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Having a beer is I engrained in American work culture. Also I've worked at multiple companies where they had work functions at dinnertime and no one got that dr

Having a beer is I engrained in American work culture. Also I've worked at multiple companies where they had work functions at dinnertime and no one got that drunk (generally there were 2 drink maximums, which probably helped) so it's definitely possible to fix the issue without just banning it

reaperducer 8y ago
Having a beer is I engrained in American work culture Ummm... no, it's not. Having had dozens of jobs in five industries over the decades, I've never worked for one where drinking on company time isn't a fireable offense. The only exceptions were at the company Christmas parties, and overnight DJ's who were tolerated doing lines of coke off of CD cases. But that's another problem altogether.
- tdb7893 8y ago
  I'll concede that maybe America is too broad to generalize here but the point still stands that you don't need to completely disallow alcohol to have people not really drunk at basic work functions
- logfromblammo 8y ago
  Definitely not. I am currently in an industry where getting drunk off the job can (eventually) get you fired. Mostly because drunkards are potential security threats with a well-proven recipe for developing and exploiting the opening. Our Christmas parties are as boring as a carbide drill bit.
- amatecha 8y ago
  "Beer o'clock", typically on a Friday afternoon, is a very common phenomenon in North American software & game companies. :)
  - int_19h 8y ago
    That's exactly the point - it's common in software, but virtually unheard of everywhere else. So it's the software industry that's out of touch with the broader American work culture here.
gautamdivgi 8y ago
It's not. I think there is more acceptance in European culture for that. I learnt the somewhat hard way when I came to the US after a couple of stints in Europe. I used to think nothing of having a beer or a glass of wine at lunch with colleagues. But it did earn me a few frowns in the US. This is almost 18 years ago - so pretty sure things have changed significantly.
- misiti3780 8y ago
  i know people that work in banking and insurance in london and they claim its pretty common to have more than one drink at lunch.
- ghaff 8y ago
  It used to be fairly common. Lookup "Three Martini Lunch." When I was in the oil business several decades ago, it was quite common for 2 or 3 of us to ring up a vendor to take us to lunch where we'd have a couple of beers. I won't say it's unheard of for myself and my colleagues to have a beer or glass of wine at a work lunch in the tech industry. But it's certainly a rare event though definitely more common when visiting Europe.

reaperducer 8y ago

Having a beer is I engrained in American work culture Ummm... no, it's not. Having had dozens of jobs in five industries over the decades, I've never worked for one where drinking on company time isn't a fireable offense. The only exceptions were at the company Christmas parties, and overnight DJ's who were tolerated doing lines of coke off of CD cases. But that's another problem altogether.

tdb7893 8y ago
I'll concede that maybe America is too broad to generalize here but the point still stands that you don't need to completely disallow alcohol to have people not really drunk at basic work functions
logfromblammo 8y ago
Definitely not. I am currently in an industry where getting drunk off the job can (eventually) get you fired. Mostly because drunkards are potential security threats with a well-proven recipe for developing and exploiting the opening. Our Christmas parties are as boring as a carbide drill bit.
amatecha 8y ago
"Beer o'clock", typically on a Friday afternoon, is a very common phenomenon in North American software & game companies. :)
- int_19h 8y ago
  That's exactly the point - it's common in software, but virtually unheard of everywhere else. So it's the software industry that's out of touch with the broader American work culture here.

gautamdivgi 8y ago

It's not. I think there is more acceptance in European culture for that. I learnt the somewhat hard way when I came to the US after a couple of stints in Europe. I used to think nothing of having a beer or a glass of wine at lunch with colleagues. But it did earn me a few frowns in the US. This is almost 18 years ago - so pretty sure things have changed significantly.

misiti3780 8y ago
i know people that work in banking and insurance in london and they claim its pretty common to have more than one drink at lunch.
ghaff 8y ago
It used to be fairly common. Lookup "Three Martini Lunch." When I was in the oil business several decades ago, it was quite common for 2 or 3 of us to ring up a vendor to take us to lunch where we'd have a couple of beers. I won't say it's unheard of for myself and my colleagues to have a beer or glass of wine at a work lunch in the tech industry. But it's certainly a rare event though definitely more common when visiting Europe.