mobile.migrant.communities. Food and beverage, or "take a candy and relax"

Take a close look at these desks (both from software engineers, but I guess the result would be the same for almost all kinds of desk workers).

Cookies.Apple.Water.

Coke. Empty cup. Empty cup. Water.

Food and beverage are workers' usual companions. According to our first observations on a collection of desks, this looks like a strong result. Working involves some kind of comfort and safety to which food and beverage constantly contribute. They are comforting. They have a social role (the morning coffee or tea and chit chat at the coffee machine). They can even be used as regulation tools for our own behaviour : think again of the coffee or tea cup as a ritual to enter into our own working space. And sometimes, they are even tools to regulate social relations. See below:

  "Take a candy and relax". It is the welcoming message from this support team, used to deal with frustrated and impatient clients-colleagues whose system does not work any more.

Conclusion : we do not know what the future of the workplace will be like, but we can bet that food and beverage will be part of it.