RE:Alcohol at company functions (WAS: You will be assimilated...now what?)

["Mike Hiatt" <mhiatt -at- vocaldata -dot- com>]

My experience went the other way from Sean's. I worked for a Texas company acquired by a New England company. Beer at festive events went out the window almost immediately. And I'm sure it was for the same reason that IBM didn't server alcohol at company functions.

You must remember the litigious nature of current US society and the ongoing battles to keep people from driving while alcoholically impaired. If someone drives while under the influence, it is now possible in the US to sue the parties responsible for serving that person after the point of inebriation and allowing them to drive knowing they are drunk.

As I understand it, the NE company that bought our Texas company had exactly the experience. They served alcoholic beverages at a company function, an employee consumed enough to be impaired and then was involved in an accident that involved fatalaties. I believe they were part of the suits that followed and immediately there was no more booze at company functions.

Mike Hiatt
Manager, Tech Pubs
VocalData, Inc.
Dallas, TX (yep, that one)
mailto:mhiatt -at- vocaldata -dot- com
www.vocaldata.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Carnall [mailto:jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 10:45 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: FWD: You will be assimilated...now what?



<But, was wine introduced into your cafeteria?>

Wine was no longer available in the Compaq cafeteria for staff. The opinions
of staff on being deprived of a glass of wine at lunchtime were not
considered as relevant as the opinions of potential or actual customers.

<Seriously, my experience in Europe was that alcohol was sometimes available
in corporate cafeterias. Never in the USA. I once worked at a New-England
company where, following a merger with a bible-belt company, the sales force
were no longer permitted to buy any alcohol for prospective customers of the
1/2-to-million-dollar product.>

One reason why I never went to IBM parties when I worked for them was that
they didn't do booze. Not even off company property outside working hours:
if it was an IBM-organised event, there was no alcohol...

Based on about a dozen visits to the US, my sweeping opinion is that USians
don't do social drinking quite the same way Brits do. Drinking wine (or
beer) is assumed normal in the UK at almost any social event. From my
limited experience of American social events, this is not so in the US...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Want to support TECHWR-L? Get shirts, bags, hats, clocks,
and more from the TECHWR-L Store. All proceeds support TECHWR-L.
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store/store.aspx?storeid=techwhirl

Check out the new release of RoboDemo, our easy-to-use tutorial software.
Plus, buy RoboHelp Office in August and save $100 with our mail-in rebate.
Get details and download free trial versions at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.