To drink or not to drink at work related events?

An incident at MilwaukeeArt Museum in February 2006 called Martinifest hosted byClear Channel Radio needs a mention here, as it was called —a bacchanal. Attendees got rowdier as the event proceeded. Attendees were seen to cover art works with food, alcohol, and vomit. Four men were seen groping the breasts of “Standing Woman,” an early 20th-century sculpture by American artist Gaston Lachaise. Clear Channel had apparently agreed that not more than 1,500 people would attend the event; however actual attendance reached a level of 1,900.The event turned into a disaster due to a major culprit called “alcohol”, which was freely available for a $30 admission charge, which surely indicates that alcohol was in plenty, while food was not. (Source: Meetingsnet.com)

To drink or not to drink at work related events is a subject matter that almost every employee has to think over for one occasion or another. Whether the business occasion is corporate lunch, the company holiday party, Festivity or a staff networking event on weekends, alcohol is usually an option. Always set your limits about what to drink and how much to drink before you face such choices at an event.

In a recent survey by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), 501 Human Resources professionals were asked how drinking is viewed in their organization at a range of work-related activities. HR professionals reported that employees are found to be comfortable with drinking at a holiday party, at a meal with a client or customer, at a retirement party, at the celebration of a company milestone, at a meal with a coworker, and at a meal during a job interview.

Tips for Employees who indulge in drinking activities

Factors to be considered while making a decision about drinking at a company event or activity:

• Take an indication from your company culture and the behaviour of your co-workers about whether successful employees, managers, and executives of your organisation drink at company events or not. If so, having a couple of drinks is just fine, however deliberately drinking too much is unacceptable.
• Have an indication from the affect of alcohol on your actions at prior occasions. Does a drink or two make you giggly, slurring your words and lower your guard as you chatter excessively? If so, drinking at company events is not for you.
• Being uncomfortable attending the event, should not be any reason to use alcohol to decrease your anxiety.

Set a limit and ensure sticking with the limit you set, in order to keep yourself from risking your professional reputation for a third or fourth drink at a company event.

If your company is not following the path of Walmart, that has banned alcohol at all of its corporate events, then you have to learn what safeguards to take.

Tips for Employers that allow alcohol at Company Events

Whatever is the event, like, company milestone or an employee's retirement party, below tips should be followed to plan an alcohol safe event.

• Try to bring change in company culture with employees by emphasizing that drinking to surplus is unacceptable during company events.
• Get an alcohol usage guidance included in company code of conduct which should be reviewed and signed by employees, and should inform employees about liability of their behaviour at company sponsored events
• Make a policy of non acceptance of drinking alcohol during a job interview. Moreover, drinking at lunch should be discouraged. And, advise employees that if they are with a client then drink, only if the client is drinking and limit in a client or customer meeting should be one glass of wine.
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• Appetizers to be served as the party commence i.e. at the beginning of the party / event, in order to ensure that employees are not drinking on an empty stomach.
• Consider serving some interesting non-alcoholic beverages like beer and wine to remove the emphasis from alcohol. However, avoid serving drinks such as punch, as it becomes difficult for an employee, to gauge the quantity of alcohol they are drinking.
• Drinking or eating should not be the main focus of any event. Entertainment, speeches, presentations, and activities for employees to participate should run the show.
• The company can track the number of drinks served during an event, by using drink tickets, where every employee to be given only two drink tickets and alcohol to be served only after showing drink ticket at the bar counter.
• Bar timings to be limited and it should get closed during dinner, in order to indicate everyone at a reasonable time about closing and ending of the event. Standard practice is to close the bar counter an hour prior to the party officially ends. However, do not announce a ‘last call.’
• Never allow employees to serve themselves. Bartenders who are trained for Intervention Procedures to be hired every time for such events.

• Instruct the bartenders to not serve alcohol to any person who appears to be inebriated. Key managers and event organiser team should be advised to keep their eyes open for employees who may be overindulging. Advise Key managers not to drink, or they cannot perform any "safety-sensitive activity" within four hours of consumption of alcohol or when their alcohol concentration level is greater than 0.02.
• Inebriated employees should be offered a ride back home. Immediate supervisors should insist on it especially if anyone is found visibly intoxicated. Make sure that a designated non-drinking driver takes the wheel.
• Hotel rooms should be booked in advance in order to keep a drunken employee off the road.
• A descriptive name badge should be issued for any employee who is under 21.

Again a special mention for Blood Alcohol Quotient software developed by Ladybug Teknologies Inc. of Cambridge, Ontario, that can help employees to make informed decisions about when to stop. Breath stations are set up at the event, the number depending on the number of attendees.

Breathalyzer is given to each attendee to check by blowing into the mouthpiece.

However, usage of breath analyzer is purely judgmental and there's no pressure to use it. Every time the attendee uses the breath analyzer, the software records the time with corresponding blood alcohol level so that the attendee gets to know how the blood alcohol level changes over time. (Source: Meetingsnet.com)

Alcohol can add festivity to a company event, however proper employee guidelines with appropriate planning and observation at the event, will make certain that employees live to work another day. In addition to workplace safety, employee safety at Company events should be paramount concern for the organization.

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