4 ms·

What part do you find confusing? You forgot to explain your confusion, sorry! Edit: apparently I‘ve been rate-limited by HN’s anti-spam techniques, so I can’t

What part do you find confusing? You forgot to explain your confusion, sorry! Edit: apparently I‘ve been rate-limited by HN’s anti-spam techniques, so I can’t comment further for a few hours, but encouraging employees to ingest a drug, especially at a workplace, especially a drug that makes people more susceptible to manipulation, doesn’t seem to square with any good-faith interaction between a company and its employees. The point of throwing a party with alcohol at the workplace seems to be an effort to throw money at employment satisfaction, but extremely cheaply and to no positive material effect for the employees. Why not just give the money spent on the party to employees and organize off-site as “normal” people uninhibited by corporate values? Well, that doesn’t benefit anyone BUT employees. I’ve been to a fair number of off-campus celebrations, lunches, dinners, events, etc and the atmosphere is greatly relaxed and more respectful for it.

deleted 6y ago
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hombre_fatal 6y ago
"Creepy" means everything these days and you'll find people invoking it for everything. A guy dating a woman five years younger than him? "Creepy". Wheeling a keg into an office on Friday? "Creepy". Approaching the opposite sex? "Creepy". So I think you'll send a clearer message to explain what you mean instead of leaving it up to everyone's interpretation of the word "creepy". Edit: To respond to your edit, I can see how you can think something like that. But at the same time, alcohol is also an effective age-old mechanism for social bonding, and social bonding is important at a workplace. I think there's a certain cynicism in looking at social drinking at the workplace as some manipulation-play that errs into the side of unreasonableness. I, myself, often opt out with a sparkling water, yet I think the ritual is useful to really meet and befriend others at work. The nice thing about our drinking rituals is that they are inherently social. We don't need to go to some contrived "team building" activity. And it's effective to get people to talk to each other in a way that "Okay everyone, it's social time! Get chattin'!" just isn't. Alcohol definitely has its downsides. It's unhealthy. It can get people to make fools of themselves. It can make people aggressive. For sure, these are problems. But I wouldn't so quickly dismiss the upsides. Some social drinking can make things possible that I'm not even sure how to replicate without it, like getting people to actually open up and be real with one another. There's something to say about that that isn't just negative. Just like I don't think the workplace is optimal when we're all just impersonal professional drones who never really get to know the real human behind our coworkers.
- monadic2 6y ago
  I’m not sure how you’re treating the opposite sex to be considered “creepy” by approaching them, but it’s definitely something to be concerned about. Anyway get your drinking rituals away from me, I don’t want to bond with my coworkers, especially not at the workplace. I consider it creepy to even conflate a paid relationship with anything personal. If I make friends with my coworkers, that’s certainly not the business of my boss, or their employer, or really anyone.
  - aerovistae 6y ago
    You sound like a fairly miserable person to be around, frankly.
    - monadic2 6y ago
      > You sound like a fairly miserable person to be around, frankly. i have absolutely zero interest in friendship, i have absolutely zero interest in jokes, i am simply here to collect data and earn respect
- sdigital 6y ago
  > Some social drinking can make things possible that I'm not even sure how to replicate without it, like getting people to actually open up and be real with one another. You alcoholics are just too much. I'm a fucking crackhead and even I can see how pathetic this line of thinking is.
  - elbear 6y ago
    I can tell you I made a friend by going for beers with him and opening up about stuff. I think the alcohol played a role, because the opening up part came after at least a beer. And no, I'm not an alcoholic. I'm tipsy already after a beer.

deleted 6y ago

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hombre_fatal 6y ago

"Creepy" means everything these days and you'll find people invoking it for everything. A guy dating a woman five years younger than him? "Creepy". Wheeling a keg into an office on Friday? "Creepy". Approaching the opposite sex? "Creepy". So I think you'll send a clearer message to explain what you mean instead of leaving it up to everyone's interpretation of the word "creepy". Edit: To respond to your edit, I can see how you can think something like that. But at the same time, alcohol is also an effective age-old mechanism for social bonding, and social bonding is important at a workplace. I think there's a certain cynicism in looking at social drinking at the workplace as some manipulation-play that errs into the side of unreasonableness. I, myself, often opt out with a sparkling water, yet I think the ritual is useful to really meet and befriend others at work. The nice thing about our drinking rituals is that they are inherently social. We don't need to go to some contrived "team building" activity. And it's effective to get people to talk to each other in a way that "Okay everyone, it's social time! Get chattin'!" just isn't. Alcohol definitely has its downsides. It's unhealthy. It can get people to make fools of themselves. It can make people aggressive. For sure, these are problems. But I wouldn't so quickly dismiss the upsides. Some social drinking can make things possible that I'm not even sure how to replicate without it, like getting people to actually open up and be real with one another. There's something to say about that that isn't just negative. Just like I don't think the workplace is optimal when we're all just impersonal professional drones who never really get to know the real human behind our coworkers.

monadic2 6y ago
I’m not sure how you’re treating the opposite sex to be considered “creepy” by approaching them, but it’s definitely something to be concerned about. Anyway get your drinking rituals away from me, I don’t want to bond with my coworkers, especially not at the workplace. I consider it creepy to even conflate a paid relationship with anything personal. If I make friends with my coworkers, that’s certainly not the business of my boss, or their employer, or really anyone.
- aerovistae 6y ago
  You sound like a fairly miserable person to be around, frankly.
  - monadic2 6y ago
    > You sound like a fairly miserable person to be around, frankly. i have absolutely zero interest in friendship, i have absolutely zero interest in jokes, i am simply here to collect data and earn respect
sdigital 6y ago
> Some social drinking can make things possible that I'm not even sure how to replicate without it, like getting people to actually open up and be real with one another. You alcoholics are just too much. I'm a fucking crackhead and even I can see how pathetic this line of thinking is.
- elbear 6y ago
  I can tell you I made a friend by going for beers with him and opening up about stuff. I think the alcohol played a role, because the opening up part came after at least a beer. And no, I'm not an alcoholic. I'm tipsy already after a beer.