Alcohol in the workplace? | Page 2 | Vital Football

Alcohol in the workplace?

I used to work in the city (insurance) and on my first day at work went to the pub with another newbie. That was the 80s and there was definitely a drinking culture though it's calmer now with lots of companies having no alcohol policies
 
We dont have that in the uk. Seems an odd rule. How can the company be held accountable for bad decisions made by the employee when they go home. How they choose to go home once quaffing all the free booze should surely be their responsibility. If they commit a murder on the way home, are they liable for that too?

Not sure about “odd”. The reasoning is, that a workplace has provided alcohol. If people then drive and have an accident, there is blame apportioned to the workplace. They have to provide transport of some variety and do all they can to ensure employees do not drink drive. The burden of proof is on them to show they did everything they could.

If someone gets behind the wheel despite all the above, then they’d be on their own.

The murder connection is a bit of a long bow. Although I suppose some employers could be said to drive you to it 😁
 
In the mid 70s I worked for a large advertising agency in Holborn. By 4pm there were very few staff left who had not had a session either in the pubs or restaurants with clients. Happy days!
 
The most worrying instances of alcohol at work (or being under its influence arriving at work) are airline pilots about to fly scores of people across the world!
 
The most worrying instances of alcohol at work (or being under its influence arriving at work) are airline pilots about to fly scores of people across the world!

Only if they disengage the autopilot.

I'd be more worried about pilots suffering with their mental health
 
Youve not explained WHY the blame is apportioned to the company.

If a bar supplies alcohol, are they liable if prople decide to drive home too? Why is it any different if a company provides it?

At the end of the day its the person that chooses to break the law and put lives at risk. When i go out in london i get a taxi home from the station. If i drive, youre saying its the companies fault? I dont get it.
 
Somebody earlier mentioned the phrase “operating machinery”, and tbh, most replies appear to have come from office/desk based employees.

As an apprentice Toolmaker in the early 90s we finished at 1:30 on a Friday. Everybody piled round the pub. Not only from our workshop, but from the other engineering firms based on the same estate. Us apprentices used to have a pint or two, then go back for overtime at 2pm to sweep up, oil up machines, collect time sheets, empty swarf bins etc. Quite often at 3ish a few of the skilled blokes would pile back in, hang about on the clock for an hour or two then clear off home. Christ knows how much they had drank, but they were all driving too.....

Fast forward a few years, at my new place (where I still work now) things are a lot more professional, but there are stories of similar things happening back in the 70s/80s. In fact, probably around 2007ish for a year or 2 me and one of the electricians used to go to the local at lunch on a Friday. Just a pint and a few games of pool. We took a mouthy “jack the lad” apprentice with us one week. He sank 3 pints of Stella in 40 minutes, then fell asleep on his desk in the afternoon.
 
In Canada it's also the law that the bar is responsible for serving alcohol if someone then drives and causes an accident or otherwise causes someone injury. It's called liquor law. I've never understood it.
 
I used to work in the city (insurance) and on my first day at work went to the pub with another newbie. That was the 80s and there was definitely a drinking culture though it's calmer now with lots of companies having no alcohol policies
Those days ended a few years ago, mainly as Lloyd's and the Market had to clean up their act (both with the drinking culture and the sexism). Lloyd's staff not allowed any alcohol at all during the working day and many other Companies and Brokers are dry. You're not allowed into Lloyd's if you've had a drink, you'll be refused entry.

Leadenhall Market and other bars rammed on a Friday afternoon though.
 
Youve not explained WHY the blame is apportioned to the company.

If a bar supplies alcohol, are they liable if prople decide to drive home too? Why is it any different if a company provides it?

At a guess, maybe there's a difference between laying on the alcohol for free (I'm assuming in the situation OSK is describing, the company wouldn't be charging their employees for the drinks) and selling it, as a bar does? A bar selling alcohol is going about its normal business, a company laying on free alcohol when it's nothing to do with their line of business is potentially encouraging people to drink, with the consequences that can have.

Not saying I'd agree with it in any way (if that is the reasoning behind it), just trying to think of why it may be that way.

None of which helps to explain Colburn's description of the situation in Canada, which makes me wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to run a bar in Canada.
 
At a guess, maybe there's a difference between laying on the alcohol for free (I'm assuming in the situation OSK is describing, the company wouldn't be charging their employees for the drinks) and selling it, as a bar does? A bar selling alcohol is going about its normal business, a company laying on free alcohol when it's nothing to do with their line of business is potentially encouraging people to drink, with the consequences that can have.

Not saying I'd agree with it in any way (if that is the reasoning behind it), just trying to think of why it may be that way.

None of which helps to explain Colburn's description of the situation in Canada, which makes me wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to run a bar in Canada.
A taxi firm maybe could open bars in Canada?
 
Some of my most memorable times as an undergraduate were when the lecturers would join us in the college bars. Learned more then than in many seminars. Now, I would not go to a bar with my students, and I would not serve them alcohol at home for a host of liability issues.
 
I joined banking in 2008, and I missed all of the 'glory years' that my colleagues tell me of, where there was a definite party culture in the boom years. Thursday nights, friday - from lunch - no work was done. So I am told.

My wife worked in banking since 2001, and she tells me of going for multiple pub lunches with her managers etc. But all of that stopped in 2008 as banks were taken over by the govt. Now it's very rare to go out for a pub lunch. At most places we struggle to even arrange a once weekly lunchtime meet up to leon or something tbh. With everyone on their own hectic schedule, it just doesnt happen as often now.

When out with the boss for lunch, I always go with the mantra of 'drink only if your manager does'.

Where I work we wouldn't be tested, we dont operate any sort of machinery etc so no risk to people. And I don't think anyone would sack us for having had a couple of beers as long as it wasn't noticeable in our work. Ultimately we're trusted to do our own work and manage our own time. But that said, i just dont really see anyone having lunchtime beers really.

Then again I work in IT, and there's a huge amount of people from an Indian/Sri Lankan background in all of the places i've worked previously. They just don't tend to have the same drinking culture.

The last contract I recently had, at a small trendy challenger bank in Covent Garden filled with young 20-30 somethings, the management had a fridge of beer/wine stocked up which opened on a Friday afternoon at 4. You were allowed, or even encouraged to have a beer on the Friday afternoon to socialise, they even put on 'organised fun' events like quizes etc. To be honest, I preferred to go home and get out to my local for the evening with my mates, the commute was a bitch so I didn't fancy staying after 4 on a Friday or i'd be home quite late. And I am not about that on a Friday!

I am more likely to drink if i meet a friend for lunch, than if i go out with a colleague for lunch. Gordon Ramsay says, never get drunk in front of your staff/colleagues. I think lots of people agree with that mantra these days too.

To be honest, people are so busy these days, they cant usually afford to have a couple of beers at lunch, and then get fuck all done the rest of the day, and make a mess of a couple of conference calls with the CEO because i want an afternoon snooze.

I'd personally rather work through lunch and get home to spend time with the kids/go pub earlier.
That's pretty much my recollection of the City.

Brokers (of all types) would say "drinking is part of my job" - as they took Dealers out for lunch.
A bit too often "lunch" would be minimal.

A few times, I saw FX Dealers in the afternoon loudly over-trading (i.e. doing "large size" ) for no better reason than they could.

I think alcohol may be more after work now.

I have no idea whether "in house" lunches still have alcohol - but they tended to be less OTT anyway.
 
This is why all building sites and road works stop for 2 weeks at Christmas. To dangerous to work after a liquid lunch.
 
How far back do you want to go? BR social clubs in almost every station served booze to railmen on split shifts. All those pubs on every corner did not just serve in the evenings. I remember working delivering soft drinks to pubs in the early 70s and the game was to tear up the round to end in a pub with a friendly landlord where a couple of pints would be served gratis. In Leeds all the Schweppes drivers raced round on Friday to finish early and dropped off the crates and empties on Gelderd Road. They would then drive in convoy to the Kings Arms in Holbeck for a piss up and sing song before fol;lowing crocodile fashion back to the depot to clock off, working by the hour for Manpower that suited me just fine.

Nobby you need to watch Gideon of Scotland Yard, a film made in 1958 and depicting a day in the working life of a Scotland Yard Inspector. Every drawer contains a bottle of scotch, a packet of fags and a pipe and I challenge you to find a 5 minute sequence without drink being taken at home, on the job and in the office. Worth noting that Jack Hawkins, who played the leading role probably lived that lifestyle. He died just short of his 63rd birthday.
 
As an ex air traffic controller I can honestly say that the three towers I worked in were absolutely alcohol free and in the main drug free also, with random drug tests carried out as well.
That's not to say that following a late shift heading to a bar was often the norm, fortunately I can't recall a late shift followed by an early shift which was just as well allowing plenty of time to recover if need be.
 
My (long dead) uncle was a traffic controller at Heathrow back in the 60's, I can only remember him pissed. As a kid I can remember asking why was "uncle" always asleep on the settee, only to be told "he's been working hard all night and needed to sleep". Bloody hell, thinking back he must have been my sub conscious role model which I long aspired to :yes: Great bloke, muchly missed - should have more like him (bollocks to this current no drinking culture).

As Humphrey Bogart said“ - Never trust a man who does not drink”