I think if I were my own boss and had good employees, having a beer each day at lunch would be beneficial. Morale boost, friendly conversation, and just a overall feeling of a "break" from the day.
I think if I were my own boss and had good employees, having a beer each day at lunch would be beneficial. Morale boost, friendly conversation, and just a overall feeling of a "break" from the day.
In reply to Placemotorsports :
That's lovely. As long as you don't give a E36 M3 about OSHA and liability.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Placemotorsports :
That's lovely. As long as you don't give a E36 M3 about OSHA and liability.
Just eating my sandwich and rambling basically
I drank three Mickey's Wide Mouths" on a 30 minute lunch break working retail in college once and regretted it.
Two years later in my career I went to an Italian pizza buffet for our one hour lunch and drank three Moosehead beers and regretted it.
I make bad choices drinking at lunch so I swore that activity off.
One place I interned at, once every other week or so at the end of the day, the owner of the company would bring in a growler that a friend of his that owned a brewery had given him and share it with the engineering dept and just hang out and BS with everyone.
Fun place to work
I blew E36 M3 up, beers make a long afternoon with a lot of bathroom breaks.
My brother in law works in a union shop that actually built into their union contract that the workers can have 1 or 2 beers at lunch and not get in trouble.
It depends on the line of work. Some IT shops have a cooler with beer in them in the office.
The down side is that you're not expected to be able to leave the office for days at a time now and again.
I get too tired if I have one at lunch so I don't.
There was a jar of moonshine in the employee fridge yesterday. Was.
I would absolutely never dip into the whisky cabinet or the beer fridge during working hours. Since I would never do that, I wouldn't know exactly what would happen. But if I had to guess - and this is absolutely just a guess, because I would never consume alcohol while at work because that would be against the rules - my guess would be that I might wind up being a little more productive actually. I'm guessing - remember, this is all totally hypothetical - that my overall stress level would go down a bit and some of those annoying things wouldn't bother me so much.
In this hypothetical situation, we're talking about a finger or two of whisky or one or two beers. I'd be totally useless if I went off and got plowed for lunch, but sipping on a little bourbon isn't going to make things go crazy.
Hypothetically, of course.
I'm sure that it matters what your job function is as well. I'm a desk jockey at the bullE36 M3 factory so a totally different equation than, say, a surgeon or a pilot.
The core issue really wouldn't be a moral one, or a morale one, or even a personal preference one.
The core issue would be that the employer would be SERVING alcohol. There are so many issues created by this....
And ANY impaired judgement issues (even driving home from work) become the responsibility of the employer.
For the record, sometimes I have a beer at lunch. My call. But if I was an employer, there is NO WAY I would EVER serve alcohol to employees while they were at work. Regardless of whether they were on the clock or not.
It is pretty common over in Europe.
Its not uncommon here. Lots of companies have a beer fridge in the break room that is employer-stocked. If you go to we-work or some other space-sharing place they have supplied beer as well.
Before the pandemic started, my job had us in town at a fancy shared office space. Part of the "benefits" of that shared space were community beer taps. My boss is a big craft beer guy, so a few times we would have meetings at the taps. It was the only thing I liked about that place; everything else was beyond miserable. Right before the pandemic stared, they got rid of them. We didn't renew our lease there since we switched to work from home, but if we ever go back to another place, they better have beer!
Yep. I understand.
I still wouldn't do it. Things are way too litigious, and OSHA is too far reaching.
(I used to)
This would need people to behave like adults.
That will never happen.
A hard no for me. Too many guys driving my trucks. Just thinking about what would happen to my insurance rates makes me cringe.
Those days have passed. In the 1980s was at our home office and went out to eat lunch with a large group of coworkers. The big boss started off by ordering a draft.
Hey, it worked for the British auto industry. Oh, wait...
We get the beer cart pushed around about once a month. Its nice.
Alcohol at work is a bad idea in general.
I love scotch and craft beer but it shouldn't be a problem to be sober for 8 hours 5 days a week.
wae said:I'm a desk jockey at the bullE36 M3 factory
I would totally put that on a business card. Seriously. I once had a card that had "The Man" as my job title at Nortel Networks - it got me into meetings I had no right being in.
As for the lunch beer, I see SVreX's point, especially given his profession.
Keith Tanner said:As for the lunch beer, I see SVreX's point, especially given his profession.
You're right. I admit that my profession (commercial construction) influences my perspective. But I think it's more than that...
The workplace has changed. Employer responsibility for workplace safety is no longer a nice thing- it's the law.
I completely understand a worker who would enjoy this as a wonderful perk, and an employer who would like to have a casual enough work environment to allow it and encourage morale.
However, employers have no idea who they are serving, or what their limits are. They do not know if their employee is an alcoholic, has a low tolerance for alcohol, or is taking medications that would be problematic. They can't make the same assumptions about an extremely petite employee vs a very large employee. They don't know if a woman is breast feeding. There is no way to tell if an employee would be a sleepy drinker, or an angry drinker, or begin making inappropriate sexual advances. There is no way to know if the person is bi-polar, or mentally unstable in any way. Maybe an employee has had a liver transplant, but feels pressured to be part of the "cool crowd".
There really is no limit to how many things could be wrong about this. And in today's US employment environment, the employer IS responsible.
Yes I know. 1 beer at lunch shouldn't be a problem. But for some people it is.
How about we allow a few tokes on a joint where it is legal?
And yes, my industry is particularly problematic at the workplace. It is unacceptable (and illegal) for someone to drink and operate machinery. But even in office environments at the end of the day when people are no longer on the clock, they still need to drive home. Drinking and driving is a problem, and the employer would be the one who served the alcohol.
Its a bad idea.
It's also an unnecessary idea. The same morale boost could be accomplished with high end flavored coffees, gift cards, nice juice smoothies, or donuts.
I know we have a lot of people here who enjoy an adult beverage now and then. Me too. I just don't think employers should make a habit of serving their employees alcohol.
I'm in an industry where it's common for start-ups or even mid-size "trendy" companies to have a tap in the break room. We're operating keyboards, not machinery.
That said, I'm with SVreX on this one. From an employer perspective it's just not worth it to be the provider these days. There are better ways to improve the workplace.
As far as whether or not anyone should imbibe on the job, I'm completely neutral. If you work for me and get your work done without being a shiny happy person or being a danger to yourself and others, I'm satisfied.
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