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I think the part that's not talked about is how much more risky it feels in 2023 to drink with co-workers than it did 10 or 20 years ago. Am I just getting old?

I think the part that's not talked about is how much more risky it feels in 2023 to drink with co-workers than it did 10 or 20 years ago. Am I just getting old? Drinking culture has largely changed for the better and I think workplaces are safer than they used to be. But I also think you'd have to be an idiot (or risk-blind) to get loose at company events like a lot of people used to do.

whynotkeithberg 3y ago
It's not more risky for decent people. Just the people who can't stop being perverts & sexually harassing people while drunk actually get held accountable rather than it being swept under the rug. For those of us who don't participate in such behavior nothing has changed or become any more risky. People getting loose at parties used to mean harassment and it was deemed ok because "men are being men" but it was never ok. Just treat people as they deserve whether you're drinking or not and there's no issue to be had.
- DangitBobby 3y ago
  Okay, you could jump straight to sexual harassment. But lots of people do dumb shit that has nothing to do with sex while they are drunk. "Letting loose" means lowering your inhibitions which makes you more likely to do something regrettable. And I don't want to hear anything about "decent people" unless you're the 1 human on this planet that's never done or said anything they regret.
  - orwin 3y ago
    I'm pretty confident a lot of people, even drunk, stay decent towards fellow humans. Most people don't get violent or harass people when drunk. Those that do, however, should absolutely stop drinking until they fix their issues. I don't think I regret anything I ever did or said while drunk (unless you mean 'taking that last drink that will kill me tomorrow' and in this case, I regret an Irish coffee I knew was too much).
    - Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago
      Regrettable behavior is broader than not being nice to people, it could be that they overshare something personal, or express an opinion better left unsaid, etc. etc. Good for you for not having any regrets, but this is the exception not the norm.
justinjlynn 3y ago
If people phrased it as what it was "doing psychoactive drugs with co-workers/competitors in a non-work setting" ... the activity would seem as dangerous as it always was. It's just that now people, rightfully, have higher expectations of each other's behaviour because work forces otherwise incompatible people together due to economic pressures and those relationships must remain collegial. Those pressures have always been there, but as time has gone on - and especially since the 1970s with the rise telecommunications and database technologies - that social pressure has only increased due to the growth of more tightly knit but wider scoped social networks (among essentially all employers in a field, esp.). This has grown to global social networks and databases essentially creating a permanent reputation in all aspects of life. Job mobility has likewise decreased. Given that psychoactive drugs alter a persons mind and cause a person to do things they most likely would never do when they were sober, and esp. at work - the changing culture seems a natural outcome of all of those pressures as a rational way to decrease the risk of disaster.
jonathankoren 3y ago
People that “got loose” at company events never learned to drink socially, and instead binged. These people are always a problem, regardless of where. The vast majority of the people at a drink up could handle it, but occasionally there would be the one troublemaker (and it was always the same person, although not always everytime) that simply couldn’t read the room, or couldn’t control themselves. At official or unofficial drink ups, I’ve seen: Someone have to have their keys taken away. Someone have their keys taken away, and then bite — literally, angrily bite — the coworker that took them before running off into the night. The worst event, I didn’t see happen, but saw the aftermath of. Someone got in a car (hopefully theirs), and proceed to jump the curb of the traffic circle in the office park and ram — and destroy — a nondescript abstract sculpture that was owned by whoever owned the office park. I believe the last person was fired. Hopefully, that person got help, because that could not have been the first time for a trick like that. Interestingly enough, all these events happened at the same employer. And yet, I still think fondly of those drink ups (though, not those instances).
jayd16 3y ago
You could always just not drink.
drewcoo 3y ago
Agreed. We live in a surveillance culture today. And those photos and videos will haunt you wherever and whenever you are in the future.

whynotkeithberg 3y ago

It's not more risky for decent people. Just the people who can't stop being perverts & sexually harassing people while drunk actually get held accountable rather than it being swept under the rug. For those of us who don't participate in such behavior nothing has changed or become any more risky. People getting loose at parties used to mean harassment and it was deemed ok because "men are being men" but it was never ok. Just treat people as they deserve whether you're drinking or not and there's no issue to be had.

DangitBobby 3y ago
Okay, you could jump straight to sexual harassment. But lots of people do dumb shit that has nothing to do with sex while they are drunk. "Letting loose" means lowering your inhibitions which makes you more likely to do something regrettable. And I don't want to hear anything about "decent people" unless you're the 1 human on this planet that's never done or said anything they regret.
- orwin 3y ago
  I'm pretty confident a lot of people, even drunk, stay decent towards fellow humans. Most people don't get violent or harass people when drunk. Those that do, however, should absolutely stop drinking until they fix their issues. I don't think I regret anything I ever did or said while drunk (unless you mean 'taking that last drink that will kill me tomorrow' and in this case, I regret an Irish coffee I knew was too much).
  - Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago
    Regrettable behavior is broader than not being nice to people, it could be that they overshare something personal, or express an opinion better left unsaid, etc. etc. Good for you for not having any regrets, but this is the exception not the norm.

justinjlynn 3y ago

If people phrased it as what it was "doing psychoactive drugs with co-workers/competitors in a non-work setting" ... the activity would seem as dangerous as it always was. It's just that now people, rightfully, have higher expectations of each other's behaviour because work forces otherwise incompatible people together due to economic pressures and those relationships must remain collegial. Those pressures have always been there, but as time has gone on - and especially since the 1970s with the rise telecommunications and database technologies - that social pressure has only increased due to the growth of more tightly knit but wider scoped social networks (among essentially all employers in a field, esp.). This has grown to global social networks and databases essentially creating a permanent reputation in all aspects of life. Job mobility has likewise decreased. Given that psychoactive drugs alter a persons mind and cause a person to do things they most likely would never do when they were sober, and esp. at work - the changing culture seems a natural outcome of all of those pressures as a rational way to decrease the risk of disaster.

jonathankoren 3y ago

People that “got loose” at company events never learned to drink socially, and instead binged. These people are always a problem, regardless of where. The vast majority of the people at a drink up could handle it, but occasionally there would be the one troublemaker (and it was always the same person, although not always everytime) that simply couldn’t read the room, or couldn’t control themselves. At official or unofficial drink ups, I’ve seen: Someone have to have their keys taken away. Someone have their keys taken away, and then bite — literally, angrily bite — the coworker that took them before running off into the night. The worst event, I didn’t see happen, but saw the aftermath of. Someone got in a car (hopefully theirs), and proceed to jump the curb of the traffic circle in the office park and ram — and destroy — a nondescript abstract sculpture that was owned by whoever owned the office park. I believe the last person was fired. Hopefully, that person got help, because that could not have been the first time for a trick like that. Interestingly enough, all these events happened at the same employer. And yet, I still think fondly of those drink ups (though, not those instances).

jayd16 3y ago

You could always just not drink.

drewcoo 3y ago

Agreed. We live in a surveillance culture today. And those photos and videos will haunt you wherever and whenever you are in the future.