To wonder why people get wasted at work events?

[elzober]

On more than one occasion at work parties or nights out, I've seen people who are brand new in the company get completely blind drunk then proceed to embarass themselves/ vomit loads/ not turn up for work the next day. On a couple of occasions this has led to people getting sacked.

This happened again at a work party tonight. One individual who joined a few weeks ago and has been trying to make a good impression and present themselves as a serious contender for future leadership positions, got completely off their face. Everyone was commenting about the state of this person and the HR lady had to help them get home to 'ensure they still had a job in the morning'.

By all means have a few drinks and enjoy the night but why get so pissed at a work event when you're still getting to know people and make a good impression? If you want to get that wrecked, do it with your friends...AIBU?

It's not just new people either. Sometimes it's established people in a company who just decide to go wild and get completely off their heads and do something inappropriate. Like the manager who went out with all the junior staff and started grinding and dirty dancing with one of them (neither were single at the time).

Maybe I'm missing sth here as not a massive drinker but why do people do this? It's so embarrassing to watch

Nice employer who provides a ton of free booze at work then fires people for getting drunk.

Exactly. The issue is the employer who is not looking after their employees. An employer who cares about its staff's mental health would not put people in a situation that will trigger unhealthy behaviour.

My current employer historically had very drunken Christmas parties and were banned from various local hotels because of the damage and there was a drunken fight between 2 people that resulted in a disciplinary (although neither lost their job). Over the years there has been a change in company policy to reduce the drunkenness. There's no alcohol or being under the influence allowed on site (Friday lunchtime drinks was very much the culture 20-30 years ago), there's no longer free alcohol at events and the events are at an expensive venue where alcohol is £££, and events are always now on a Friday so people have time to sober up before they come into work. There's more daytime events with no alcohol. We can get free occupational health support to give up drinking. People do still drink at the Christmas do but there's less extreme drunkenness. As a sober grown up at these events I usually end up having a carload of people to drive home.

Doesn't sound a great company if your hr is sharing all this info with people!

Work social events are always a minefield. Often the only thing people have in common is work.

I have seen and experienced the senior manager plying others with drinks. One director did it deliberately. He would set out to get others drunk including his own boss. This was so that he 'had one over on them'. Once I clocked what he was doing I steered clear of him.

Events which center on potentially addictive activities (drinking and gambling) should be avoided IMO. Casino nights, nights at the dog track etc.

At one event a senior manager was goading junior colleagues into gambling far more than they were comfortable with. I went home.

If HR has been sharing that story with employees then he/she shouldn't be doing that job.

HR didnt share I was at all of these events and saw what happened

We once had a new partner who was joining us and came out for drinks. He got very drunk very quickly and I think was trying to be "fun" and fit in with the new team. I left quite early (as I was driving and had young kids to get up with at the time) and he was trying to force a shot of something into my hand.

A few weeks later, when he was due to start with us there was no sign of him and he was no longer on the company register and there was absolute blanket silence from the other partners.

I am guessing something very bad happened that night but I never found out what.

@SingingSands that's terrible! surprised there were no rumours about it in your office. Normally there's all sorts of gossip after such a night out.

Unfortunately at my workplace everyone has been sharing negative stories about the very drunk colleague last night. Turns out they did something very offensive to a colleague from a minority group and people are quite angry about it. Thats why HR lady insisted they remove themselves before they caused any more offense. I don't care how drunk they were, it's not acceptable. They may now face a warning or some other consequence but don't think they've lost job.

You were there when HR turned up the guy's house and sacked him on the spot? Really? Golly.

A racist twat is a racist twat drunk or sober

Happened to a new member of my team at a dinner with business partners. Combination of nerves, not having drunk for a while (she's very athletic and was in training for an event) and the usual business dinner glass top-ups when you're not looking.

Unfortunately I was at the other end of the table and didn't catch it quick enough, but a member of another of our teams that was driving clocked on, sorted her out & whisked her home.

She was horrified but no big deal, I'd be a hypocrite to be annoyed with her, I've slid over the boundary of reasonable myself at times.

Wowser everyone' talking about it? So everyone heard it for themselves not just hearsay -likely from op?

That said, we used to have a department head who got absolutely hammered at every opportunity, to the point that one night the MD had to take her home in a taxi, after we'd found her semi-comatose in the toilets. I'd have been so horrified I'd probably have resigned, she breezed in on Monday morning like nothing had happened and we suspect she couldn't remember that it had.