Drinking on the job
Fully 70 percent of human resource professionals say that drinking on the job is ok according to today’s Wall Street Journal. The only catch is that it has to be at the holiday party, the most widely accepted opportunity to drink at work.
The results are from a survey of 501 HR professionals. Surprisingly less than a third said it is OK to drink in celebration of a company milestone–no champagne, it’s back to work!
Most of the piece’s of advice at the end of the story are good–don’t drink during a job interview, for example. However one struck me as in need of elaboration.
Dinner with a client: When dining with clients, let them order first. If the client orders a drink, it’s OK to order one, says Phyllis Davis, the founder and director of the American Business Etiquette Trainers Association in Las Vegas.
An alternate approach, particularly when it comes to wine, is simply to ask your client if he or she is interested in wine. I do agree that if your client says no then you are probably going to be paying homage to San Pellegrino that night.
But if yes, then ask them if they have any wine preferences in general or what was the last bottle they had that really stands out in their memory. That way you can gauge how into wine they are–and whether you can justify ordering something expensive or unusual. When it comes to business entertaining, after all, client satisfaction is the key! (Just don’t take it to the extreme, the way this guy at Jefferies & Co. did to win new business)
Original story: “Sober Thought: How to Mix Work, Alcohol” [WSJ$]
tags: wine | drinks at work
On December 6th, 2006 at 12:03 pm ,farley wrote:
Good suggestion for dinner with clients: seeing what wines impress them, without having to ask directly what they want.
It’s hard for me to be objective about such a survey, though. Working in a winery, we’re always sampling from the barrel, newly bottled products, to make sure it’s not off….
On December 7th, 2006 at 10:29 pm ,el jefe wrote:
hi Doc – you better be drinking to work at my place! We did our own survey:
http://www.elbloggotorcido.com/2006/12/drinking_on_the.html
thanks! – j
On December 8th, 2006 at 9:04 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Thanks for the comments. So what do you think about drinking during a job interview? Maybe those 4% of HR people were thinking of the drinks industry…
On December 11th, 2006 at 11:20 pm ,el jefe wrote:
Perhaps – it would certainly be part of an interview here…!
On December 12th, 2006 at 3:56 am ,Ryan Opaz wrote:
Here in Spain it might be considered an insult NOT to drink over a business lunch. In fact, a morning caña(small beer) is normal. Since I do work with wineries I guess it makes sense. On the other hand all “menus” (fixed priced meals) that people have for lunch, come with a bottle or pitcher of wine. The flip side to this is that I have never seen someone get “wasted” on wine during lunch. Most often the wine is equal to water, something to lube the palate.