drinking at workTake that recession! Some companies are saying forget you, and hearkening back to the glory days of the 1950s or even the hey-hey '90s where a cocktail at work was just a way to say "good meeting!" Instead of slamming the coffee and burning the midnight oil, employees are stocking the fridge with their favorite alcoholic beverages, and one company has even installed a keg.

Of course, this being modern times, there's a catch.

The Yelp offices in San Francisco do allow their employees to tap that throughout the day; however, you must slide your work ID first and there's a leader board announcing who partakes the most. And you don't want to be that guy.

Still, other tech companies seem to be following Yelp's lead and offering their employees alcohol during business hours. As one CEO says, we're all adults and should be treated as such. Of course there are problems when alcohol makes a regular appearance at board meetings.

In addition to productivity taking a hit, incidents of sexual harassment tend to go up as the booze flows. But some of these companies say their employees are working way into the night, and that's when the alcohol comes out -- not at lunch. Which I guess means the sexual harassment is taking place after hours? As it should? Hmmmm.

I used to work in the music business, during a very fruitful time, and the champagne was popped on a fairly regular basis. While I don't remember anyone behaving particularly badly after an afternoon party, perhaps that's just because the culture was already laid-back, and a far cry from the torturous hours and demands of a post-boom atmosphere we see today. Now, our off-site meetings and conventions -- that's another story. Ohhh, the tales I could tell. But you'd have to buy me a drink first.

Does your company have alcohol available during business hours?

 

Image via Dottie Mae/Flickr