free love

So I just received a shiny silver envelope in my mailbox at work. It’s an influenza kit from human resources. Inside the kit is small bottle of Purell, a pack of halls cough drops, hand sanitizing wipes, energy C vitamin packs, medicated lip balm and of course a coupon for a free bottle of juice. At first I thought what a nice gesture and I can really use this stuff. I love Purell.

It reminded me of the care packages that parents send their kids in college during finals with cookies and junk food. But then the businessman inside me remembers Friedman’s “no free lunch” and so I started to analyze the gift, perhaps over analyze. Why is HR spending this extra money on its employees? Is it the same love that caused the parents to send their kids care packages in college? No. There is no love in business. Everyone knows that. So what is it? It’s simple. When an employee is sick it costs the company money because the employee gets paid for staying home and not producing. If the company can spend a little money and decrease the sick days it might be worth it. I’m sure someone did the math on this one and that’s why this Purell bottle is so damn small. I wonder if the higher up executives got more stuff like a face masks and a flu shots where as the hourly employees only get the Halls. Bet they didn’t do that much math.

I think companies would be a lot smarter if they just made a firm policy that states “if you’re sick stay home”. The biggest lose of productivity comes from employees getting other employees sick.

And back to the parents and love for a second. You thought I’d leave that alone? No you didn’t.

I won’t get into the details but parents invest a lot of money into their kids education….you know where I’m going with this.

So that leaves us with a twist on Friedman’s lunch. Is there such thing as free love?