It appears our workplace boozing post touched a few hot buttons, especially those of BNET reader, Acrebel, who is dead set against allowing any alcohol in the workplace, and who lays out a pretty tight case against it:
I am utterly opposed to alcohol in the workplace, for the following reasons, based on 35 years in both the private and public (government) workforce:
- Drinkers often behave with reduced impulse control and their coworkers may be exposed, therefore, to heightened risks around bullying, harassment, sexual innuendo
- Drinkers often become incompetent (to degrees that increase with each drink) and either cannot perform their duties properly or, and this is even worse, believe they are performing well or making sound decisions when they are operating at less-than-optimum levels
- Drinkers can be hazardous to themselves and others within the workplace, particularly if any kind of machinery is operated
- Drinkers can be hazardous to other people outside the office, particularly if they are driving back to the office, to pick up the kids, to do the shopping or to go home
- Drinkers can themselves be at risk outside of the office, as they go home (for example, first from potential attack by others who recognise their impaired state (at railway or bus stations, or in dark shortcuts) and second, by not recognising when they’re safe as pedestrians in busy traffic)
- Drinkers often have other addictive behaviours, such as gambling, and these behaviours can be triggered by alcohol consumption, leading to over-expenditure, or even misappropriation of funds
- Staff who are alcoholics and are dry should not be exposed within their place of work to alcohol; the workplace should be a safe place for them (noting also that drinkers frequently pressure and bully non-drinkers about their abstinence by reference to being ‘babies’ or ‘party-poopers’, calling manhood into question and so on)
I also believe that there is a certain amount of duty-of-care that falls to employers. It is beholden on the employer to provide a safe working environment, and such safety CANNOT be assured if the employer is serving or permitting alcohol to be served, and/or tolerating drinking during working hours (including staff coming back from lunch having consumed alcohol).
I have no problem with people drinking responsibly in their own homes or in licensed establishments, but never in the workplace.
What’s your take? Do you agree with Acrebel?
