I worked in the wine industry - you were sort of expected to have a drink at a business lunch, but only one. And getting drunk at any company function was even more frowned upon than in a normal company… you’re supposed to know better.
I had a short job in an office where the boss provided a modest supply of liquor, on the understanding that it was to be enjoyed on rare occasions. In 2001 he announced that the company’s liability insurer had told him that the booze had to go, at least if he wanted to continue buying inexpensive coverage from them. That was the end of our office liquor cabinet.
American productivity was a lot lower then.
I’m going to be the contrary voice here, but I work at a dot com, and our office has two kegerators and a soda vending machine full of beer cans. People frequently have a single drink at lunch, maybe two, if we go out.
Employees are just trusted to not drink too much, or too early. If you grabbed a beer and went back to your desk with it, that would definitely be frowned upon. Generally, the kegerators only got used after 4:00 PM and mostly on Fridays. But they’re turned on and ready 24/7.
I work with a lot of beeries (I guess? What’s the term for foodies who are obsessed with beer?), so going out for lunch and trying a new beer is a pretty common thing for some groups in the company.
Ironically, despite offering free beer 24/7, the company charges $.35/can for soda. Go figure.
There has always been a double standard there, and it’s directly related to safety. When I was working in Silicon Valley, drinking on the job was de rigeur for sales people. At the same time, though, a production worker would be fired on the spot for it, just like I fired one of the rework guys for intentionally working without eye protection. Drinking around manufacturing equipment and chemicals is dangerous.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:45, topic:612269”]
There has always been a double standard there, and it’s directly related to safety.
[/QUOTE]
Probably a poor (or inaccurate) choice of words on my part. I was working at a consumer products company…we had a plant, and I visited the plant regularly, but the plant made hair-care products, and I worked in market research. The only safety issue related to equipment at my job would have been sending inappropriate e-mails while plotzed. 
(And, yes, in 1989, we did have e-mail, though it was internal only.)
Yeah, there were still plenty of smokers in 1991. But no alcohol in the building. Our most senior copy editor was a character. Her father had been managing editor decades back and she was an old hand. We would put the afternoon edition to bed at 10 a.m., and she would go out for her lunch, which consisted mostly of Manhattans, and would return in the afternoon very loosened up to write the next days lead editorial. We all missed her when she retired. She was the only one who would intervene when our boss was being an asshole.
I remember those drink-intensive lunches, and happy hours and Friday beer bashes. I started working at Atari in 1982 and it was expected that we drink at lunch. The company would sponsor parties with bands and beer and wine and all kinds of stuff. People smoked pot on the roof of the manufacturing building and snorted coke in the bathrooms. Ah, the good old days :dubious:
I think the change in attitudes is due to a combination of drunk driving crackdowns plus the liability of the company for the actions of drunk employees. It’s pretty much a certainty that if you’re attending what could be construed as a work-related event and you get shitfaced and kill somebody, there will be big-dollar lawsuits.
No company wants that kind of liability, so they started making rules against it. Although the company policy may have been overlooked or unevenly enforced, it certainly has discouraged people from drinking (and smoking and snorting) in a work setting.
I have no cite, but I recall that at Christmas (or holiday in general) parties, the employer was liable if an employee or anyone attending the party drove home and got in trouble. I don’t know if that is true.
I started working for a Fortune 500 in 1988 and the older guys would have two drinks at lunch time still. It was a company that sold liquor. They’d also go to strip joints and they caused a scandal when they fired one of the secretaries (they were still called secretaries) who was discovered stripping in the evenings at their favorite high class strip joint.
Interesting discussion. A datapoint - in the mid-1980s, the director of the non-profit I worked for in DC had a bar, a la “Mad Men”, in his office. I thought it was weird. Of course, this was the same guy who would say in public “the difference between a for-profit and a non-profit is that when you’re a non-profit, you don’t give the money you make to your shareholders.” I guess he was a throwback, in many ways.
I don;t think it ever was that prevelant. My Uncle worked on Madison ave, and he said anyone drinking at their desk during work hours was considered a “lush”. But yes, after hours and during lunch, far more than today.
nm
My first job out of college had a semi-open bar, discreetly hidable if upper management was coming through. I was there for a little over a year and no subsequent job tolerated booze on the premises.
Slate had a recent article on the dos and don’ts of morning drinking (Wear a morning jacket and tie, don’t just drink leftovers from the previous night, try to re-create the atmosphere of a Thin Man movie, etc.). They hedged their bets with moral convention by saying not to do it more than once a year.
I don’t believe that is true in most states even today. Bars and for profit alcohol sellers are liable for customers’ actions afterwards, but social hosts are generally not. NJ comes to mind as an exception. (as usual) I will have to check for a cite.
I’ve mostly worked at a variety of Silicon Valley/Alley/Rt128 tech companies and consulting firms. They tend to have a bit of a drinking culture, although typically not during the day. Although the tech companies did frequently have “all hands” meetings about once a month where beer would be served during office hours. And there is currently a bottle of Kettle One in my current employer’s freezer along with some beers in the fridge.
Consulting firms tend to be big on after work drinks and happy hours. I recall many a night out until 4am at the Hotel Gansevoort or some Midtown strip club on some Managing Director’s tab.
These companies tend to follow the “Accenture” model where they hire a bunch of young people right out of school, work them really hard and ply them with beer.
Carlsberg is holding the fort: Carlsberg brewery workers strike in Denmark after bosses tell staff they can only drink at lunchtime.
You know what killed corporate drinking?
Girl Drink Drunks, that’s what.
My dad started as a young exec at a big time insurance agency in the early 60’s. I haven’t asked him about what the booze atmosphere was like but I remember that a certain client would send a case of hard booze to every executive in the office for christmas. We don’t drink in my immediate family (the result of extensive drinking in the extended family) so by the late 80’s our crawlspace was packed with cases of booze: Jim Beam, Seagrams, Beefeaters, J&B, etc… We’ve managed to get rid of most of it since A) dad retired, and B) mom realized that a bottle of booze made a great impromptu gift for Christmas.
IIRC, his policy was if you drink with your customers at lunch, then you don’t call on any customers during the afternoon. He realized that there are some customers that it was difficult to do business without drinking, but he didn’t want any of his salesmen calling on customers when they were drunk.
Here is a story from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson#Early_life_and_career
Back in days of old, when men wore hats and commuted by train to the city from the suburbs, they didn’t worry about driving a car home to Yonkers on the highway, half-lit. For all I know, this is still the custom in the bigger cities, but it sounds dated and Playboy-ish.
Myself, the 3 o’clock slump is enervating enough, a drink at lunch would make me nod out during afternoon meetings.