3 Martini Lunch - OK?

Got in a wee debate with a pal about whether it is OK to drink alcohol at lunch. "Right" or "wrong" aside, I don't know why anyone would want to dull their senses and reduce their effectiveness.

Hey, I can understand having a Sapphire Martini while traveling or at a networking meeting - in the afternoon or evening. Noontime drinks diminish your abilities for the remainder of the day.

If you work in an office and this is just another day and another lunch with coworkers, then I think alcohol should not be consumed. It's not smart and it might not be safe.

The 80s and 90s are gone! Thoughts?

Comments

[Alexandra Levit]

Lisa, I completely agree. I think this is one area where people blur the line between friendship and business. At a business lunch, you're still on the clock, and it's not the time or the place to allow alcohol to steal your inhibition. At least that's what I tell twenty-somethings who are still in the habit of marking every remotely interesting occasion with a drink, or two, or three.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Aahh, youth. I remember doing that when I was in my early 20s and trying to be a cool yuppie.

[Jason]

What a wholly tragic point of view.

Clearly too much alcohol is always inappropriate in polite company. However, these zero-alcohol views are another example of the puritanical and sterile workplace practices eminating mainly from the USA.

While they may indeed be virtuous ethics they are slowly but surely degrading our very existence by fostering inhuman clones and unrealistic and unhealthy work cultures.

'We must not socialise in the workplace it might damage our productivity. We must not make friends, it might blur our business judgement.

Who wants to live like that ?

This is highly indicitive of the modoern office which is filled with over-competitive drones who cannot be trusted with any type of personal information, cannot share a joke, are humourless and won't do anything to jeopardise their "effectiveness at work" - because if they are less than 100% effective for even a moment, they won't make VP.

This attitude is damaging us all and is a broken and self centred value system.

I urge you to reconsider your values .... throw caution into the wind and enjoy a good lunch and a glass of wine with a business collegue....who just might become a friend.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Hey Jason - Thanks for the opinion. I am all for building relationships and enjoying a nice and relaxed lunch. But I don't need alcohol to build relationships.

My point of view is not about being sterile. Here's my main point. Alcohol dulls your ability to do your best work - why dull yourself when you have another 1/2 day of work ahead of you?

I don't require alcohol to have humor, fun, connection, and professional intimacy in the workplace. I want all that stuff and I would rather do that and keep my mind sharp.

[Wally Bock]

Puritan? I think Lisa's post was about personal choice, not about making a choice for others. I grew up in a home where we drank beer with all meals (including breakfast) except holiday meals when we had wine. I love the "evening cocktail hour" with my wife. But I don't drink at lunch or (most of the time) before the work is done because it takes away the mental edge I want to have to do my best.

[Jason]

It's not about 'requiring' alcohol.

Rather, it is about un-tangling ourselves from productivity obsession.

The trend is increasingly to refine and refine and refine our professional characterisitics.....adopting the behaviours of those who have been successful before us...regardless of the cost to ourselves and those who love us.

These people who deny themselves many of the natural pleasures of the human condition. The people who put faith in the Corporation and not each other. Those who can only measure success by status, promotion or salary.

there are a couple of links i think you shoulod see below.

http://www.slowleadership.org/

http://www.slowleadership.org/2006/09/leisure-is-meaning-of-work.html

[Lisa Haneberg]

Jason - you have attached a lot more meaning to my question about alcohol than I have. My post has nothing to do with productivity obsession. It has nothing to do with putting faith in the corporation instead of each other.

I read Adrian's blog too, and I agree with most of his points. I just don't see that THIS post is about all that.

I do not consider alcohol to be one of the natural pleasures of the human condition. There's nothing natural about what alcohol does to the body. That's just my personal opinion. In fact, I think it often gets in the way of geniune connection, pleasure, fun, and fulfillment.

[Jason]

You have a point :-)

But I think you also reveal your feelings on alcohol in general rather than just its consumption in the work place - and that has created a better context for your original piece.

It is of course entirely your preference. I simply miscontrued your piece as pro-sterilty in the work place.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Jason:

I am certainly anything but pro-sterility! Thanks for the lively conversation.