Bring in the consultants!

Catching up on some reading this weekend, I happened upon some unusual advice to a boozy staff problem in Yorkshire Business Insider magazine. A questioner writes:

“Senior members of my staff often socialize with each other in the pub outside of office hours. While I think such interactions are good for office morale, I’m concerned at the level of alcohol being consumed and its effects on my company’s productivity. Is there anything I can do to tackle this?”

The situation described brings to mind a place I worked at a few years ago. The socialising was hysterical – almost literally. And regular. Sometimes it coulc be two, three days a weeks spent drinking seriously with work mates. We were a close knit group and in that crucible I forged some lasting friendships. But even the ones with whom you might not have seen eye to eye with in the office were good fun to have a drink with after. At the time I just cracked up the collective drunkeness to youthful exuberance and the 'pressures of media', but in retrospect it was rather intense, even for louche journalist types.

Interestingly, the answer to the questioner’s ‘problem’ is – and I’m serious – to work out a policy “in consultation with a specialist alcohol management consultancy”. I’ll be blowed. Who knew there were such things?