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Drinking at Work

At the first company I worked at a long time ago, I heard that it was not uncommon for senior executives to have bottles of liquor in their offices and to have a drink or two during the work day. By the time I joined the workforce, that practice was being discouraged. In fact, the official policy was that you could not be intoxicated while at work.

However that did not mean that alcohol disappeared at the work place. Any event that took place after work hours could serve beer and wine. The only expectation was that you didn’t go back to work in an inebriated state. I did break that rule a few times when I went back to wrap up some work or to rest up a bit before hitting the road.

When I joined my current company, it was a startup with less than 20 employees. The HR policy here also prohibits being under the influence on the job.

Every Friday after work, we all gathered in a conference room and had scotch or bourbon to celebrate the start of the weekend. As the company expanded, the logistics of this practice became challenging. Additionally some of the newcomers did not appreciate the presence of liquor in the office. So the tradition was gradually phased out.

I do occasionally see some beers in the fridge and no one frowns upon someone having one after work hours. But all official events involving alcohol happen offsite.

I have been to the offices of a few local companies in the same industry and they all seem to have the same policy. Beer and wine are allowed on premises as long as they are consumed outside of work hours.

Nowadays everyone is working from home due to the pandemic. HR still expects us to not be drinking during work hours. But there is no one else around to police it. I guess that’s okay since the risk of alcohol fueled inappropriate behavior against coworkers is pretty low.