Ask a Manager: My Boss Uses Too Much Styrofoam

[minoanmiss]

I work in a very small office (three of us and our boss). My boss uses a styrofoam cup every morning to drink his coffee. I believe it’s a different one each time (from his gym, where he picks up coffee each morning). Would it be inappropriate to suggest that he might switch to something reusable like a Yeti cup or something similar? I also get that there’s a debate about buying something that’s more resource-intensive at the front-end versus using disposable, but relatively less resource-intensive. It just kills me every time I see him using one.

What kind of relationship do you have with him? With a lot of bosses, if you have good rapport you could just say, “Would you ever get a reusable cup to carry with you? The environmental impact of styrofoam is so bad.” Or if you’re willing, you could even give him one as a gift — although you’d have to be okay with the possibility that he might not use it and the styrofoam would keep showing up.

Another option could be to suggest that the office buy company-branded (or even not company-branded) travel mugs for everyone.
But with all of these approaches, he might not change the habit and there’s not a ton of room to keep pushing if that’s the case. Ultimately he gets to decide what kind of cup he’s going to use.

Comments

Re: my eyes, they roll

[cereta]

Yeah, that made me really uncomfortable even if they don't reflect the real names, because it gave me a "this twin meets more Western standards of beauty" vibe.