Drinking on the job

Seems like such a cultural issue. Here in the US, it is definitely frowned on. But when I was working in France and Switzerland, it was common to have some wine with lunch.

I work at home a lot, and do nnot drink wine with lunch. Not so much because of prohibition against it, but prefer to savor my wine with my evening meal.

I find it not very pleasant to drink alcohol at lunch, as it makes me rather lethargic in the afternoon or may even give me a headache (which is one of the very few ways I get one). When I'm working late nights in the office, I'll occasionally go out or home for dinner, have wine with dinner and then come back in, but this is only since I've left the lab and work a full time desk job.

Mark Lipton

I like one glass. Example: Prosecco with a ham sandwich. A cheap Zinfandel( CK Mondavi) with some leftover ragu.. But two glasses, I am nodding out at my computer at 2 PM. That is why I don't do the 2nd glass.

Evan

These days I amost never have alcohol during the day. But for several years I had a weekly lunch with a close friend, we'd have a pint of beer, maybe 2. But I never felt it was an issue- I never got anywhere near the point where I was intoxicated (I'm a big guy, 220 lbs, and this would be 2 pints over an hour+ lunch). I think the important thing is if someone's judgement was impaired or their productivity suffered, not whether one had a glass of wine. I don't actually remember the last time I had a drink at lunch on a workday, but don't see it as an issue unless it affects work.

I'm retired so I can drink any time, but do not drink during the day, except after a round of golf. When I was working we never drank at lunchtime, the patients would not have liked beery breath while checking their fundi!!

JT

When I worked in finance we'd often take clients to lunch and order wine.

Now that I'm a working comedian I never, ever have anything to drink before performing. Not even a glass with lunch several hours before a show.

Shaun Eli

Brain Champagne: Clever Comedy for Smart Minds (sm)

My wife attended classes at the University of Minnesota back in the

60s, and worked at a local company called Dayton's (now Target) in the evenings. Employees and managers would take a dinner break at a nearby restaurant. One night a waitress asked one of the managers if he would like a cocktail before dinner and he replied that he had to get back to work and he didn't want to be seen drinking. The waitress replied "I can serve the cocktail in a coffee cup like I do for everyone else". Dick R.

I never found that drinking at lunch worked very well in the corporate world. We used to call it "the lions and the lambs" since some folks would return in a very aggressive mood and others would become lethargic and passive. In the end nobody did a very good job after lunch and in a company of 2500 it could be problematic not to mention the liability aspects so 30 years ago i banned alcohol at lunch and although I retired a few years ago the corporate structure still maintains the practice. Personally now that I'm retired from the corporate world I do have a glass of wine or beer at lunch especially when I'm conducting business onn behalf of the wine distributorship. I generally spit at tastings but swallow at social lunches. FWIW, I did have to deal with a number of problem drinkers/alcoholics in the workforce so eliminating alcohol was an easy decision on my part and I would still maintain an alcohol free workplace in a corporate environment if for no other reason than to maintain a fair and consistant policy towards alcoholism/drug abuse.

In the 1960's and 70's a 3-Martini lunch was not uncommon among some working at large companies in larger cities in the US. However such is now not tolerated by most large companies unless one is taking an important client out to lunch and the client would not feel comfortable if drinks were ordered for him or her, but not the host. In fact many of the major companies in the US now have random drug testing including for alcohol, and alcohol is not tolerated during work. One of the large petroleum companies with some offices where I live now has a zero tolerence policy. If the random drug tests come up positive and are confirmed by more exact tests and a medical prescription can not be presented, then the employee is fired on the spot. Earlier they had one chance to overcome their problem.

Drug tests are not equally sensitive for different drugs. Alcohol and cocaine can not be detected after a fairly short time. On the other extreme cannabis products are fat soluble and are very slowly released. Their use can be detected many days or even weeks after last use with the usual screening tests, even though the person may show no symptoms of use at the time of the test. I once talked to an airlines supervisor who had to set up a drug testing program for airline employees. I joked to him that they did not include LSD, and I would least like to be on a plane with a pilot under the influence of LSD. He replied that LSD is very difficult to test for, and that it soon leaves the system. He joked back that there was no need to test pilots for LSD, because those using it would report too many UFO sightings :-).

When I started work in the late '60s in the international division of a huge bank, it aslo was de rigeur to drink with clients at lunch, and for some, to keep some semblance of "keeping up" (there were a few I remember I could not keep up with if I wanted to!) It was bank policy that if you felt like it after such a lunch, you could just not return. In fact it was preferred, and not frowned upon.

In the mid 80s, we always contacted one person in a major oil co. in the morning. After an umpteen martini lunch, he was ill-tempered and irrational. Things have changed now. I had to sign a 'no-intoxicant' clause in my current contract with another major oil co. Graham

Interesting. A more "enlightened" policy might be to vet all potential hires as "happy drunks" and reject those who turn up as "angry drunks" or "morose drunks." I think that pretty much covers the taxonomy of intoxication, though I'm always open to learning more about this understudied field. ;-)

Mark Lipton

My ex-F-I-L, while on a long stop-over, observed a man going through all those stages. There seemed to be a definite order - perhaps Happy to Angry to Morose etc. I have never seen it as I have usually been drinking as well{;-) Graham

My office is in my home and I do not pour any wine, until after 5:00PM local, except on weekends and holidays. Just my call on this.

Hunt

I drink on the job every day.

Of course, that IS my job.

Or at least a big part of it. And lots of the time I spit. So it goes.