31–40 of 143 posts
Nope, absolutely no chance at all that an office full of mature adults can enjoy a beer here or there throughout the week without someone getting sexually harassed and their life ruined.
The better question is: why would you have people on staff who you wouldn't trust to be mature enough to handle the situation?
I'm a mature, responsible, smart, amazing, blahblahblah person much of the time. And then other times I'm not, and my failures are largely non-malicious -- just stupid. I'd guess the same is true of all of us.
Is 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…
Of course this is it. I'm teetotal and I have never found it alarming that my fellow hackers love a beer. There are too many aggressive proselytiser factions in the tech community. Why can't we accept that we are all different and make allowances for that. Of course as a white, British, heterosexual, able-bodied, 20-something male, my opinion is given a -∞ weighting.
I've worked in offices where there's been alcohol in the fridge at times, it was always for a Friday and only acceptable after 4pm (with a finish at around 6pm most people aren't going past one beer). It's not an essential, and I don't think a company should provide it as a perk, why not pay for your team to hit a bar once every now and again, get out of the office.
I think if somebody wants to have beer in their office, they should be free to do so. If they want to smoke in their office, the same (not sure if this is still legal, though) - I just would like to know in advance, because I wouldn't like to work there. But other people might.
Also, this seems to suggest beer leads to rape/harassment. So as an implication, rape/harassment in bars are fine, just not in the office? Doesn't make much sense imo.
Most 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"…
And we don't have bottles. We have a keg.
Honestly, the free soda is a much more legitimate issue than the free beer. The beer has caused no problems and I don't know of anybody who overconsumes it. The soda, though, is unhealthy and far too easy to overconsume. I've been guilty of that myself.
On a more serious note, I don't get the point of this post.
Beer and pizza being listed in job adverts? Yeah, that's a sign that the job itself isn't actually attractive enough to draw people in. Second, I for one wouldn't want to work anywhere that had a continuous supply of beer and pizza. Maybe as a friday afternoon event.
Beer and sexism? I don't see it. For one, women drink beer too. Although to be honest, not everyone's into beer; "drinks" would be a better term. Good wine, for example.
Beer and immature, juvenile 'frat boy' behaviour? Only if you're working with immature, juvenile frat boys. We have beer at the office (I work offsite though, curse you consultancy!), but nobody drinks during the week days, and most people just want to go home at 5 on fridays. Maybe they have a beer at 4. But most just want to go home to their families and pasttimes.
It really depends on a lot of factors, and whether your job is a place where you go to work, or something that doubles as your entire social life. or something.
If people, as hinted at in the article, drink tons of beer during their working hours, then those people have a problem, imho. Who here does? Also, does the author have experience working in a place that serves beer during working hours? Or people that become complete tards when they've had a couple?
Is 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…
Are you serious?
Talk to just about any attorney, and it won't take him or her more than a minute to rattle off a laundry list of scenarios that could literally turn your business upside down in an instant. Your question, "Is the subtext here about hostile frat culture, or, worse, about harassment?" suggests that you have some idea of what can go wrong but frankly, a hostile work environment and harassment claims are just the tip of the iceberg.
If you think defenses like "nobody seemed drunk", "nobody was drinking whole bottles", "we always drank responsibly" or "it was Friday" are going to protect you, you're wrong. The involvement of any amount of alcohol in a work-related "incident" will leave your company vulnerable.