What would be the acceptability of this in your workplace? For context, which country and industry are you in?
I guess I’m mainly thinking about professional jobs, but interested to hear from. I think in France it would be quite common to have a glass of wine, even at a work canteen or so. But in the UK it seems like people would think that was a problem, and in a lot of cases you’d be in violation of something at work.
I work in corporate retail in the USA. It’s generally acceptable if you’re out of the office on a business lunch. Cracking open a beer in the kitchen at lunch probably wouldn’t have any immediate consequences but you’re probably looking outside of the company for a promotion.
Lol, yeah I was definitely picturing a restaurant setting. Drinking white cider in the alley on your lunch break, or going to a toilet cubicle with a bottle of vodka, really projects a different image…
Sure, if I’m meeting a vendor for lunch it would be normal. If I’m just sitting at my desk working through lunch like I typically do, it would be really strange to have a drink and I’d probably be reprimanded.
USA, IT worker
Canadian IT worker.
I refuse to drink at work parties. Everyone else does and I get some peer pressure to drink but I don’t care. Its normal to see people get super drunk and embarrass themselves which is why I don’t even start.
Specifically at lunch, if I’m not driving and others are having a beer I will but only one. If I’m driving, it depends on how I’m feeling.
Working from home I’ve been known to have a beer or two on a Friday afternoon by my self.
When I left my last job we had a meeting at the end of the day with the guys I got along with and anyone they wanted to invite. There was about 15 people from different departments with their cameras on having a drink or smoking (pot) if they didn’t drink as a goodbye. Was a nice goodbye. Lol
I don’t drink but if I did I’d never drink at a work social. I leave work socials early to avoid any drunkenness because there are 535356 ways it can go wrong.
Way 535354: coworker gets really drunk, as does the owners wife. Coworker later fired for sleeping with owners wife. Like that you mean?
Haha yep that’s on the list
I’ve drank, and got drunk, at exactly one work function in my current capacity. The living hell that was a day of serious meetings with 3 hours of sleep and a wicked hangover/still being drunk has made all other functions water and bed by 9:30 affairs.
Luckily everyone in the meetings had either made the same mistake before, or were functioning alcoholics, so the fallout was just being a pile of misery.
If a VP decides to take everyone for drinks at a club after the official function, at absolute most show up to nurse one drink then leave. Do not be the last one out the door.
I’m in the UK. I worked at a couple of places in the '90s - sysadmin and IT trainer - where this was considered perfectly acceptable at the time, but I definitely wouldn’t now. I’m no longer in IT at all, but I don’t think that it is seen as acceptable very widely anywhere now.
Work from home, drink as much as I like
Which is how much?
I’m not into overdosing into anything, so it’s all about balance, which means I usually stick with a beer a day at most
I work in healthcare in the UK. I don’t even drink on week nights let alone over lunch. I agree over here drinking at lunch would probably be seen as a problem.
I think a big part of that is the UK binge drink culture. Most people over here drink a lot in one go to get drunk as the goal.
Off topic but your name is amazing
Thanks, I came up with it in secondary school and have been using it since.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
Why wait till lunch?
After all, you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.
You can’t start drinking if you never stop
That’s the spirit!
Cant agree more.
Switzerland, IT
Depends on the team. It’s not that uncommon in some occasions, for example on a friday, to have a beer when eating lunch in a restaurant.
Very common is the “Apero”-culture. Small festivities after work to celebrate something. Snacks, beer and wine are part of it. Sometimes this can also be during the day and people will continue to work after.
If my boss gets a drink and I want a drink, it’s fair game. Otherwise no.
I personally don’t drink, but my team is all WFH, so I don’t doubt at all that there are some that have a beer or two with lunch. Or a glass of wine.
When we have in person events, there’s a pretty strict no drinking culture, but once the event is over, usually people will shuffle off to the nearest pub or bar or we’ve done a board game cafe with booze before.
Most places have an alcohol restriction on premises. But lunch time is your own time. Bars near the auto plants used to have 30+ beers already opened so the workers could come in slap their money down and get right to drinking at 12:05. I worked at one place where boss bought beer and pizza for the whole company for doing well that week. I think shop guys had 1 beer restrictions, for “safety”. Us office guys could have more. 2 beer and pizza makes it hard to stay awake at the computer though.
In my previous job I had to travel very often to customer’s sites or or other offices
The ones in Germany drank regularly during lunch time. I never felt comfortable to do it since my job was very technical. In one office they even had a fridge full of beers and wines that you could grab freely. I never saw anybody drinking at the office tho
Depends on what the boss does, but if I’m the most senior person, and especially if it’s a conference or lunch meeting with someone I know well, and the itemized bill isn’t required for reimbursement, sure thing. Have many times.
Some older companies have policies in place that define appropriate circumstances under which staff can have 1 drink during duty hours and it not be an actionable offense.
We have alcohol at my workplace so this happens sometimes. Just be responsible.
Product designer/engineer in the US
If the team is going out to lunch to celebrate a special occasion, then a single drink has always been fine in the teams I worked with. I don’t partake anymore because it makes me really sleepy in the afternoon.
I worked at one company that hosted a weekly happy hour. I was one of the employees who took turns setting up the kegs in the common room, and pouring drinks during the event. That was a fun place. The extra social time really improved some working relationships. And we got a surprising amount of productive work done just by talking for an hour or two while standing around sipping microbrews and wine.
