts and left the giant, orange "SALE $2.99" sticker on the box. (FAIL 1)

At the end of the day, there were 4.5 donuts left in the break room. He took the box home with him before he left, which he probably ate on the way home (EPIC FAIL 2)

I couldn't take him seriously after his terrible donut etiquette. He ended up being a lazy piece of shit who requested to "work from home" two weeks after he was hired and then just completely ghosted from his $40K+/year position.

Moral of the story:: If you are going to give a gift to the office, no matter how small, put in enough effort and money into it to make it seem like a genuine gesture, even if it's not.

I haven't eaten sugar for decades and never will again, but what are the best kinds of donuts to buy? I would have to guess donuts from quality local bakeries, like they have all over the place in New Jersey, then Dunkin Donuts. I always thought Krispy Kreme was a horrible product and I never understood how they were able to stay in business at all, let alone this long.

[Enigma]

^ Krispy Kreme was able to stay in business because they're very sweet and didn't have much competition from major chains in most of the country. If you're in the Northeast, you've had Dunkin' Donuts forever, but it took them a while to make it to the Southeast.

[Kona]

Donuts are huge with the us military.

Towards the end of my time, I dealt with the Raytheon and bae systems people quite a lot. Those guys would shower us with donuts.

What was really funny was how other government agency people would bring donuts. A guy came that was from the CIA once to do something completely not secret at all.

Everyone was afraid of his donuts . like they were mind control long johns or something.

Aloha!

[Cattle Rustler]

(10-30-2016 02:58 PM)Kona Wrote:  

Donuts are huge with the us military.

Towards the end of my time, I dealt with the Raytheon and bae systems people quite a lot. Those guys would shower us with donuts.

What was really funny was how other government agency people would bring donuts. A guy came that was from the CIA once to do something completely not secret at all.

Everyone was afraid of his donuts . like they were mind control long johns or something.

Aloha!

Good thing he didn't bring any liquids (water, beer, etc) or else people would they his gift causes autism or mind control.

[Meister Eckhart]

I can attest to this. I did this my first office job and people love it. Although the management got irritated with me and marked me for being "disruptive".

That's when I knew that the place was not where I wanted to be, and started looking for the exit. Sure enough I found out that the place was a revolving door and a nightmare where people were being overworked, micromanaged, and underpaid.

Seriously, if this doesn't work, then odds are there's something seriously wrong with the office environment and you don't want to be there.