When I worked in London in the 70s and 80s everybody went out to the pub at lunchtime. Either with work colleagues, or friends from other firms. 2 or 3 pints was normal, unless it was a special occasion like a birthday or a Friday.
This happened right across the social range. Workers, management, directors, often in the same pub.
Now it seems to be totally taboo. I am in a position to do absolutely anything I like at work, and if I decide to push off for the afternoon no one would bat an eyelid. But if I were seen drinking so much as a half of shandy at lunchtime all my credibility and respect would vanish.
Is this just another symptom of British decline?
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Never appealed to me, although I succumbed to peer pressure a couple of times when a youngster.
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1976 was the last time i went for a drink at lunchtime at work
i remember it well
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No BB, that was the last time you BOUGHT a drink.
everyone remembers it well.
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Decline? dont know about that, generally its a good thing.
I used to work in a hard drinking culture, both lunchtime and after work.
Lunchtime drinking died about 1995 in my area
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I have never worked in an environment where it was possible.
Now I am semi retired (although I only had 3 days off in Oct!) the occasional Friday lunchtime/afternoon pints in my local, with a roaring fire, decent beer (Golden Pippin) good conversation & the papers is my idea of heaven.
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When the Navy stopped the rum ration. Well, maybe not totally. :-)
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There was a lunchtime/afternoon drinking culture when I worked in London in the late 1980s.
The pubs closed at either 2.30pm or 3pm, but I had much prized membership of an afternoon drinking club, just off Piccadilly Circus.
It was in a basement, but attracted a respectable clientele, if you call media types such as the Saatchi brothers respectable.
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I too worked in London all through the 70's,
Pub hours were tightly controlled, But Covent garden and Smithfield had license variations for early morning opening. When the regular pubs closed at 3 after lunch then hotels or the tourist bar in Selfridges was the next port of call. Back to the pubs at 5:30, thrown at at 10:30 and then onto Ladbrokes sporting club ( they thought I was a member just because I had a membership card) and then maybe an illegal drinking club in the back of a Lebanese restaurant up the Edgware road
Alcoholic? probably came very close.
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Round here if it's a special occasion, birthday leaving do, it's fairly normally to have a drink at lunchtime. It's not really a big thing as there is a bit of a drinking culture.
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I worked for US companies. Drink at lunch? Lose your job.
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When I joined in the seventies it was widespread and even expected. Pleny had a pint or three and a pub sandwich as part of their regular day. It was not unknown for senior managers to pass whisky round at meetings. One or two staff who were either alcoholics or wartime shellshock cases drank more openly in the office.
I'd say it gradually eroded around from the mid eighties. No step change but managers were no longer prepared to overlook even occasional absenteeism/intoxication. By the nineties people were sent home and persistent cases who refused help disciplined. On at least one occasion a manager went round to the local alehouse and ordered a group of rebelliously drunk admin staff back to their desks. Left to stew for rest of afternnoon; 'focussed conversation' (no tea & biccies!) the following morning.
Nowadays, like everything else, there's a policy on it.
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I was never into it, driving was essential to me earning. Even evening drinking was out most of the time in case the phone rang.
We do lunch out a lot more, mostly in pubs, but a diet Coke does for me.
I love proper beers but a couple at lunchtime sends me straight into the arms of the sleep master and I can't get on with anything in the afternoon.
Ted
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Local pubs are quite busy around here at dinnertime.
As for me, it would just send me to sleep these days.
That's why I wait until the evening...:-))
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I loathe lunchtime drinking, and am most grateful it is no longer fashionable. Couple of times a year I do it, no more.
Friend who has just started at Lloyds says they regularly go out and get bladdered.
Another friend who is a stockbroker has regular Directors lunches and client lunches where they drink lots.
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Can I ask why you loathe lunchtime drinking ?
I remember reading somewhere that it's now more likely to raise eyebrows now at drinking than drug taking (in your own time). Can't say I've seen that drinking is fine even coming with a hangover won't really raise many eyebrows but drugs are a big no-no.
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As it makes me sleepy and unproductive during the afternoon. Always has done, even as a student. Couple of glasses after chapel on a Sunday and that was it for the afternoon.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 13:35
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>>If you call media types such as the Saatchi brothers respectable.
>>
My life already.
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About 8 years ago my (final) employer put a clause in their contract for new employees forbidding lunchtime drinking. I don't know what the penalty was for non-compliance. They didn't change the contract of existing employees.
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I've sacked people for lunchtime drinking before now. No excuse.
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Remember well the *swift half* culture of late 70s/early 80s. My job always depended on driving so was never something I risked. With employees I was the first step in the chain that would end up with them in front of our Humph.
swift half = three pints.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 14:38
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A team at our place will go to a local pub for 'special events', usually major project milestones; the project manager or team leader pays. When the silicon team release the latest chip (less than once a year) then we get champagne in the office.
I'm not a great socialiser but I don't say no to a free beer (I don't drive to work BTW).
For the company Christmas lunch, which includes a free bar, we are 'politely requested' not to return to the office in the afternoon :)
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You cant actually legally prevent or forbid or sack any person just drinking at lunchtime.
You would have to insert a clause into the contract that forbids working above a certain level of alchohol in the bloodstream, and this would apply at all times of work
(for example Pilots, train drivers etc etc)
If you give them a lunchtime you cant stop them drinking.
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Even when I was at university it was considered a bit naughty to drink at lunch time. I would sometimes have a half but no more because I needed my bladder empty for the next lecture.
I have a friend who got the sack for drinking at lunch time, although she was drunk and it was wine she was drinking in her car. Not really the same as a quick pint down the nags hed with Delboy and the lads.
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I am trying to think if I have ever had a drink while I was work. Once or twice after finishing a job or wrapping a job up I might have a can but then is only if they are scousers (they want to get you drunk all the time and refuse no for an answer :).
Now I drive everywhere I would never touch a drop.
Not had many office based jobs, and those that I have had were for small companies. I did work for Dixons as a sales person and drink was a no no for obvious reasons there.
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In the sixties (market research), seventies and early eighties (journalism) I used often to drink at lunch time. But it made me a bit fat and rendered me fairly somnolent and useless on many an afternoon.
I won't claim that I am particularly alert or useful these days, but I seldom touch a drop before 6pm. Cost less like that, y'see?
Never could understand those French working men who took a couple of brandies with their morning coffee.
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I will rarely drink before 6 too unless I am on holiday. When I went away down to the south west coast early this year to escape the stresses of Manchester I ended up in the pub every night.
Some say I have a drink problem but I never feel like a drink unless I am going out, and if I go to pub with mates during the week and it is a hard place to get to I will just drink coke and drive.
I am getting bored of getting drunk and the not being able to drive the next day.
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Itc was in their contract. These were sales reps with required use of company cars. Idiots.
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In the "good old days" I have operated machinery when fairly well blattered. On 10-6 night shifts it was quite common for half the section to roll in well oiled after a Friday night team building session.
One afternoon a fork truck driver got sacked after getting legless and driving his truck round the car park with the Works Managers Triumph Stag on board.
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The only time I have a drink after 12pm before 6pm is sometimes on a Sunday afternoon if we are settling down with a good afternoon Movie even then it will be a few Lagers only nothing strong.
This is usually through these winter months, where I know I wont be going out anywhere – during the summer months my weekends are taken up with marshalling or taking our 4 year old niece out on day trips – so I rarely get chance to chill out on a Sunday.
Last edited by: Redviper on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 16:03
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you cant put "you cant drink at lunchtime" in a contract, only "you cant work pee'd or half peed or any other definition of peed"
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 16:09
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My sister works in IT for a financial services company. She tells me it's a very male dominated business with testosterone in abundance. Lunch time and early evening drinking events are encouraged as part of team building and the senior managers are not impartial to a whisky in the office. She always acts as nominated driver.
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Died down in mid / late 90s in my experience. having worked in several different locations and different parts of same large IT organisation.
Late 70s when I first joined lunchtime drinking was common for many in Newcastle office. First manager took me out day I joined and asked for a Pint of Scotch in the local hostelry.
Knew a number of people in the company over those first few years who lost licence for DD, moved to office based job or supporting city based clients for a year.
Later on, late 80s, worked in City of London, wine bar based lunchtimes not uncommon.
Early - mid 90s midland based quick one in pub beside the canal in summer.
In all cases accepted part of culture for some, in all cases management very much involved.
Company culture has changed over the years not done at all now, don't know when the last time was apart from the odd Friday lunchtime leaving do
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I worked in the same company as Commerdriver during the same period.
It was a pretty heavy duty drinking culture.
Alcohol was banned on the company premises tho - rigidly enforced.
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>> Alcohol was banned on the company premises tho - rigidly enforced.
>>
Funnily enough that one is actually a little more relaxed I went to 3 retirement events at lunchtimes in the first 4 months of the year had a glass of wine at each of them.
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yeah, it got relaxed when the guy in charge of the biggest tobacco company in the world took over as chairman.
No one dare tell him not to smoke either apparently.
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Z
Our policy says:-
employees must report to work and remain in a fit and safe condition to undertake their duties throughout the working day
I guess that does not preclude a pint at lunchtime but anybody who's habitually judgement impaired or even mildy euphoric is going to come a cropper sooner or later. So are the dozy. Drivers can be unfit/unsafe some way below the BAC that triggers prosecution.
Minor offenders will go through the disciplinary stuff informal/formal written warns etc with dismissal restricted to the terminal recidivists. Worse examples, those who deleiberatly inflame clients or decide to wander the building looking for scores to settle tend to get an accelerated exit.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 16:42
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In a sales environment going for alcoholic lunch with clients also was common through until ate 90s.
Remember going for lunchtime drink with small group of DVLA employees in 1991(or around then). and the DVLA project manager bought halves all round which I have always thought owed more to meanness than Methodism.
Last edited by: commerdriver on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 16:51
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Alcohol is well and truley banned in our office/organasation.
If you so much as open, say a bottle of wine won in a raffle - you will be instantly dismissed*.
You can have a drink in your lunch hour (off the premesis) but if you come back drunk then you will be sent home/disciplined*
Extremely Rare occurance but someone has been dismissed/sent home/disciplined becasue of this.
Last edited by: Redviper on Thu 25 Nov 10 at 17:00
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>> impaired or even mildy euphoric is going to come a cropper sooner or later.
Happiness is banned as well is it?
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Started again today - Merry Christmas!!
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Back in London I used to have a pint and pub lunch almost everyday with my business partner even if we were drowning in work. If you're putting in long hours you have to make a clean break for an hour otherwise you just start flagging later on. I really miss those times.
Now, I'm allowed to drink, look at porn, have sex in the office and read forums - so long as I get the work done.
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The last time I had a proper lunchtime drink was in my HMRC days - it was a Friday institution at least until I left in 1997. As others have said, much frowned upon in the private sector. In our contracts at work it says 'thou shalt not be intoxicated on company premises'. I suspect this does not completely prohibit a lunchtime snifter, but no-one wants to give management a chance to downsize the headcount as it were.
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I've worked for two French owned companies, and ironically both have draconian zero alcohol policies. If you go to a company do, you cannot drink anything unless you are driven home. I suspect this is a case of French making laws, others obeying then, and the French ignoring them, as per the EU. British companies are more relaxed e.g. one pint with a meal. We go to the pub at Friday lunchtime for a meal and a pint. I could not drink any more during the day, and normally I do not like drinking before 8pm.
I've never seen much drinking at work over the last 30 years, perhaps because I am an engineer, not a meeja type ...
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When I worked in the bank lunchtime drinking was common, more so amongst the managers, but heavy drinking was to be seen in the Union where it was the norm...
Since I've switched to the railways its an absolute no-no... You can't consume alcohol whilst on your shift (including the PNB (personal needs break as a meal break is called!) or purchase alcohol whilst in uniform, on duty or off duty... And being under the influence and at work is the end of your career on the railways...
In steam days i suppose the hard physical work would have mitigated the effects somewhat (like many industries) but once diesels and electrics came along it was a recipe for disaster which came in the 80s when a driver managed to derail his train going to quickly round a corner somewhere in the SE... after that it was banned...
Having had alcohol spilt on me by drunks and breathing in the drug fumes when a druggie has had a quick drag in the loo I've also learned that the first thing you do is phone Control and tell them, just in case anyone gets keen and reports you for smelling of drinks/drugs!
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A friend of mine's partner was a train driver.
His attitude to drinking and work was the same as hobby's (above).
As I recall, he didn't drink at all unless he had a couple of rest days to get over it.
Very reassuring, I thought.
I've never heard of a drunken train driver, but there have been several pilots who have been sloshed in the cockpit.
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>> I've never heard of a drunken train driver, but there have been several pilots who
>> have been sloshed in the cockpit.
And many more stopped before they get to the cockpit intending to fly.
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You can always rely on a sweaty to let the side down when it comes to drink.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8528842.stm
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Interesting comment about drugs Hobby.
Several years ago (kids still pre teen) we were on a family day trip to London. There had been a 'rave' in Bletchley the night before and a large number of scrufft oiks boarded the train there, several with lit spliffs.
Conductor was very good with us giving us a free upgrade to 1st but was clearly very keen to make sure his bosses knew what had happened in case a later random test picked up traces of Cannabis. The stuff is apparently far more persistent than alcohol and can be evident in tests long after any effect has worn off.
Railway police were waiting at Watford.
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...The stuff is apparently far more persistent than alcohol...
I tried cannabis once about 30 years ago.
It didn't do a lot for me, probably because I'd got too much ale on board at the time to notice.
I recall the musty smell was on my clothes for days, and it took more than one wash to get rid of it.
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When I was an ADI I refused to conduct lessons with two people, one who smelled strongly of beer and another who reeked of cannabis. I reckon I took many pupils on lessons over the years who would have failed a drugs test, unlike alcohol there are rarely any signs of drug use but their use is widespread among the young (and not so young).
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>> In steam days i suppose the hard physical work would have mitigated the effects somewhat
>> (like many industries)
When my father was a fireman, and it was pay day, my mother would take the notes from his pay and hang them on the clothes horse as they were wringing wet with sweat.
Yes, Drivers and Fireman were a hard drinking lot. As hobby says, when steam went, the drinking was soon curtailed, and the railway now has a zero alchohol and drugs culture.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 26 Nov 10 at 11:04
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>> Since I've switched to the railways its an absolute no-no... You can't consume alcohol whilst
>> on your shift (including the PNB (personal needs break as a meal break is called!)
>> or purchase alcohol whilst in uniform, on duty or off duty... And being under the
>> influence and at work is the end of your career on the railways...
>>
>> In steam days i suppose the hard physical work would have mitigated the effects somewhat
>>
Absolutely. My best friend, now a successful civil engineer, started his working life at Nine Elms shed in the days of steam. We used to work together on preserved steam lines, he as driver and me as fireman. Even on preserved railways it can be a hot and sweaty job, a fireman shovels four tons of coal per shift on some of the bigger lines, and the accepted formula after a shift was to walk the 100 yards or so from the shed to the local pub, order two pints of bitter each, and the first one would be down by the time the second had been poured. Apparently in the days of BR steam that was commonplace, but as hobby rightly says it's impossible now if you're working the next day; anyone who's actually on the working railway, ie drivers, guards, permanent way workers and signalmen, is subject to random alcohol and drugs tests which are extremely strict. Fail, and you risk suspension and perhaps dismissal.
In the old days it wasn't a drinking culture as found in the City, but a necessary replenishment of lost fluids and vitamins. Beer, after all, is actually classed as a food in nutritional terms.
There are of course good and sound reasons for this sort of thing dying out, which no sane person could argue with, but at the same time the social benefits of a wind-down drink after a hard day's work have been lost. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the camaraderie once so common amongst railwaymen, lorry drivers and the like has been lost.
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I guess another factor in beer consumption on steam rail would be strength. Nowadays 4-5% abv is commonplace with premium lagers even higher. The beer drunk then would presumably have been ordinary bitter or mild at 2.5-3%.
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"When did drinking at lunchtime stop?"
When they closed the bar at work for the last time :-(
John
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I'm unable (for fairly obvious reasons) to indulge in lunchtime drinking while at work.
Today, however, I have a day off so I've been to one of the finest pubs in Southport (Stuartli will hopefully back me up here), Barons Bar to sample some of their cask ales they've put on for their Lancashire Beer Week.
The Times, a pint and peace and quiet are one of life's great luxuries and one that I don't indulge in nearly often enough.
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Rare occurence in my office - maybe a few times in a year for leaving dos, but we finish at lunchtime on a friday, so there is quite often an afternoon runing into evening drinking session.
I often travel into mainland europe on business both to see suppliers and colleagues in other divisions, and most have alcohol available in the staff canteens. The big difference is that they will pick up a bottle of red and split it between 5 or 6, but the brits just can't be trusted to do this.
I am pretty sure that the guys at our place in manual jobs have a clause forbidding drinking during a shift
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"When did drinking at lunchtime stop?"
It never has if an example in my local is anything to go by. A local window cleaner pitches up around about 1.30pm every day (so I'm told) and when I go in for an occasional tea time pint at about 6.00pm he's still there and seldom leaves before I do which is about an hour after I arrive. Last Christmas time I heard him bemoaning the fact that, although he had drunk in the pub EVERY DAY of last year he was yet to get a free pint off the boss. Sensible boss I would say.
The lager he drinks is currently £2.60 a pint and he is not a slow drinker. How much do window cleaners earn in half a day's work?
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When did drinking at lunchtime stop? - R.P.
