4 ms·

Microsoft cancels campus pub

15 points by ciscoriordan 18y ago

ciscoriordan 18y ago
No beer for you!
sgrove 18y ago
Seems like a reasonable clash of internal cultures. It's a questionable value add for the company, as fun as it may seem for the employees, and those wanting to try something new and edgy finally lost out (albeit at the very last moment) to those trying to be legally responsible. In all reality, it probably would have been just fine with a bit of proper management (open at the appropriate times, the right "Company Bar Etiquette", etc.), would have renewed Microsoft's "Cool place to work" image a bit, and could have fostered a more loyal and cohesive workforce. But they might be able to reach those same goals without the clear risks involved in having a company bar.
ilkhd2 18y ago
It also shows the quality of management, in case there has not happened something we are not told. Abrupt change decisions is not looking good, to begin with.
barrkel 18y ago
I think this is largely an idiosyncrasy of American prohibitionist / Protestant culture. When I was in college, we had a college bar on campus (something that I guess is rare for US colleges, given later drinking ages). It can add considerably to camaraderie and community feeling, and for college in particular, it's safer too. While churches may have been the nominal backbone of the old village life, the public house is where everybody meets.
- neilc 18y ago
  A bar on a corporate campus is rather different from a bar on a college campus. My university (albeit in Canada) had 3 different bars on campus, but I can understand Microsoft's reasoning, although I disagree with it.
DanielBMarkham 18y ago
Company-sponsored pubs have an interesting history -- I'd love to see somebody do a blog entry on them. I worked at a couple startups (after they grew large) where there was a "beer day" on Fridays. Usually they just brought beer trucks in around 3:30 or 4:00. It was a hoot, at least until somebody wrecked their car on the way home from work. At that point, the company I was with decided to give out no-questions-asked taxi cards, which could be used to get a ride if you needed one. But I could see the same company just making the decision to cancel it. After all, who wants to be the guy who helped set something up that ended up getting one of your people killed? There was also problems with idle chat -- it's one thing to go out with your friends to an outside pub after work and trash talk your job and coworkers. It's called blowing off steam. You can't do that with all of those folks sitting right next to you! And of course, with more beer comes more blowing off steam. When size is small, people just get used to one another -- if you say something dumb on Friday afternoon, we're going to see you everyday next week, so we'll have to work things out. But in companies that are just a little bit larger, you don't have that family-type constant-interaction. Telling somebody over in purchasing that they have the heart of Satan might cause permanent damage. And let's not even start talking about the significant percentage of the population with drinking or drug problems. Having a pub on-site is not exactly helping them out. So even when it works, it's just not the same. Maybe when the company is small, like 50 or fewer, it has a real capability to bind everybody together. I'm not sure that the idea would scale to places the size of Microsoft, however. And -- this is the kind of idea that gives corporate lawyers fits. Having said all of that, I'm in favor of it. I just think it's a lot more complicated than some folks realize at first glance.

15 points by ciscoriordan 18y ago

No beer for you!

Seems like a reasonable clash of internal cultures. It's a questionable value add for the company, as fun as it may seem for the employees, and those wanting to try something new and edgy finally lost out (albeit at the very last moment) to those trying to be legally responsible. In all reality, it probably would have been just fine with a bit of proper management (open at the appropriate times, the right "Company Bar Etiquette", etc.), would have renewed Microsoft's "Cool place to work" image a bit, and could have fostered a more loyal and cohesive workforce. But they might be able to reach those same goals without the clear risks involved in having a company bar.

ilkhd2 18y ago

It also shows the quality of management, in case there has not happened something we are not told. Abrupt change decisions is not looking good, to begin with.

barrkel 18y ago

I think this is largely an idiosyncrasy of American prohibitionist / Protestant culture. When I was in college, we had a college bar on campus (something that I guess is rare for US colleges, given later drinking ages). It can add considerably to camaraderie and community feeling, and for college in particular, it's safer too. While churches may have been the nominal backbone of the old village life, the public house is where everybody meets.

neilc 18y ago
A bar on a corporate campus is rather different from a bar on a college campus. My university (albeit in Canada) had 3 different bars on campus, but I can understand Microsoft's reasoning, although I disagree with it.

DanielBMarkham 18y ago

Company-sponsored pubs have an interesting history -- I'd love to see somebody do a blog entry on them. I worked at a couple startups (after they grew large) where there was a "beer day" on Fridays. Usually they just brought beer trucks in around 3:30 or 4:00. It was a hoot, at least until somebody wrecked their car on the way home from work. At that point, the company I was with decided to give out no-questions-asked taxi cards, which could be used to get a ride if you needed one. But I could see the same company just making the decision to cancel it. After all, who wants to be the guy who helped set something up that ended up getting one of your people killed? There was also problems with idle chat -- it's one thing to go out with your friends to an outside pub after work and trash talk your job and coworkers. It's called blowing off steam. You can't do that with all of those folks sitting right next to you! And of course, with more beer comes more blowing off steam. When size is small, people just get used to one another -- if you say something dumb on Friday afternoon, we're going to see you everyday next week, so we'll have to work things out. But in companies that are just a little bit larger, you don't have that family-type constant-interaction. Telling somebody over in purchasing that they have the heart of Satan might cause permanent damage. And let's not even start talking about the significant percentage of the population with drinking or drug problems. Having a pub on-site is not exactly helping them out. So even when it works, it's just not the same. Maybe when the company is small, like 50 or fewer, it has a real capability to bind everybody together. I'm not sure that the idea would scale to places the size of Microsoft, however. And -- this is the kind of idea that gives corporate lawyers fits. Having said all of that, I'm in favor of it. I just think it's a lot more complicated than some folks realize at first glance.