77: Throwing back a few

A Thousand Things to Talk About

Drinking alcohol at work: what’s your opinion? Is it different for lunchtime drinks?

Show notes and links:
Beer For Creativity: ‘The Problem Solver’ Comes With Scale To Measure When You’re At Your ‘Creative Peak’ (Medical Daily)

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Full episode text

First things first. In situations and jobs where you’re operating heavy machinery, operating on bodies, or otherwise need your full faculties for the general health and safety of yourself, your coworkers, and society – I think we can all agree that drinking at work is a no-go. Seriously.

Get past these situations, though, and the discussion on this topic gets much more murky. There are some big tech companies where alcohol is literally on tap, and employers expect their employees to self-regulate. There are other places of employment where the idea that someone would drink even a single beer on their off-the-clock lunch hour is totally verboten.

A huge number of articles I found about this cited exactly one show in the opening line – Mad Men. The show’s depiction of casual sexual harassment, drinking at work, and in-office smoking was just enough of a throwback to bring the issue of throwing a few back to the forefront.

There is a certain level of intoxication – about .075 percent – that is supposedly the “creative peak” of mental capacity. And in creative situations, a little relaxation and intoxication could be quite helpful — depending on the context. This one really is a personal opinion thing.