# What is a job you can show up drunk or high at and not get in trouble **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449 "2016-05-10T00:24:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/21 "2016-05-10T03:39:30Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > SDMB moderator? > > 😉 It’s virtually a necessisisissity (hic). ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/22 "2016-05-10T04:01:38Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Mayor of Toronto. And/or Washington DC. I would include comedian/comedy writer for television from the experiences of a couple friends. Writing, in general, is often a “from home” so I don’t know if I would count that but being a part of a team of writers is a little more to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/23 "2016-05-10T04:10:34Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > I still want my money back from a Van Halen concert from about 1982 or so. Eddie Van Halen was so wasted 2/3rds of the way through the concert he made most of the last 6 songs unlistenable. The encore was 5 minutes of Eddie trying to play Eruption and the 3 other members doing basically an acoustic version of Pretty Woman while Eddie sat on some stairs too drunk to do anything else. The show then ended with an apology from Alex. I’ll take sober any day. When I saw this post, I wondered if this was a zombie thread in which I had posted because this was pretty much my own experience at a VH concert from this era. Worst concert I ever saw. :rolleyes: Musicians who partake after the show or on their days off for fun are one thing. Those who go onstage so wasted that it affects their performance, regardless of genre, are very much another. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/24 "2016-05-10T04:13:40Z")
And this is what I came here intending to say: Pharmacy technician if your mom and stepdad are big shots at the hospital. :smack: At my old job, we had a situation where we HAD to hire him (saying no was NOT an option) and he was coming to work massively wasted. Another technician pointed this out, and she was written up for being disrespectful to her co-workers! :mad: Eventually, he stole a bunch of drugs, and not even he could get away with that. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/25 "2016-05-10T04:23:18Z")
**Movie projectionist at art house where they serve alcohol.** You cannot get so plastered that you can’t work the machine, but you can get to the point where you’d probably blow a little over the limit. I never drank when I was working (handful of exceptions) but the other projectionists did. Thing was, employees got the beer on tap for free, and so the bartender gave it to the projectionists too, but I don’t like beer, and I couldn’t afford a mixed drink every night. Very rarely, the bartender would get an order wrong and mix something the waitresses knew I liked, and so they’d give it to me on the house. It just went down the drain otherwise. And once, when we had a print of _Reefer Madness_, which all the employees wanted to see, the owner kept the back room opened after closing for the employees, and I showed the movie for us. Open bar. I had three mixed drinks, all things I’d wanted to try but could never afford. This was followed by my one instance of driving drunk. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/26 "2016-05-10T04:25:11Z")
[Crime-lab chemist](http://loweringthebar.net/2016/05/crime-lab-chemist-high-while-testifying.html) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/27 "2016-05-10T04:27:11Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I was listening to a band, when I read a comment on youtube that one of the members was fired for always showing up drunk. I thought that was considered almost mandatory for a musician to show up to work either drunk or high (just so long as it doesn’t affect performance). > > Showing up at a job drunk or high to the point where it affects performance is one thing, but are there jobs where you can show up inebriated and it not be an issue? It’s a brave new world. Engineering was already “dry”, and the rest of the brewery went dry while I was working there. Before that, “barr-O” at morning and afternoon break included a free (pre-tax) drink. And some ot the workers were alcholoic, and permanently slightly pickled: they would have been unable to work if actually in withdrawal. Going back another 30 years, and the delivery staff were provided with / allowed one free drink at avery delivery point. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/28 "2016-05-10T05:09:17Z")
Wine taster? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/29 "2016-05-10T05:19:45Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve always heard the opposite. Because of the kinds of people attracted to music as a career, combined with the hedonistic lifestyle combined with the feelings of stage fright that a musician might feel, that many musicians went on stage and performed while stoned or high. When I go to concerts I constantly see people (usually other bands) serving hard alcohol to the other performers. The “kind of people attracted to music as a career”? That is, people who have musical talent & put a lot of work into learning how to play their instrument(s)? And sing and probably write songs. And, if they are not “stars”–deal with club owners, set up & break down their equipment, etc. Especially when young, some of these folks\* do\* indulge in some foolishness. But that’s mostly after the show. Or when they’re trying to write songs & think that emulating their favorite junkie singer-songwriter will let them write as well as he did. (It doesn’t work that way.) ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/30 "2016-05-10T06:33:52Z")
Being in the Grateful Dead? The '74 CSNY tour (or was it CSN?). ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/31 "2016-05-10T07:11:51Z")
Middle school teacher, to judge from my middle school days thirty-some years ago. Apparently in some places things haven’t changed much: [Union Contract: Teachers Can Be Caught in School Drunk Five Times and On Drugs Three Times Before Being Fired](http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/17596) ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/32 "2016-05-10T07:18:46Z")
Parent. Although it’s getting harder these days. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/33 "2016-05-10T08:17:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Mayor of Toronto. Or [Premier of Alberta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Klein#Memorable_moments_and_controversies) Old Ralphie not only yelled at the broken souls at the homeless shelter (while shit pants drunk himself) he was notorious for missing days at the legislature cause he was sleeping off the booze. 'Course that just makes him an everyman to lots of Albertans. This Albertan thinks he was a fuckin ass. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/34 "2016-05-10T08:24:26Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve always heard the opposite. Because of the kinds of people attracted to music as a career, combined with the hedonistic lifestyle combined with the feelings of stage fright that a musician might feel, that many musicians went on stage and performed while stoned or high. When I go to concerts I constantly see people (usually other bands) serving hard alcohol to the other performers. this is only espoused by a handful of people who equate “being talented” with “being entitled to treat everyone else like shit.” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/35 "2016-05-10T09:49:17Z")
Barber. I got my hair cut last week, and when I was getting into the chair we made eye contact for a second and both cracked up. We were both pleasantly stoned. He did a very nice job. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/36 "2016-05-10T11:04:08Z")
Hell, in some industries it’s encouraged! 😃 > [@](#): > > Perhaps its not surprising that the office of **Modern Drunkard magazine** is described by the L.A. Times as one where every hour is happy hour, with a large bar, a beer-stocked fridge, and a small staff encouraged to drink: “It’s barely 3 p.m., and Frank Kelly Rich, who edits the bimonthly homage to getting soused, is draining his gin and tonic and eyeing a whiskey bottle on the top shelf. Moments later, he’s drinking that as well.” > > Todd Haug, co-founder of **Beer Advocate magazine** , wrote in 2013, “We currently have seven full time employees and we’re all allowed and encouraged to drink beer as part of the job.” ([link](http://fortune.com/2015/04/12/drinking-on-the-job/)) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/37 "2016-05-10T11:24:36Z")
In advertising, the creative folks have leeway in how they spend their days, as long as they’re productive. Where my gf works there is a kegerator, people keep fifths in their desks, and clouds of smoke waft from the restrooms. Makes me wish I had some artistic skills. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/38 "2016-05-10T12:16:30Z")
Drunkenness wasn’t tolerated— one driver caught with an open beer was fired on the spot— but almost everyone at the pizza delivery chains I worked at was constantly high, and the manager was the biggest wake-and-bake stoner in the bunch. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/39 "2016-05-10T13:03:46Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > 2nd/graveyard shift babysitting a data center (aka my job). After 6pm, everyone leaves and I just read the dope and watch simpsons all afternoon. Very rarely do I ever have to ever go and reboot something. As long as you aren’t so drunk/high that you are totally incapacitated when those rare instances occur, you’d be fine. If you were working in my data center, and we found you were drunk or high, we’d probably give you a warning. Show up a second time that way, and you would be out of there. The chances of an emergency are low, but when (not if) one occurs, we need you at the top of your game. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449/40 "2016-05-10T13:15:04Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > SDMB moderator? > [@Colibri](#): > > It’s virtually a necessisisissity (hic). I hear the jackboots help with balance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-job-you-can-show-up-drunk-or-high-at-and-not-get-in-trouble/754449.md?page=3)