This reminds me of a startup CFO I worked with, who could see the big picture. In the early days of the company, they worked in an office that shared a bathroom with a half dozen other companies. And the toilet paper in said bathroom was terrible. Like, not just standard-office-building terrible. Really, really bad. So CFO takes it upon himself to rectify the situation. He orders a couple dozen rolls of standard-issue "premium" office toilet paper (still not that great relative to home-use TP, but good by office standards) and leaves it in the bathroom. Two days later, it's gone: someone (not clear whether it was someone at the startup or one of the neighboring companies) decided to take it home with them. Everyone in the office starts grumbling about the state of the TP situation again.
Not to be outdone, CFO places another order; several cases this time. And it takes a few more days, but sure enough, it all disappears.
At this point, CFO is fed up. He orders two full pallets of TP. After lunch one day, several volunteers unload the toilet paper. Multiple stacks, floor to ceiling, in the bathroom. More stacks in the supply closet. Stacks in the hallway. Stacks in the lobby. Everywhere you look, there's toilet paper. And if people were stealing TP after that, it wasn't at a rate that anyone could notice.
Including the ongoing costs for the subsequent 18 months until they moved out of that building, the "unlimited TP" policy might have cost the company $10k. But it bought a lot more than that in terms of employee goodwill. Knowing that the bean counters are focusing on "our employees are producing a product worth $x; let's figure out how to have them do more of that" makes a big difference.
Not to be outdone, CFO places another order; several cases this time. And it takes a few more days, but sure enough, it all disappears.
At this point, CFO is fed up. He orders two full pallets of TP. After lunch one day, several volunteers unload the toilet paper. Multiple stacks, floor to ceiling, in the bathroom. More stacks in the supply closet. Stacks in the hallway. Stacks in the lobby. Everywhere you look, there's toilet paper. And if people were stealing TP after that, it wasn't at a rate that anyone could notice.
Including the ongoing costs for the subsequent 18 months until they moved out of that building, the "unlimited TP" policy might have cost the company $10k. But it bought a lot more than that in terms of employee goodwill. Knowing that the bean counters are focusing on "our employees are producing a product worth $x; let's figure out how to have them do more of that" makes a big difference.