An amazing post from Vault - reminds me of the times when there was an open bar on Friday afternoons at the Cape Town Shell office. At the same time, I fired so many operators who reported drunk to work and failed the breathalyser test... Corporate and operating environments will ever have different standards on such issues as drinking and smoking purely on the safety grounds, but we also need to factor in the cultural differences: imagine a corporate party in Russia without a drink in the hand of the CEO.
Workplace Drinking Is Back, But With a Catch
Posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 8:28:29 PM GMT | Post a comment
Drinking on the job is back.
Or at least, that's what startups like Yelp and Twitter are promoting. Bloomberg's Businessweekreports that Yelp's headquarters in San Francisco is not only equipped with "a keg refrigerator" but it also "supplies its employees with an endless supply of beer."
What's the catch, besides the picture of perpetual hangovers and fraternity fests?
"In order to help keep folks drinking responsibly, everyone who drinks the beer must check in on an iPad, which records every ounce they take." And the logic is that because you don't really want to be on the top of that list very often, workplace drinking remains a privilege yet to be abused.
Not to be confused with images from Mad Men, the Bloomberg piece quotes a Twitter spokesperson saying, "We treat employees as adults, and they act accordingly."
These are just two examples, and ones that can easily be attributed to the work culture of small companies and entrepreneurial setups, which often tend to prescribe to a recipe of long hours and flexible days. But they also represent a large population of today's workforce.
So, is a generational trend of socializing, flexible work schedules, and a workplace culture that promotes freedom over regimental processes, bringing booze back to today's workplace?
Should it?
Leave a comment, email In Good Company or connect on Twitter. Does your company offer endless alcohol in the interest of higher productivity and committed employees?
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