Business Insider: Iced coffee has become the latest unlikely subject of workplace controversy.
TikTok users are debating whether bringing iced coffee to a job interview is a harmless caffeine fix or a frosty professional faux pas.
The discourse became heated enough to reach LinkedIn News on Friday, where LinkedIn news editor Rachel Kleinman described it as a "fiery debate lighting up social media."
15 comments:
I agree full heartedly that you should be allowed to bring a beverage to a job interview even without implying any form of disrespect, but I am unsure if iced coffee is the most well suited drink for a job interview. Iced coffees always cause a lot of condensation and will sometimes leave tables wet and dirty. In my personal opinion having the coffee should be a sign of disrespect but if the drink leaves the table messy that can be taken as unprofessional and rude. Might I take the opportunity to suggest several better options first of which being hot drinks. Hot coffees and teas don't create the outer condensation and tend to be smaller in size making it feel less obnoxious in an interview. The second option is a water bottle. Many people carry a water bottle and it is easy to take the 5 dollar iced coffee and transfer it to a water bottle negating both the disrespectfulness of name brand coffee and negating possible mess.
I personally am on the fence about this topic. I think that iced coffee might not be the best thing as it is usually kinda loud, and really wet. We all know the sound of someone tipping iced coffee into their mouth, and I do not think that would really be appropriate for a job interview setting. I am not completely against drinking something in an interview though, and I would say water might be the line. If you need the coffee that bad, drink it before your interview and if you need something to do with your hands to stay focused…. Just bring a fidget or a water bottle or something silent that you can mess with. At the end of the day I just think it is something that might be annoying and I do not understand why people would be upset why they cant just drink it before the meeting.
This issue is interesting! In a way, it represents something bigger, this shift of professional standards toward this more casual format. Iced coffee has become sort of a cultural symbol and a style accessory to people, so asking whether bringing this drink into a room with formal evaluation is acceptable I think is fair.. My gut feeling is that it's more about how you demonstrate the action rather than the drink itself. Another thing that I notice is that there is a generational gap in the attitude towards carrying iced coffee with you everywhere. Older people are more likely to take it as something that shows a lack of seriousness, while younger interviewers may not think of it this way. To me personally, when someone has enough time to grab coffee before doing something it's an example of planning ahead. This may not seem like an important issue, but usually, it is not the intensity of the problem that matters when it comes to professionalism and respect in the workplace. I would recommend probably just drinking it before walking into the meeting though.
In general, I don't think bringing a beverage should have anything to do with how a person is perceived in an interview or a workplace; it registers as more professional when a person brings a hot drink versus when they bring an iced drink. But really, none of this should make a difference if a person is putting in the right amount of work and hours into the job. I think specifically for iced coffee, the noise that ice makes and the condensation the cup gives off could be slightly distracting, but I feel like that is being very nitpicky. I think bringing a beverage in the workplace is only negative if you are late to work and then bringing a beverage for just yourself, and not your team. People on TikTok will also find anything to debate about or fight over, and I think this is a very stupid thing to debate.
When I was in high school, I used to see other students stumble into class late while holding an iced coffee from Starbucks. Please note: there was one Starbucks around, and it was in the next town over. This would make the teachers so mad because it was so clear that the reason they were late was because they were prioritizing getting coffee 15 minutes away instead of school.
It’s also important to note that going out to get coffee is not an old thing, and iced coffee was only popularized within the last 20 years. Both of these things are associated with youth and being frivolous with money (“give up coffee in the morning, and buy a house”). I might make you look irresponsible in the eyes of a potential employer. I do think iced coffee specifically is distracting, but there are so many loud and distracting things in this world, that if this was truly the only reason people didn’t like it, we wouldn’t be talking about it.
That being said, you would not catch me with an iced coffee during an interview. Clearly if there’s an article about it, it pisses enough people off.
I personally think it is fine, because if people are caffeinated it at least shows they wanted to be alert and might perform better. But at the same time I would be kind of nervous about it, since coffee makes me a lot more likely to need the bathroom, and I really do not want something that risky to happen during an interview. Levy's question at the end of the article is kind of funny and interesting at the same time. "Did you bring some for me?" I feel like that can be both a joke and a test, where he wants to see the interviewee's reaction. I also feel like if this is such a big controversy, one should just finish their coffee outside of the room, so they will not even need to worry about whether bringing coffee offends the interviewer. That is basically what Augustine suggests in the article too, and I think she is right. Honestly, I am curious about something. If someone brought their own reusable cup with coffee in it, would people be less offended? And would that change anyone's perspective on this whole thing?
I feel that this article is less about the concept of bringing an iced coffee to a job interview, but rather about the gap between Gen Z and the older generations. Gen Z as a whole has worked to create boundaries between work and pleasure, and I feel that that is extremely important given the accessibility of people through technology in today’s world. Gen Z has taken many “taboos” and has made them less polarizingly controversial. To Gen Z, bringing coffee to an interview is no big deal, but the other generations demonize us for such a minor detail. I feel as though many people aren’t willing to accept that the world is changing. There is a visible gap in what people feel is socially acceptable, but one generation does not have to control another. Most importantly, they don’t have to make another person feel bad for a simple change. Whether you like it or not, you may find it refreshing to follow new trends- trends that make life less stressful.
I think that while a ridiculous premise this issue is very interesting as it looks at the incoming workforces’ opinion on the working experience and the employers and hirers that are looking for people who can align themselves with the company’s culture. I think the two main stances on this argument are correct in wanting to negate possible problems arising from adding an unpredictable variable to an often stressful experience and that an interviewee's life choices should not impact how a company views their ability to work their job. Personally I think that bringing an iced coffee to an interview adds an extra layer of something to be aware of so I would leave it behind. I would find myself worrying about the cup and how to throw it away and all manner of other worries that may distract me from the meeting. I believe that getting a familiar drink before an interview is smart because it could relax you, however I’d get rid of it before I enter the interview.
The title of this article initially caught my attention, and I began to think that would Gen Z recruits be upset as well if a recruiter brought an iced coffee when they were tiring to be super professional. The conclusion I came to in my head is that the answer is yes. In the current social climate around workplace boundaries is causing both recruiters and recruits could potentially be upset about any little detail when it comes to finding a new job. This isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing, but it is a new hurdle that we all need to face. This kind of mentality clashing between Gen Z and current professionals is now an issue that we all need to be aware of when job hunting, and unfortunately I don't see these clashes stopping any time soon. When it comes to this particular issue I am of the belief that if a recruiter dislikes me brining a drink that is non alcoholic into an interview I would like to hear their reasoning. I believe that this could lead to a conversation that would benefit an interview and provide insight into how the workplace functions.
I think this argument goes beyond just the iced coffee to divide older generations and younger generations have about perceptions towards the work place.
If I am giving my own opinion I think that people are specifically bringing up iced coffee because mainly younger people drink iced coffee while older people stick to regular coffee. I feel as if this was a conversation about bring in a normal hot coffee in a non plastic cup to an interview a lot less people would be weighing in cause it would seem a lot more normal to older folks. To me though bringing in an iced coffee is just like bringing in a water or any other drink, and it’s strange that people care so much, I know it’s Important to have an air of professionalism in an interview but I think it gets to a certain point where jobs are just nitpicking, just because someone brings something to keep them awake and alert doesn’t mean they are unreliable
I don't drink coffee myself, but I always bring my water bottle wherever I go whether in my backpack or shoved in a pants pocket. Staying caffeinated or hydrated should not be a deal-breaker for an employer, and honestly, if it somehow was, I'd probably reconsider wanting to work there in the first place. A drink in someone's hand says nothing about whether they can actually perform the job effectively.
That said, there is a difference between arriving early with an iced coffee and getting there late with one in hand. If you're ahead of schedule, the drink is just something you happened to be holding. But if you're walking in late holding it, it's not just that you're late, it's that you were late because of a small luxury you chose to stop for anyway. I’ve chewed out many high school students for doing just that for our Saturday rehearsals. Being late as a result of luxury shows more about what your priorities looked like at that moment than anything else.
I have seen all of the recent discourse about iced coffee at job interviews that has been plaguing the internet. It is interesting that the core of the discourse is that “Gen Z is bringing iced coffees to interviews,” but I have not seen a single person from Gen Z online saying, “I brought iced coffee to an interview. I don’t know where the idea that Gen Z is doing this came from, but basically all of the content about this I’ve seen is people older than Gen Z saying stuff like “kids these days are so stupid they’re bringing iced coffee to job interviews,” and members of Gen Z saying “wow I feel so much better about my chances of getting a job since my peers are bringing coffee to job interviews.” Then, there’s a small minority saying “it’s not that big of a deal that Gen Z is bringing coffee to interviews.” No one online has been claiming to do it, and I don’t know anyone in real life who has done this. I think the fact that most people are saying it’s a bad idea and that no one is actually doing this is indicative that it’s probably not a good idea.
I think this article makes an interesting point about how much unspoken rules can affect job interviews. As an iced coffee lover, I think the iced coffee itself should not determine whether someone is a good candidate whatsoever. An interviewer should be focused more on a person’s qualifications, communication, and ability to do the job than if they walked in holding a drink. I don’t necessarily understand why some recruiters see it as too casual or potentially distracting. In my opinion, this article shows that there is a bigger disagreement between younger workers and traditional workplace expectations. Some Gen Z candidates see an iced coffee as completely normal, while some employers interpret it as a lack of professionalism. I think this debate is a good example of how confusing workplace etiquette can be when expectations are not clearly communicated. Overall, I think that this is a dumb unspoken rule that employers should not use to decide whether or not to hire someone.
I personally would never bring coffee to an interview. I believe that it gives the interviewer something else to think about that distracts from your good work qualities. Also, everyone has different coffee preferences, and whether you like to believe it or not, everyone judges everyone for what they are drinking. Someone who likes straight black coffee will absolutely judge and maybe in turn be less inclined to hire someone who drinks a pumpkin spice latte with whipped cream. Also, as a person who overthinks and gets major anxiety about things like interviews, the idea of wet hands, or condensation dripping on the table, or possibly choking on my drink, or spilling it, would keep me up at night. Occasionally I think it could depend on the fornalness of the interview, if you previously know the interviewer or if it's in a more casual setting than an office building. But in this case I actually disagree with the majority of Gen z.
I had heard people referring to ice coffees at interviews on TikTok as jokes but never knew what the context was. This is so crazy to me, especially as we are working on this interview project in PPM and thinking about what we want to see in canidates, I would never think that an iced coffee would be suck a huge controversal thing. I could maybe understand if it was a redbull or something as I think energy drinks are a touch more taboo. But there is so much work culture that surrounds coffee it feels ridiculous that the drink would dock you points. Now, the points about the condensation maybe messing up whatever surface you put it on is fair (but then put it on the floor), or the fact that your hand may be a bit wet when you go to shake it. But it is crazy to me the point that "if you're clumsy you might spill it," why are we punishing people for things that they might do without any kind of actual thing they have done. I get that Gen Z does have an issue with what our definition of "professional" can be but this is part of the reason why a lot of our generation rebels so far to the other extreme because this is crazy.
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