Booze and the Working Girl
Let me preface this blog entry with the statement that I partake in the powers and joys of alcohol and imbibe as often as possible, where practical, and safe. However, I suspect sometimes that to get ahead at my company, one must drink. And I don’t mean drink at home or social events or parties. I mean drink at work.
In my younger years, I thought it was very liberating to work for a company that had “happy hours” every time we hit our weekly sales goal. We still have those happy hours, although not weekly. But what is disturbing is all of the alcohol floating around the office at any give time, day or night.
Open any fridge on any of the four floors at my office today, and you will find a lovely selection of beer. Most likely left over from a party last week. I can lead you to probably any type of alcohol you want. Tequila? One of the VPs keeps some really good stuff in his drawer and shares frequently. Vodka martinis? The training department. (I must confess I enjoyed that one once.) Beer? All over. You can walk by a person’s desk at 3pm on some days and see them working on their computer, making sales calls on the phone, and drinking a beer at the same time. Somebody’s birthday? A cooler at the desk starting as early as 9am. And if a division is doing really well or celebrating anything, you will hear the lovely sound of a blender at a desk mixing up margaritas at 10am. One manager had so many beverage and other items that she needed to take over two addition cubicles just for the overhead compartments, where she kept her booze collection and the appropriate barware.
I am a firm believer that if you don’t like something and can’t change it, leave. I would never leave my company because of its alcoholic tendencies. But why does it bother me? Because I can see all of the financial liabilities associated with this type of behavior? Because I think it is disrespectful to all of the non-drinkers (half the office) that this is the way the company chooses to celebrate? I am afraid that the main reason this bothers me, is that by having the attitude I do…I have become a prude.
Filed under: Place d'employ
[…] run down to your favorite local bar and exercise your constitutional right to drink like an adult, prudes be damned. (Actually I like the Sterkworks blog, she just happened to post on the wrong day.) […]