While 60 percent of workers reported that they don’t attend work happy hours, those who do are most likely to cite beer or water as their beverage of choice, according to a CareerBuilder® survey.
Here are the results of the survey that asked respondents what they order at a happy hour with colleagues:
- Beer—35 percent
- Water—31 percent
- Soda—29 percent
- Mixed drink—25 percent
- Wine—13 percent
Workers may be wise to opt for a nonalcoholic beverage or one with lower alcohol content. Here are a few stories from the SBT archive that showed how mixing alcohol and work (even if it’s not work time) can lead to trouble.
ZUI (Zamboni-ing under the influence)—A hockey arena employee was accused of being drunk while operating a Zamboni®, a 4-ton ice-resurfacing machine with a top speed of 9 miles per hour. Besides losing his Zamboni privileges with the county, the employee had his driver’s license revoked for a period of two years, according to news reports.
The employee appealed, arguing that he wasn’t drunk while operating the machine and that he had such a high reading of alcohol in his system because he drank beer and vodka after grooming the ice. A judge reinstated his license.
Drinking in the name of teaching—A police officer ended up with a DWI after he volunteered to get drunk for a class at the police academy. The officer served as an example of how an intoxicated person responds to sobriety tests.
Later that night—after an officer drove him home—he decided to take his ATV for a spin. He crashed the vehicle while illegally driving on the street, according to the reports.
Practicing martini lunches (reader’s story)—“I once terminated an employee during the first week of his employment. He was attending a week of sales training and came back from a lunch break drunk.
“He admitted drinking and said he was practicing having ‘martini lunches’ with clients. After he was sent home in a cab, he showed up to training the next day. When asked why he came back, he said, ‘I didn’t remember getting fired. I must have been too drunk.’”
A sub-zero tolerance policy? (reader’s story)—“Someone reported that an employee had put a 6-pack of beer in the lunchroom refrigerator. We watched the surveillance tape and found out who it was. When confronted and reminded about the company policy banning alcohol from the premises as stated in the employee handbook, he said that he wasn’t going to drink it while working.
“He said that he and two of his coworkers would drink it on their lunch breaks in the parking lot. It was his turn to bring the beer and since it was warm outside, he wanted it to stay cold (the other two guys would leave it in their cars, and it would get too warm). He couldn’t understand why he was being terminated. He didn’t believe that zero tolerance was fair.”