How did Fortune decide Cisco was near the top of its "Best Places to Work" list? An unhappy tipster at the networking-equipment maker leaked this report from a company meeting happening now:

I'm a Cisco employee, and at the company meeting going on right now, Frank Calderoni, CFO, just announced that as part of our expense reduction plans, they're going to get rid of the free drinks in breakrooms, replacing them with vending machines. He said it'll save like $12-13 million. A few slides later, the head of HR was bragging about Cisco being ranked the 6th best place to work by Fortune. I don't think they realized the logical disconnect.

Add this to Cisco's recently announced pay-to-play gym, and you wonder if Calderoni, Cisco's bean-counter-in-chief, isn't trying to turn employees into a profit center. Another in our series of corporate America's stupid cost-cutting tricks! Has your employer pinched pennies for no purpose? Send us your tales of perks and jerks.