It's interesting that you cite factory or construction workers. I'm a first-generation college graduate, who grew up around skilled (and unskilled) labor. I've never heard of this being prevalent, even from old-timers discussing how things used to be way back when. Quitting time is one thing... but the last environment on earth in which you'd want to drink alcohol is around power tools or heavy machinery!
My own first thought was "Mad Men"'s portrayal of privileged office workers in the mid-20th century.
Of course, my second thought was my own office in the present day. Has this culture ever really gone away? I work for a tech startup, and there's a fully-stocked beer fridge and cocktail bar setup at all times. They're one of the first things that recruiters show off when I go on interviews to other similar companies.
Every single company event, or small group outing, basically revolves around alcohol. I'm not a teetotaler, but I am a parent in my 40's who has kinda lost interest in drinking, and I'm starting to feel alienated by that part of the industry's culture. I don't want to feel like I have accept the beer you're offering me in order to fit in with a team, or give up my evening with my family to go watch you stand in a circle and get shit-faced in front of your co-workers.
Lots of comments in here disregarding the author's take, but there is a pervasive alcohol culture in most US workplaces.
One place I worked at did champagne for birthdays and major celebrations. All outings after work were at a bar.
Another place I was at was basically a frat house. Lots of young folks fresh out of college and drinking was practically expected. Interviews took place at bars in the early days. Owner used to come by my desk on a Friday afternoon with a bottle of wine, pour me a glass and tell me to stop working and have a drink.
Staff parties were drinking fueled raves. Socializing and other official events were centered around drinking. It was even a selling point of working for the place that the fridge was always stocked with alcohol. Some people kept a special bottle of whisky in their desk.
I'm no prude...I enjoy the occasional drink of all varieties. One glass (max two) of <insert alcoholic beverage here> and I'm good.
But the drinking culture screams at you that you should drink all the time, drink more and be happy to have a chance to drink. It screams that you should care about brewing processes and types of alcohol.
It's not a problem just in tech, but tech workforces revel in it. I can't say that if I didn't drink it wouldn't stop my advancing through career ladders, being a "good drinking buddy" did play a non zero role into the speed of advancement and size of bonuses in some form when I directly compared my trajectory to others who didn't take part in the drinking sessions.
It's also not just a work problem...humanity as a whole defaults to drinking. I was part of it through my college years and the first few years of working in tech. I started backing away from drinking as much and going to fewer bar outings for my own personal fitness reasons, and I felt the pressure "what you're leaving already? You're not going to have another? Drink faster".
For all of you who say you've never pressured anyone about it, haven't seen it, or don't feel it, there are 10 more people who do the exact opposite. No one held me down and forced me to drink, and no one applied more pressure that I couldn't gracefully handle as someone secure in themselves and their choices can do, but there is a non zero amount of work to be done that becomes mildly annoying for me. For others who cave easily to pressure but want to break out they feel it more I'm sure.
For anyone struggling to break out of the drinking cycle here are some things I've found after years of trying to drop it:
* Set yourself a limit and stick to it. Make it known. Mine is a two drink max. Even one will do. If you so choose zero is fine too.
* The pressure can feel immense, but hold your ground.
* Having no drink in front of you or an empty glass is a trigger for someone to ask you about it and try to pressure you into another one. Keep a glass a little full to help avoid that.
* Keep a separate tab from everyone else. I've found that having one shared tab is like throwing fuel on the fire for everyone to drink more. Especially in a company outing there is a chance that the company will pay for it making everyone go crazy with consumption.
* If someone buys you a drink that you didn't ask for feel free to not drink it and pass it onto someone else who is enthusiastic about drinking it. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do.
EDIT: One last thing -- I don't think we should remove people from being able to drink at work events, or remove it as part of the culture. Instead just raising the idea and making it more normalized that there are people who want to spend time with you, but don't want to drink just to spend time with you.
It's possible I'm being naive as to what my coworkers are up to, but the "Man Men", 3 martini lunch culture has certainly gone away.
It's fair to complain that a company's social events revolve around alcohol, but, explicitly, when people talk about "company culture" and "good fit", internal company norms around alcohol are a huge part of it. There are workplaces that are basically a continuation of college frat houses, down to the levels of sexual harassment that make Uber look hospitable. There are also workplaces where everyone goes leaves at 5pm on the dot to get home to be with their partner/kids, and the Christmas party is a potluck with very limited amounts of wine.
Pick your poison. The recruiter is there to, well, recruit you, and they can't know how a given candidate feels about alcohol consumption, so if they too-gleefully show off their bar - push back! Ask how much people actually drink - there's a difference between between zero and one beer after work with coworkers (I just drink a la croix/talking rain while my coworker who does drink, drinks a beer), vs drinking liquor to excess.
IMO, The tech industry has a huge alcohol problem in general.
It's not uncommon for even largeish companies to have beer kegs and frequent happy hours.
Just recently we had a team event that revolved around alcohol, a mixology class. Although attendance wasn't mandatory, it wasn't exactly optional either. So there was a lot of awkwardness considering a number of people on our team were non-drinking muslims, 1 person was pregnant, and several others just don't drink.
This creates an exclusionary sort of culture, and as one of my coworkers said it "I don't really want to be forced to go to the bar with my middle aged male colleagues". If you think about it, it does seem a bit creepy.
Other industries have moved on from this sort of model. Sure, there still can be alcohol at events and the occasional BBQ with beer or happy hour, but they have strict policies about returning to work after consuming alcohol, and alcohol is not the main focus of the event.
I take full advantage of the beer keg at our office, but if it went away I certainly wouldn't be upset. I'd just do what I used to do, and go to the bar after work with coworkers who want to go.
We recently rented an office at a WeWork location. I was first surprised to find that beer was available on tap, and then that it was limited to four beers per day---presumably due to abuse in the past. I wasn't actually at that office, so I can't comment on the atmosphere, but this seems to me to be encourage a frat-boy / heavy drinking culture. I've seen similar in certain parts of start-up land. As something who doesn't like alcohol I do find this off-putting, and if I was looking for a job I would stay away from places that advertised easy availability of alcohol as a perk.
I don't think this the culture of all of tech. Indeed tech is too big to have one culture. But it is in my experience the culture of part of it.
In my experience working in the Bay Area, this is hardly limited to startups. I worked at over a dozen places if not more, from startups to the giant technology companies, and all but one had massive amounts of alcohol on premises and drank in the office. I've been offered drink in interviews that to me said implicitly: either drink this or you're definitely not getting the job. I've seen coworkers leave work drunk and drive. I've had friends who are recovering from cancer and shouldn't be drinking admit to me that they felt pressured.
It's not an issue of whether there is a drinking problem, but how big is the drinking problem? In my experience, it's everywhere, at least in the Bay Area. I'm not sure about other areas, but I doubt they're much different. It's hardly a wonder that frat culture and brogrammers exist with this amount of drinking, nor is it a wonder that so many things are built to sub par standards, often by sub par people.
It really wouldn't be that big of a deal if people were mature and tolerant of others who don't drink, not like the asshole bosses described in the article. There is a wide variety of factors why one might not drink, many of which one may not want to share: alcoholism, religion, health, doesn't like the taste, doesn't want to get retarded, needs to drive after, still needs to do work (yes this comes up often), etc. Especially for recovering alcoholics, no job is worth drinking over. Stupid assholes in charge, don't understand that and then they wonder why their company is failing when they're doing their best to keep away qualified workers.
As an Australian who worked in the US for a startup back in 2014/2015 pre-COVID, I can attest to the different attitude towards drinking. Australia is known for its drinking habits as well, but the US and, in particular, the tech industry is different. The startup I worked for had continually restocked beer kegs (three different types of craft beer) it was normal for people to drink during lunch, stay back late and write some code, have some more beer. Sometimes we'd go to a hip bar or restaurant, we'd order pitchers of craft beer. Drinking was just so constant and normal, it was like drinking coffee, a part of the startup routine.
It's the same story at companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, drink fridges with soft drink, juices and then beer/cider/wine, it's such a strange thing when you think about it workplaces offering alcohol to their employees, allowing them to self-moderate their consumption. In Australia the concept of workplace provided drinks that are always there isn't a common thing, even in our startup scene. The closest I've witnessed is Friday drinks, which is where you and your coworkers finish a little early and have a drink to celebrate the week or milestone. Even then, people would have to go out and get the beer/wine to drink, it wasn't just there ready to go.
I wonder if any research has been done into the tech industry and its relationship with alcohol? Because I often saw the casual attitude to drinking as exclusive, especially to those who are recovering from addiction or have had complications with alcohol in the past. Imagine being an ex-alcoholic and getting a job for a modern day tech startup? Surrounded by young twenty-somethings who casually will down a few glasses of IPA and go home to hacking on their MacBook Pros until the early morning like it's nothing.
I don't see anything wrong with solitary drinking, unless you're doing it to deal with stress or problems. But, if you're like me (who works 100% remote now), I enjoy a good glass of scotch or a beer every now and then in the evening, even if my wife isn't drinking or we're not entertaining.
I totally agree with your description of U.S. drinking culture, and much of your reasoning about it. I still think at this point that workplace drinking is a bit over the line, though.
>Most of them matured out of it after a year or two.
Some of them, however, probably became alcoholic. It's a terrible disease I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I started a new job a few months ago after floating around startups for a few years. One thing I'm surprisingly happiest about is that the company doesn't stock alcohol in the kitchens.
We have beer o'clock sometimes, and occasionally the team gets drinks together, but alcohol is not an omnipresent part of everyday office life. The constant drinking (a lot of which was high-stress-commiseration drinking) I saw at startups was so normalized that this was honestly a cultural shock to me.
Having a beer is I engrained in American work culture
Ummm... no, it's not.
Having had dozens of jobs in five industries over the decades, I've never worked for one where drinking on company time isn't a fireable offense.
The only exceptions were at the company Christmas parties, and overnight DJ's who were tolerated doing lines of coke off of CD cases. But that's another problem altogether.
I think the part that's not talked about is how much more risky it feels in 2023 to drink with co-workers than it did 10 or 20 years ago. Am I just getting old?
Drinking culture has largely changed for the better and I think workplaces are safer than they used to be. But I also think you'd have to be an idiot (or risk-blind) to get loose at company events like a lot of people used to do.
It's something that started as a sign that "we're cool and edgy and different", and gradually become a cultural shibboleth for startup people.
Having worked at dry offices, offices that had alcohol available at all times, and ones that did weekly TGIFs or whatever, I can't say I favor the trend. Invariably, it becomes a problem, and then people start moaning about how the culture is changing because the alcohol is disappearing. It's also alienating for a lot of otherwise good people (some people are alcoholics!)
It's a workplace, not a frat house. If you need a drink, finish your work, and go out and enjoy your life. But then, I feel the same way about office meals (I'd prefer you just paid me a higher salary, and I'll buy my own food, thanks), so I'm not a "team player".
I've noticed the prevalence of alcohol in the tech workplace has increased in the last few decades. In the 80s, in Silicon Valley, a Friday beer bash was not unusual, but it wasn't every Friday, and alcohol wasn't offered at other times. Back then, for me as a young person, that seemed very cool and generous. It was definitely not routine among employers generally.
Lately, I've been to lots of meetups at tech companies in SF, and beer on tap seems to be freely available at all times at every location I've visited. In some cases, the tap is right smack in the middle of the main work area.
I have no problem at all with people who use alcohol or other drugs responsibly, but it's hard to see how providing alcohol in the workplace is skillful or wise. Possibly you're promoting camaraderie, but at what cost to clarity and wholesome connection and the long term of health of employees?
It would be interesting to do a study and determine whether freely available alcohol increases productivity or other measures of employee or customer well-being, and whether it and has any health effects. I'm thinking it has to be a net negative, but I'd like to see real data.
Times have changed on campus too. At nearly all colloquia I attend, there are snacks and beverages. I don't remember that ever being offered when I was a student in the 70s - no free food then.
So, we seem to be living in an increasingly generous world. People naturally want to give and that impulse is finding new expression. Food and drink are routinely offered. I expect free housing will be soon be offered in some places. Open source software is readily available. Knowledge on the web is freely offered. This is great! It's changing everything! The pitfall is that we're also being generous in ways that may work to undermine our collective well being.
The tech industry is rife with drinking culture and alcoholism in general. I do not drink, and I frequently feel isolated as a result, both at business and social gatherings. 30+ year old colleagues will demand a reason for why I don't drink, as if I'm the one engaging in exclusionary behavior :(
I really think we should get rid of work-related drinking culture altogether. People should not be routinely encouraged to get tipsy or intoxicated around coworkers that they barely know but will have to interact with subsequently as strangers, as we see happening in company-promoted "events", "parties" and the like. It's not something that promotes 'cooperation' as some might naïvely assume; if anything, it's the very opposite of professionalism and a recipe for severe social conflict. If we're going to pursue "harm reduction" in our alcohol-related culture, let's make the workplace a temperate environment first and foremost.
I like this post a lot, thank you for doing such extensive research. I agree with about 60% of it. Yes i think drinking is glorified in the tech industry. Yes the place I work at prides itself on company happy hours and every company event has alcohol (and we even have a new rule, no hard alcohol at large events because well.. you know). Yes it's backwards that a major part of conferences is the party scene, and somewhat disconcerting to hear JSConf was selling party-only tickets. This perpetuates a drinking culture that no industry needs.
However, even with those flaws, but I don't see it as mandatory, exclusive, or a barrier to entry. Maybe it's just where I have worked, but there are people I work with who are teetotallers - lets not kid around though they are in the minority. When my team celebrated a huge event, we had a bottle of champagne accompanied by a nice bottle of non-alcoholic sparking lemonade / beverage. It wasn't about the drinking, it was about sharing the celebration.
I do drink on my own time during the weekends, but I do not drink at the office or at most work events - If I have a drink, it'll be A drink, not multiple. It's mostly because I go to the gym at night and it's a lot harder after drinking. So I avoid it, pour myself a glass of whatever else is available, and haven't had anyone ask me why I'm not drinking alcohol.
I think the 1970s and '80s in the UK were the heyday for this sort of thing. Typically you'd have a couple of pints at lunch time - a lot of offices had bars (rather like coworking spaces today..) and often just stay in the pub. The drinking culture had got larger because of the growth of the middle class - more people moving into office jobs.
By the time I entered the workforce in 1999, this sort of thing was on the wane, although it varied enormously by industry and company. I think the change happened because of the increasing computerisation of jobs (where you could do more damage with the tap of a finger), in addition to women joining the workforce in more senior positions. And probably longer commutes, tougher drink-driving laws, and more formalised HR policies.
A small part of me is nostalgic for it, but it was obviously ridiculously unhealthy. That said, a lot of work was actually done in the pub, and it's possible that people found solutions with their social guard down that they wouldn't have found whilst in the office.
I currently work for a startup whereby they tried to indoctrinate us into a startup culture. Ping pong tables, stand up desks, open work spaces, and beer. So much beer.
As a general rule, I don't ever drink alcohol. (More specifically, I only drink alcohol when I'm at home, where driving a car is unlikely to ever be involved, and with good company.)
My own first thought was "Mad Men"'s portrayal of privileged office workers in the mid-20th century.
Of course, my second thought was my own office in the present day. Has this culture ever really gone away? I work for a tech startup, and there's a fully-stocked beer fridge and cocktail bar setup at all times. They're one of the first things that recruiters show off when I go on interviews to other similar companies.
Every single company event, or small group outing, basically revolves around alcohol. I'm not a teetotaler, but I am a parent in my 40's who has kinda lost interest in drinking, and I'm starting to feel alienated by that part of the industry's culture. I don't want to feel like I have accept the beer you're offering me in order to fit in with a team, or give up my evening with my family to go watch you stand in a circle and get shit-faced in front of your co-workers.
This is 2019, in our own industry.
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