Coffee at the workplace

The workplace has become even more demanding and competitive that one has always to be on his toes to keep pace with all its demands and challenges. Definitely, one can’t do this half-awake. Studies show that work performance declines when alertness levels fall.

Many organizations measure an employee’s efficiency based on his or her productivity and accuracy. Score cards or performance metrics put emphasis on these two components.

Productivity is measured based on the tasks accomplished within a work shift, while accuracy is measured based on the number of errors committed.

When one’s alertness level drops, he or she is prone to commit more mistakes because concentration is also diminished. Moreover, decision-making is crippled and good judgment is blurred.

Poor performance leads to other problems. Work piles up because of inaccuracy and poor productivity. Thus, one may need to unnecessarily work overtime, get more stressed, be less focused, feel fatigue, commit more errors and miss that gig being looked forward to during the weekend.

Poor work performance due to lack of energy and vitality can be abated. Studies show that coffee can specifically help restore energy and alertness levels.

Coffee contributes significantly not only to help one focus and concentrate but also to be alert. According to research, coffee can increase the speed of information processing by 10 percent.

It increases the processing of new stimuli, and enhances analytical skills and response preparation. This translates to meeting one’s targets and increasing competitive advantage without unnecessarily working long hours.

Moreover, coffee has been found to sharpen abilities that decline when one is tired or sleepy. Coffee, according to scientific studies, improves attention span, reasoning ability, memory of details and communication skills.

Imagine the cost of a single mistake because of lack of focus or memory lapse. Or think of the repercussions of delayed projects or accidents because of slowed mental alertness.  

Boredom and tiredness brought about by repetitive tasks can also diminish productivity. Drinking coffee at least twice a day, however, can counter these. Coffee contains natural substances that alert the consciousness and increase tolerance to exercise and muscular activity.

Physical fitness and endurance are essential to mental alertness especially for tasks that require long concentration such as those doing Web or creative designs, financial analysis, programming, quality monitoring, and trend analysis.

Coffee and mood

In today’s highly customer-driven organizations, mood plays a very important role. Whether one ends his or her day feeling exhausted and depressed or feeling accomplished depends on mood.

The way one deals with his or her customers, internal or external, is also influenced by mood. A toxic meeting can become even more toxic when one is not in good mood. A bad call or a difficult customer can surely ruin one’s day and affect all other tasks when one’s mood is down.

Aside from increasing alertness, coffee has been found out to alter mood in a positive way. This effect is most obvious during low arousal situations such as during graveyard shifts or after lunch. Thus taking a cup of coffee after lunch is not only good for digestion but it also perks up one’s mood.

One of the usual causes of bad mood is physical discomfort like common headache. Remember how a usually amiable boss suddenly becomes cranky or how one suddenly becomes irritable because of a simple headache?

An alternative to drinking those synthetic tablets that promise to ease headache is to drink a cup of coffee. Again, scientific studies have shown that drinking coffee helps relieve headache among workers.

As they say, nothing is good to someone who is in bad mood. On the other hand, things look brighter to someone who is in good mood.

Regular consumption of coffee at the start of the workday is recommended since it usually takes 15 minutes to achieve 75 percent of its effect and one hour to reach its maximum effect. This effect will last three to four hours just in time for the lunch break.

The habit of drinking coffee after lunch is also good since a full stomach usually lowers energy levels especially when one had much carbohydrate for lunch, not to mention the great temptation to nap.

It is also usually difficult to get back to work mood after lunch. Since coffee has been found to stir up the senses, it is worth having a cup or two after lunch.

It pays to serve coffee during long meetings or when tasks require long hours of mental as well as physical alertness. According to the Positively Coffee Autumn 2007 newsletter, three to four cups pf coffee usually gives the desired effect.