Don't fix what ain't broke?
Beer causing problems in the office is a personnel problem, not a "beer in the office problem".
Beer
21–30 of 143 posts
Re: Beer
#22Most programming is nothing like operating heavy machinery or heart surgery, there's no reason not to have beer on tap. Working conditions have been improving greatly over the last century. I for one welcome a bit of pampering.
Small doses of alcohol actually improve mood and cognitive performance[1]. Athletic too but that's less relevant.
If some people like it, let them have it. What happened to "live and let live"? If some people like more frat-like atmosphere, why not let them gravitate towards those places?
Re: Beer
#23We have a beer fridge in the office. If we’re hosting a barbecue event in Summer or some other kind of social we can offer them out. We’re free to take them if we want. Very, very rarely does that happen – and we’re a hosting company with software and hardware folks, aged 20-40 on average, the kind of people demographically some might expect to be all for beer at work.
Maybe after a hard day, a beer happens. But never, ever, ever during.
Frankly, If you think you can work and drink, you’re mixing business with pleasure. Never a good call.
Having a drink at work at the end of the day is a nice option to have, especially if there’s something to be thankful for (we fixed the issue, so-and-so is having a baby etc). It’s a case of knowing when it’s appropriate, and when it isn’t. If you don’t know when it’s appropriate to have a casual beer your sensibilities are way off. Worse, if you think it’s ok to be flat-out drunk in the office then you probably shouldn’t have a job at all.
It’s not beer’s fault. Nobody forces you to drink it, either in small or large doses.
Re: Beer
#24Maybe it's because i'm european and not living in the US, but this kegerator in the office thing looks like something that gets old fast. The first weeks it may sound fun, beer in the office, branded beer glasses,etc... but i don't understand how someone could care as the novelty wears of. And i hope i don't need to comment on that "devs need beer" thing, c'mon, childish stuff. Does a subset of the employee likes bee…
Alcohol makes me sleepy and lose the ability to concentrate. I have no idea why people enjoy drinking when they're trying to get stuff done. Especially if any of that "stuff" requires significant brain power.
Re: Beer
#25Is the subtext here about hostile frat culture, or, worse, about harassment? That's what I think it is. Like a lot of things, I think beer is fine if you're adult about it. We've got quite a lot of beer in our Chicago office (we haul crates from Russian River and Three Floyds and Jolly Pumpkin). But nobody drinks while they work, and nobody drinks whole bottles; we open a bottle and a bunch of people taste. If it's F…
> Like a lot of things, I think beer is fine if you're adult about it.
There are a very long list of things that are typically prohibited at work that would be fine "if you're an adult about it." There's a crossover point at which the population of workers becomes large enough that it is difficult or impossible to impose the "be an adult" requirement. The arbiters of responsibility cannot be within reach of all behavior, and thus we mitigate the opportunity for irresponsibly by removing factors that contribute to irresponsible behavior.
I'm of mixed opinion on it. I don't like the idea of saying "this is fine for one organization, but not for another", but that's kind of the reality. If the focus of your business is building a business, you have to sit down and evaluate how the presence of alcohol in the workplace serves that goal (or detracts from it). Yes, it may be a very valuable perk to some employees, but it also has the potential to be a big problem. Even moderate consumption (I know you're not advocating this) is known to alter judgement and lower inhibition.
Re: Beer
#26[deleted]
Re: Beer
#27Is the subtext here about hostile frat culture, or, worse, about harassment? That's what I think it is. Like a lot of things, I think beer is fine if you're adult about it. We've got quite a lot of beer in our Chicago office (we haul crates from Russian River and Three Floyds and Jolly Pumpkin). But nobody drinks while they work, and nobody drinks whole bottles; we open a bottle and a bunch of people taste. If it's F…
Perhaps there's a difference in culture between bottles versus kegs? The former suggests restraint, the latter doesn't?
I agree with this. And as a side note, it brings me back to the days where my student house would come together to try and finish a torpedo keg. We always failed our mission. But I believe we came out the other end closer friends
Re: Beer
#28Is the subtext here about hostile frat culture, or, worse, about harassment? That's what I think it is. Like a lot of things, I think beer is fine if you're adult about it. We've got quite a lot of beer in our Chicago office (we haul crates from Russian River and Three Floyds and Jolly Pumpkin). But nobody drinks while they work, and nobody drinks whole bottles; we open a bottle and a bunch of people taste. If it's F…
I think the difference here is what you're describing is a group of beer nerds who happen to work together (Russian River in Chicago, that takes effort) vs a culture of slamming miller lite all day long while "working"
Re: Beer
#29Beer in the office is not something anybody needs and yes it requires a level of responsibility about how you use it, I would argue the same thing is true of having free soda in terms of the long term health of people in the office. I'm a guy and I could care less about if there is beer or not in the office. If anything it's a signal that the company is trying to look cool. It doesn't mean that the company is in fact…
Sure, it's not necessarily sexist (although it may happen to appeal to more women than men in job adverts).
But, alcohol and soda are not on a par - only one impairs your ability to think, act and discuss properly[1].
[1] yeah yeah tolerances, but ultimately it's wearing down peoples inhibitions - we're definitely more likely to be rude (or accidentally rude) when drunk.
Re: Beer
#30I'm a student so take it with a grain of salt, but when I have precisely 1 beer, I tend to be a little more relaxed and program better. That being said, I wouldn't want to have beer constantly available, especially at work.
It's not as bad as you think. I work at a place with a fridge full of craft beers but the culture is really in place that we do beers late Friday afternoons for a time when the company can all hangout and talk.
I've also worked at a place full of Russians where my boss would randomly show up at 11am and ask if I wanted to help drink cognac with him.