Conversation Starter: Are we past peak kombucha?
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Jul 18, 2024
Before the pandemic, companies vying for talent experimented with offering ever-more-attractive office perks like on-site massages and laundry services.
One such example was having free kombucha in the office. But as more companies shift to remote or hybrid work and budgets for office perks shrink, we may now be past peak kombucha in the office. The share of Glassdoor reviews that mention kombucha peaked in 2019, before dropping dramatically during the pandemic, down 80% as of 2024.
The industries with the highest share of reviews that mention kombucha are information technology, media & communications, personal consumer services (which includes gyms, salons, spas and other wellness providers) and real estate.
Despite the drop in mentions in recent years, kombucha is still perceived positively with 79% of mentions having positive sentiment. Some example quotes from reviews below highlight how positively the perk is still seen:
- “Amazing wellness offerings (yoga classes, sauna/cold plunge, kombucha on tap) and a generous employee discount.”
- “We have yoga 2x a week, free cold brew coffee and kombucha. These are just come additional perks besides the typical employee benefits you find a most places.”
- “The kombucha in the office is in bottle, it isn't on tap.”
The lesson for employers may be that fancy in-office perks still hold strong appeal for the workers who enjoy being in the office, but for workers who prioritize working remotely, perks are not enough to convince them of the value of being in the office.
Methodology
This analysis is based on Glassdoor company reviews from U.S. workers submitted for jobs held between January 1, 2012 and July 17, 2024, grouped by the year the job was held. Reviews are identified if the text of the review includes phrases like “kombucha”, “kombucha on top” or “free kombucha”. Positive sentiment is measured as the number of mentions in the “pros” section of reviews divided by the number of mentions in the “pros” or “cons” sections.
Conversation Starters are a periodic series of charts and data points from Glassdoor’s Economic Research team aimed at sparking conversations on timely trends in employee satisfaction, workplace community, the future of work, and the labor market more broadly.
Daniel Zhao
Daniel Zhao is Chief Economist at Glassdoor. On Glassdoor's Economic Research team, he has conducted research using Glassdoor's unique data on a variety of topics affecting job seekers and employers ranging from the health of the job market to pay transparency to employee engagement & retention. His work has been cited in publications like the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review and more. Prior to joining the Economic Research team, he also worked on improving the user experience for Glassdoor’s consumer jobs product and mobile app. He holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard College.
