Do any office people still go for a boozy lunch on Fridays?
Posted by Thelichemaster@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 189 comments
I mentioned in passing to a young whippersnapper at work it was POETS day (Piss off early tomorrow's Saturday) and didn't have a clue what I was on about. I remember working for my local council 25+ years ago. The whole office will decamp to the pub at 1, struggle back to the office sleep it off for an hour at 2 30 ish. Get the youngest person to make a restorative cup of tea for everyone while the phones were off the hook and we'd all bugger off by 4pm. Happy days.
aljama1991@reddit
Sometime Monday too
BG3restart@reddit
Outside of London where public transport is king, I think the drink driving laws put the kibosh on boozy Fridays. For a long time, nobody cared, then it became socially unacceptable, the police started to pay more attention and people weren't willing to risk their licence, so even if they went for a drink, it was just the one.
quite_acceptable_man@reddit
Yep, that was my exact experience working for an insurance company 25 years ago. 'Pie and a pint' (or three) at 'Spoons at lunchtime, back in the office and pretend to work for a few hours then back in the pub at 4 for a few more.
I think it's now been replaced with 'work from home Friday'.
BurkesRoad@reddit
I've been working from home since COVID, but I still crack open a can of Joker IPA early afternoon on a Friday.š
Acrobatic_Extent_360@reddit
Thing of the past i suspect. A lot work from home on Friday and people drink less.
Remarkable-Ad155@reddit
Combination of that and commuting.
The boozy Friday culture is also largely contingent on living somewhere vaguely near the office, which is getting rarer these days as small firms and satellite sites get swallowed by big firms centralised in larger cities.
My first "proper" professional job was in my home town, circa 100k population which, even as late as the 00s and early 10s, had a little "professional quarter" with insurance brokers, mortgage/IFA, accountants, solicitors etc who would all decamp to one of two pubs on a Friday afternoon. My boss was militant about 9 - 5 culture and would also actively take the whole office out for drinks on a Friday afternoon once a month so you'd always be in the pub one way or another on a Friday. Most people lived locally and would walk in and back on a Friday.
Company was eventually bought out by a London based firm though, who kept the business but had no interest in keeping the local office. Between the fallout from 2008 and consolidation of service sector, jobs dried up massively locally and by about 2013/14 most people were commuting an hour in either direction to the nearby major cities. Boozy afternoon is less appealing when it will take you 1.5 hrs or more door to door to get home.
I'm not sure it really makes a difference professionally but we certainly have lost something socially. I met and got to know my wife through the regular Friday drinks at a different job nearly 20 years ago (still married today). I still have friends from that scene that I haven't actually worked with for a decade plus. When you see all this stuff about young people dealing with loneliness and the number of people not having sex rising, it does make you wonder.
I'm not saying we need mass RTO or anything, before anyone jumps on me, but I do think we've lost a very significant socialisation avenue that I'm not sure has been adequately replaced (or even how we would go about it). I can't lie, I'm not a natural with the opposite sex and I hate social media but through most of my adult life I was put in situations where you were naturally given opportunities to meet people and that gave me the confidence and understanding to form relationships with people. Now you see even things like university are being done remotely.
WitShortage@reddit
Totally agree. I live and work in a city, and it's fairly common for people to move out of the city as they need a larger property in which to raise children. I remember it happening to my colleagues and it killing the Friday pint tradition. This was over 2003-2007.
I then went and worked on a client site for 4 years and by the time I came back to the main company, it had moved to a city-edge business park with no pubs, everyone was driving, and drinking during the working day was very-much frowned upon.
swoopstheowl@reddit
I really agree with the sentiment of this comment. From a personal angle, I will add that I am naturally inclined to be asocial and am a homebody. When I was in a working from office role, I had quite a good social life (not always fully of my choice), from work colleagues. I learnt how to talk and engage regularly with people who had very different view points to mine, of different ages etc.Ā
Now I fully wfh and I don't have anywhere near as much of a social life. Consequently I believe my social skills have dipped and my desire to be around people is pretty low. I am actively working on that but darn, if working in an office didn't just make that whole thing so much more easy and natural.
Remarkable-Ad155@reddit
I think that point about being able to get on with people with different viewpoints is really interesting. That's an angle I hadn't really considered but you're absolutely right, those environments did also necessitate having to build that bit more tolerance too.
One of the number one things I see about remote work now is essentially how people hate other people, can't bear small talk or just having to converse with someone with interests or views you don't align with. I'm not really sure that's healthy.
OrangeChevron@reddit
I fully agree with your last paragraph especially. People almost brag about it like it's an impressive personality trait thst denotes intellectualism
It often denotes social ineptitude and arrogance
KeepOnTrippinOn@reddit
"....and people drink less."
It's no wonder the country's going to the dogs.
bogyoofficial@reddit
Saw a genuine rant about this on Facebook recently. How terrible it is that young people are drinking less and less. I was perplexed to say the least.
lastMETALfinal@reddit
Broken Britain
fergie_89@reddit
Now we nap
ThatstheTahiCo@reddit
TO THE DOOOOOGS
Acrobatic_Extent_360@reddit
Yeah, I think drinking professionally or with colleagues is a bit more frowned upon these days.
Fantastic-Dingo-5806@reddit
Soft lot these days
PsychologicalDish430@reddit
So boring these days.
R0gu3tr4d3r@reddit
No gumption
snakeoildriller@reddit
I understand the House of Commons is still keeping the tradition alive š
R0gu3tr4d3r@reddit
I was in the Strangers bar a couple of weeks ago and it was empty. Apparently Parliament doesn't sit on a Friday.
BrightSpark80@reddit
Friday is constituency day so no queues for the bar! Bonus.
dallasp2468@reddit
Or at home
Lasersheep@reddit
I worry about the kids. Itās no wonder they are stressed out and anxious if they arenāt getting blitzed 4/5 nights a week in a pub with their mates. The Government should be supporting mental health and the licensed trade by giving under 21s beer vouchers.
Fancy-Professor-7113@reddit
I work from home all the time and we go into London Bridge at 4 on Fridays, because pub.
When I had office days, most of us worked from home Mondays and went in on Fridays, because pub (and Monday is crap)
Spottyjamie@reddit
A lot of homeworkers in my bit will sometimes put in a half day friday then meet in town 1pm
Friday afternoons here bar wise are very busy but post 8pm is dead
swoopstheowl@reddit
That's a lovely idea
mrtopbun@reddit
Noticed this in my local too, pubs clearing out by 8-9ish
Jasboh@reddit
One of my office days is Friday, it still works
PennyBunPudding@reddit
I remember our high school teachers doing it lol
folklovermore_@reddit
When I was a student I worked in the bar of the local golf club, which was the nearest pub to my old high school. It's a very odd experience having to serve alcohol to your former teachers!
(This is also how I found out my French teacher and the music teacher were a couple.)
losgidi@reddit
When I worked in London 20 years ago it was definitely a thing. And not in London, some places I worked had a "bar" in the office for Fridays. Think it depends on the industry/boss.
Accurate_Prune5743@reddit
We're not allowed back in the office if we've had any alcohol. Not that it bothers me as I'd never consider having a drink for lunch and going back to work, nor do I drink during the week. Tbf I much prefer going out for food or coffee than drinks.
beavershaw@reddit
Does anyone still go into the office on Fridays? Based on the co-working space I use, there's usually 10% of the normal Monday-Thursday crowd by the end of the week.
Used to love a boozy Friday lunch, but now that I run my own one man business doeant really feel right anymore.
GoldenArchmage@reddit
30-40 years ago it was effectively compulsory in the two industries I worked in over that time. In my second office job there was a licensed bar on the top floor š³
Adventurous-Cry8398@reddit
If at all, itās āThirsty Thursdayā after work on a Thursday. Lots of people are working from home on Fridays now.
AussieHxC@reddit
Military formals were always on Thursdays too. No work ever really got done on Fridays
Bossman_Mike@reddit
My experience was "Thirsty Thursday" in London even before mass WFH.
CunningOctopus@reddit
This was a thing over 30 years ago when I worked in the City (didn't have a name though)
Remarkable-Ad155@reddit
Be hungover on company time. Makes a lot of sense, especially if you have kids.
dallasp2468@reddit
Stopped doing that 15 years ago. In the 90s it was every lunchtime, 3npints down the pub then back to the call centre and chainsmoke at my desk until I could go back down the pub at 4pm.
GooseyDuckDuck@reddit
No, thatās long gone - not really been a thing since the 80ās.
BitterOtter@reddit
Last time I was able to do that was 2018 in my last job which was in-office. I finished early on a Friday so I could get home before 7pm (contracting, mostly commuted daily but stayed in a hotel on Thursday, did a little extra Thursday afternoon and started early Friday so I could get home at a sensible time to go to the pub). Quite often Friday lunch would be in one of the fine local hostelries and we'd have a good few beers and then do very little in the afternoon. All long since passed. I guess maybe it still happens in some offices in towns and cities, but I'd guess a good few venues have seen their lunchtime trade on a Thursday/Friday all but disappear.
Which-World-6533@reddit
Mid 90's - going to the pub at lunch time for a quick beer and burger was a regular thing. We would go to the pub after work fairly regularly for a "quick drink".
Late 90's / 00 - going to the pub for lunch was still a thing.
Early to mid 00's - mostly a Thursday night drinks thing
Then on - too many people WFH to make it viable.
BigFloofRabbit@reddit
How did you get home, if you were drinking with your colleagues after work? Did you just leave your car at the office and take a taxi back?
Which-World-6533@reddit
This was London so we would take the Underground or taxis.
VolcanicBear@reddit
I'm 40, used to go for a drink on Friday lunchtime when I was in the office and if you asked me about "POETS" I'd assume you were asking about literature.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
My Fridays at work are often very quiet, so I'm very prone to POETS even if working from home.
Minute_Parfait_9752@reddit
It's probably not a coincidence that meetings don't really happen on Friday. I even managed to get one rescheduled to Tuesday because "it's an office day! We can do it in person š"
When in reality, we miss it, and it's "oh, well we talk loads in the office, do we need it today?"
Chizlewagon@reddit
No, unfortunately we're not all Gen X's with life handed on a plate to us. We actually have to work hard for a worse stake in society
Apsalar28@reddit
At my very first office job part of my duties was to pick up anything important that needed signing from the typist, take it over to the local pub at 3pm, locate the relevant manager and get back with everything completed in time for the post run at 4. This was the early 2000's
Us office minions weren't included in the drinking but on Fridays we'd have all the phones diverted to one office in the winter, or a phone with a long extension cord fed out the window in the summer and be sat around gossiping until we were confident no manager would notice us going home.
Now I'm replying to Teams messages while sat in the Dr's waiting room and need to look online for at least another hour after I get home to make up the time.
Fun-Complex3539@reddit
"Now I'm replying to Teams messages while sat in the Dr's waiting room and need to look online for at least another hour after I get home to make up the time."
God that really does just hit the nail on the head for the modern experience of working.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
The worst part about pandemic WFH for me was that boundaries went completely in the bin.
Not commuting was seen as fair game. Meetings in the middle of lunchtime, "quick catchup" at 17:30 on Friday. You'd log on at 9:30am to see a flood of messages pestering you for your immediate attention, these messages were sent at 6:30-7am.
Minute_Parfait_9752@reddit
I try and ensure availability from 9-5 personally. Whether I do really work between then is anybody's guess š I quite enjoy an early interruption free start.
Remarkable-Ad155@reddit
I think the absolute explosion in visibility and surveillance is something the boomer generation just cannot understand. I entered the workforce pre 2008 and can still just about remember the world pre KPIs and other forms of monitoring. People just didn't have the same ways of keeping tabs on others and in a lot of cases no one gave a fuck either. The workplace was far less anxiety filled than now.
To the boomer generation, all thet arsing about was work. Same people in senior positions demanding RTO now who actually just spend their entire time in the office wandering around talking to.people then complain about how snowed under they are.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
I really do wish I could go back in time and experience an office job in the 1960s or 1970s. No (or very little) end-user computing, "paperwork" meant exactly that, talking to someone remotely in real time meant a bakelite rotary telephone.
BirthdayBoth304@reddit
I remember the phone diversions!
Vehlin@reddit
The managers knew, they just didnāt care as long as they werenāt made to notice because something went wrong
Strange_Cranberry_22@reddit
It hasnāt been a thing since Iāve been working, with the exception of people I knew who had a true flexitime arrangement and so naturally Friday afternoon was the time youād finish early if youād worked more earlier in the week.
We did used to go for drinks after work on Fridays though. Not sure how common that is any more with hybrid working.
Iām not sure any office culture really supports any sort of informal āletting your hair downā any more either. I work for a pretty supportive place work/life balance wise but everyoneās still working till the last minute each Friday and thereās not much down time at all. Everyone is pretty stretched workload-wise.
Does anyone even have a lunch āhourā these days? Everywhere Iāve worked in the last 5-10 years only seems to allow for half an hour.
Minute_Parfait_9752@reddit
I clearly kept an IT guy 5 mins late yesterday. At 3pm it was very obvious he was signing off and expected me to as well š
TonyBlairsDildo@reddit
Heavy drinking around work is a largely London phenomena.
Everyone else drives to work. Back in the day people would drive home drunk, but that is mostly a thing of the past today.
How many people that work in Smedgework Trading Estate drive 1.3 miles to the nearest Harvester, sink a few pints, then drive back to the office drunk, then drive home 22 miles to their Persimmons newbuild estate (est. 2019) so they can park outside their house before the pavements fill up with cars?
ThisIsAnAccount2306@reddit
My office used to have a full bar in the canteen apparently. Before my time but a few people are still around who remember it. It disappeared after a lady had 4-5 pints, returned to her desk and 5 minutes later called her manager a tw@t and headbutted him.
sharpied79@reddit
I started my first job at 18 in 1997 (as a junior desktop support analyst in the IT department) Working for one of the big local employers (Premier Brands (as it was) on the Wirral)
Old school employer even then, had a social club on-site (you can see where this is going)
I recall one particular Friday afternoon, the entire department headed round to the club at about 12:30pm.
Two hours and about four pints later (most of those at the insistence of my bosses boss) I staggered back to my desk to somehow see the last hour and a half of the working day out somehow before I got the train home...
Those were the days...
Bossman_Mike@reddit
This is peak 1990s.
sharpied79@reddit
It doesn't exist anymore... Well it kind of does but not really...
Fantastic-Dingo-5806@reddit
Absolutely class, proper workplace that
LagerBoi@reddit
I work from home and occasionally treat myself to a lunchtime pint on a Friday.
If I go to the office we occasionally have a pint if we go out for lunch.
It was definitely more common when I was in recruitment 10 years ago though.
Earth_to_Sabbath@reddit
The people who used to enjoy this, have closed the door behind them.Ā
Middle management, we thank you for your continued erosion of any glimpse of fun at work. Must hit those KPIs. Pizza!
Revolutionary_West56@reddit
So jealous. Millennial and have never experienced this
lindet16@reddit
Work in finance, still very much i thing if we are in the office
Revolutionary_West56@reddit
I thought in finance this was every afternoon
cardboard-collector@reddit
Iām 30 and definitely had this before Covid, the startup I worked at also had a beer trolley come round at 2/3ish on a Friday. This was down in Brighton though.
folklovermore_@reddit
It was still a thing in some places post COVID as well, at least in London. I worked in a WeWork building from 2022-23 and we had beer taps in some of the communal spaces. They only worked between certain hours but on the day my team was in the office there would be "Beer?" emails going round by about 3pm and we'd all gradually disappear downstairs for a drink. And then over the road to happy hour at a bar once the taps got turned off!
bbenjjaminn@reddit
Also a millenial as far as i'm aware it still happens with production and post production companies in London, the soho pubs are usually very busy on a Friday from lunch onwards.
Revolutionary_West56@reddit
Fair, makes sense
hallerz87@reddit
I started corporate in 2012 and the consensus at the time was that the financial crash in 2008 put an end to that kinda thingĀ
Prestigious_Spot9635@reddit
It's all about hyrox now so no
Different-Use-5185@reddit
None of us can afford to live near our city centre offices to be able to drink without driving let alone afford a few pints too!
OrangeChevron@reddit
I've literally never worked in a place with that culture I have to say
jonquil14@reddit
Most people WFH Fridays now
Lollygagger105@reddit
97-98. Worked for an American company but in the UK. We had ādress down Fridayā and also āgo to the pub Fridayā where the managers bought all the drinks and they kept on comingā¦ trying to get those end of week spreadsheets done was a lolz, as in 30 mins work would take a couple of hours, but we did it. I reckon it was because all of the US managers had never known such freedom. I was happy to go along with it. More often than not theyād then propose an after work curryā¦ happy days!
PengyLi@reddit
Was chatting to a few old colleagues about this only the other day. Late 80s early 90s. 4 pints on a Friday lunchtime. Bus or taxi home as none of us were fit to drive, even at 4pm š¤£š¤£š¤£ Standard behaviour. Manager was usually there buying the rounds, back in the day when they had a social budget.
radeonalex@reddit
We were doing this working in my first job in tech in London, around 2010. 4 pint fridays, usually led by our manager and other teams. Stagger back, recover a bit with a coffee.... then start again into the evening. I feel like it probably wouldn't happen now.
All the kids we hire now only know work from home and seem allergic to social events or travelling. They just sit at home coding, which I suppose is good and bad.
Ratiocinor@reddit
This might be my most boomer take of all time, but this is so sad to me. I don't understand it at all. It sounds like a miserable existence and so bad for your career development too. Most of what I learned I learned by osmosis just being around people more talented than me and seeing how they worked. Or it's cliche but those "watercooler moments" where you just chat to someone and ask what they're working on
In tech no one ever has time to mentor you properly 1 to 1 for an extended period of time. Seniors have stuff to do so being physically in the same place is really the fastest way to learn and the best way to collaborate
I started work around 2015 and the pub friday after work drinks was still alive and well then. Everyone came too. Juniors in their 20s. Mid level people in their 30s. Even some of the older folk in their 50s and 60s would come for a few quite often. It was a great way to break down barriers between people at different levels and get to know people
Covid lockdown and wfh killed it all of course. Now every man and his dog works from home on Fridays and like you I've found that new hires have absolutely 0 interest in going out or socialising at all so even if they were in on Friday it's pointless anyway. It's very odd
tcpukl@reddit
I worked on video games in the late 90s.
Those Friday lunches often we didn't even go back to the office in the afternoon.
So many stories from back in the day, kids wouldn't believe now.
Not even fit for Reddit.
sirdigbus@reddit
Hmmm, not really. I can get away with it but its not company culture. At my old job it was more of a thing pre covid under older management but the corporate arseholes ruined everything.
Speedbird223@reddit
At my old company (when I worked in an office) myself and all the other mid-level management team would have fridges in our offices and keep beer in them. Around 4pm most Fridays we would walk around the floor and offer beers out to everyone too.
Most of the people were younger, just out of University crowd, smart kids so nobody was stupid about it. 100 employee family owned firm and the owner would cover the beers but not want to be part of it as he just wanted employees to relax towards the end of the work week.
Before that became more part of our routine a group, maybe a dozen or so would go to a nearby pub and have a boozy lunch. Nobody got trolled unless they accidentally ordered the 11% stout like one tiny girl we had who had to call her parents and go home āsickā for the rest of the afternoon š¤£
Gauntlets28@reddit
Gosh, doubt it. Aside from everything else, I think management nowadays takes a much more negative view of "pissing off early" than they used to.
BigFloofRabbit@reddit
Pretty much. As a Millennial, Fridays are a strict 9 to 5 at all the offices I've worked at. Long boozy lunches wouldn't be looked upon favourably by the Resource department.
AutomaticInitiative@reddit
Am 36. My first office job in 2011 was ex-civil service and you bet they clocked off a bit early. Me on new contract had no such privilege.
tycoon282@reddit
Tuesday lunch for us
Dazz316@reddit
My last job often tried to do it, but since people drove to the office nobody drank so it stopped. It was a nice gesture from the boss though.
Dear_Tangerine444@reddit
TBH I think itās died out.
Itās been almost 20 years since this was a regular thing in a lot of places Iāve worked . When I started my professional career in the late 90s, POETS was commonplace, weād regularly go down the pub for a quick pint and something to eat on a Friday and simply never make it back to the office. Half our office was there. But as I moved jobs through the 2000s it gradual seemed to dwindle.
Most places I know of donāt seem to do any sort of office hours or even after work drinking now.
PennyBunPudding@reddit
I suspect due to blame culture (getting drunk and returning to work is going to risk ending badly for either employee or employer) and just the general rise in work for the sake of work.
Dear_Tangerine444@reddit
Yeah, I think that probably accounts for a fair bit. Iām also quite sympathetic to the idea that itās also quite exclusionary for those who canāt/donāt drink (be it for religious/health reasons or just through choice).
AClockworkLaurenge@reddit
Not to mention as others have said, there's much more monitoring in jobs now. Like my current office job requires us to clock in and out on time tracking software (which you can only access while logged into your work laptop) so you can't just leave at whatever time with zero accountability. Thankfully we're flexitime so for us, it's just a case that we'd need to work any 'lost' time back (but our performance stats are also individually measured so you're still expected to get a certain amount of work done).
I've had other jobs with a set working pattern so if you're a few minutes late or leave a few minutes early, it flags on the system and could even affect your pay (because you won't get paid for 6 hours if you didn't work the full 6 hours in some places).
But also not having set hours means people will clock off at different times too. I usually start later in the morning and work into early evening, whereas most of my work prefer to work from 7-8am and finish mid-afternoon. Meant I once had to use a half day of annual leave to go to a work 'night' out that was booked for 4pm
Vampirero@reddit
My dad worked on Fleet Street in the 60s (not a journalist, though) and it sounds like most of the people who worked there were massive alcoholics. It wasn't just Friday lunchtime for boozing, it seems.
Farting_Llama@reddit
Private Eye magazine to this day quote a journalist by name of 'Lunchtime O'Booze'.
It was an industry norm well up to the 2010's, the act has been cleaned up a bit as there was a very cosy relationship between established journo's and CEO's / Politico's and it was some thing of an 'old boys club' with a LOT of drinking involved. Probably still goes on, but it is less open.
Realistic-River-1941@reddit
Sadly not. I've seen journalism students turn down literal free beer. And it means a lot more news comes from spokespersons and PR rather than chats with bigwigs.
Farting_Llama@reddit
Then I stand corrected. Anyway, for one last tine...
'Trebles all 'round!'
Affectionate-Owl9594@reddit
Iām an elder millennial and havenāt ever experienced this
BirthdayBoth304@reddit
Elder millennial here - know what POETS is and did the Friday lunchtime boozing. Guess it was a sector or industry specific thing
Tricky-Reporter-5246@reddit
Wtf is a millennial?
Affectionate_You_858@reddit
Im a millenial and this was my office culture for the 1st 10-15 years of my career. Was killed off by covid and never came back
BirthdayBoth304@reddit
Ahhh yes. As a graduate in 2006 I took a job in a local council - pretty much every other Friday we were in the Winchester pub for scampi and chips and many beers. Sat at a desk trying to stay awake until 3.30ish then snuck off home. I miss those days.
Avacado7145@reddit
Why would anyone want to do that?
Fetch1965@reddit
City Melbourne restaurant yesterday was full of office boozy lunches - felt great to still see a Friday as end of week š¤£š¤£š¤£
Yes I was also in a work boozey lunch
IAmLaureline@reddit
I'm sixty and the only time I ever drank at lunchtime on Fridays was during my student placement year.
I started work in 1988 and I've never been in a job with Friday lunchtime drinking.
I worked in central London and we were no strangers to drink but lunchtime drinking was for Christmas or very very special occasions.
mikethet@reddit
As a restaurant worker in the city, yes that still exists just not on the same scale
tohearne@reddit
Always worked private sector so unfortunately never had that luxury
endianess@reddit
We used to smoke at our desks too!
GlumAd9856@reddit
Yeah, we used to do this at my civil service job 20 years ago.
Down to the local spoons at 12:30. Back in the office 2-2:30ish. Then mess about until the bar in our building opened at 4pm.
I would be in a state every Friday. But that was when I was in my 20s and recovery was a lot easier.
Defiant-Tackle-0728@reddit
I was Civil Service 20+ years ago too.
It was rarely my experience of it.
That said come the end of the day, the boss went off the short end and had 4 pints in the space of an hour and then wobbled off to the train station.
Id sit nursing a pint over the same time and then disappear home, dinner, shower, change and get back in by 2030.
Tricky-Reporter-5246@reddit
Walshy, is that you?
gander8622@reddit
I still celebrate POETS day. However I do work longer through the week. I usually wrap up at 12 on a Friday and have a couple of hours before the kids get home from school. If my wife isn't working we go round the pub for a lunch.Ā It's quite fun, by the time we're finished our food the clientele has changed from pensioners to tradies having a swift half before home.
My first job pre-kids, we had a pub next door to the office. Used to go for a burger, beer and a round of pool. Feel sleepy until it was time to get the train home.
Happy days indeed!Ā
Stopfordian-gal@reddit
Does having fish chips and a can of Guinness count in my caravan?
Alphascout@reddit
Hot
XihuanNi-6784@reddit
It's stuff like this that confirm for me that despite working hours being officially broadly similar, we actually work far harder than the previous generation because stuff like this just isn't a thing anymore. Work really is just work time now and the opportunities to take a breather are much fewer. Someone mentioned that even the fact that computers boot up in 1 minute now instead of 7-10 means they can't just go and chill making tea anymore while they wait for it to start. All that time has gone and we're not reaping the rewards of greater efficiency, we just get more work!
ExcitementKooky418@reddit
25 years ago? In 2001? I don't believe this was still a thing in most businesses even then. I would expect most offices would at the very least heavily frown upon drinking alcohol at work or coming to work drunk
Strong_Roll5639@reddit
We go out on Thursdays now. Saves being hungover on the weekend.
justcbf@reddit
Current employer had a beer cart going around from 4pm every Friday until they closed the office and relocated. Still have beer o'clock in my calendar at 4pm on a Friday, but as the office is shared with the parent company it's a lot more toned down now.
The last company I worked at had a local with Leffe on tap, and we'd regularly go in on Friday lunch for at least 3 pints of the stuff then go to the coffee shop on the way back to the office.
I find that anyone mid thirties and above is happy to go for drinks after work, kids these days just want to get home to their parents for dinner and computer games with friends (big generalisation).
Mozambleak@reddit
People can't afford to drink anymore if you work for a council
Nigelb72@reddit
Literally did that today. Extra 15 minutes on lunch, 2 beers and some food. Fucked off home an hour early... Dropped car off, fed the cat and now back in the pub
No_Height_2408@reddit
Driving over the limit? Sounds like you have a problem
No_Height_2408@reddit
Pretty shitty use of people's public funds. Those days are gone thankfully
Joe_Tag_@reddit
Got to admit I havenāt done this for around ten years and I donāt think anybody from the office I work in now would do it (im 33 and the other staff are a similar age) I think it comes more from everybody being paranoid about driving after having a pint.
Many a amusing moment used to be had clicking off 15 mins early for lunch and sneaking out with a colleague only to find the boss already in the same pub - nothing was ever said
Ghosts_and_Empties@reddit
I worked at a PR agency in London in the 90s and this was the fashion of the time
Soggy_Tangerine9340@reddit
Past three jobs, finishing the day at midday and spending the afternoon drinking wasnāt unusual.Ā
Iāve previously sunk 4/5 pints on a Friday lunchtime, to return to the office and an email from HR informing me that my gin was waiting for me š¤£
Now itās limited to away days.Ā
Should probably try to sneak the odd Friday in with old colleagues.
matarel@reddit
Just got home from one. Still vaguely alive in parts of London. Iām in my 30s
smackdealer1@reddit
The good old days where someones age makes them less of a worker.
sharpecads@reddit
Like we can afford that!
Careless-Cooker@reddit
Too many office snitches and brown-nosers these days. Sad times.
jimicus@reddit
Was still fairly common in the early 2000s, but not so much since then.
Powmum@reddit
NHS parties were massive when I first started 12 years ago. Every pay day local bars had offers on for NHS staff. The parties were wild and a great source of gossip but it died out.
hhfugrr3@reddit
I was talking to a young barrister about post court conferences in the pub after a morning hearing on a Friday. Said he'd heard about it but never experienced it. Such a shame, was a great way to meet colleagues (I say colleagues but I'd go out with people other firms as much as my own) and end the week.
PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
Thursday for us.
Hence I'm 6 pints of Guinness in.
lilangel437@reddit
my team and i do this, i'm 27 and the team range between 25 and 51. my favourite part of the week!
Nice-Rack-XxX@reddit
Looks like me and you are a dying breed, judging by all these replies. We do boozy lunchtimes on Fridays, but it tends to be when people are leaving the team. We still do Friday spot work beers though. Sometimes leave an hour early for them too lol
fuk_ur_mum_m8@reddit
I'm a teacher so definitely not. But I know from older colleagues that teacher used to go to the local pub every Friday lunch for a few beers and scran. Crazy to imagine that now. We're not even supposed to have a beer on week long residentials!
Capable_Tip7815@reddit
My company has a zero alcohol and drugs policy and do random testing as well as with cause and routine.
My colleague would regale me with boozy tales. Even the guys who were on the tools would get pished on a Friday and go back to work.
jesussays51@reddit
20 years ago we would do that at Sainsburyās. If the sun was out we would cross the road and spend an hour having 3 pints of cider and then back in the store we would disappear into the walk in fridge for a few hours.
owzleee@reddit
We stopped in about 2000. Being pissed with root access was a recipe for disaster
AlfonseQWigglebottom@reddit
Absolutely. At least on Friday a month - more likely two - end at around 12:30 when we go for lunch and then to drink.
EatingCoooolo@reddit
People donāt get to know each other that well because half the time they work from home.
Relative-Tea3944@reddit
We used to drink in the office from 4pmĀ
MonkeyHamlet@reddit
Used to do that when I worked for BT. Policy was āyou must not be so drunk you cannot stay in the chairā.
Relative-Tea3944@reddit
The good old days! Now the beer fridge is locked except for at work socials, once a month.Ā
Rude-Possibility4682@reddit
I worked with someone who did that every lunchtime. Never mind Fridays. 5 -6 pints and a whiskey chaser to finish. Go back to work, and do nothing until 5.30, then back to the pub for two hours, for before going home.
SnooCakes1636@reddit
I made my career in organisations where this was the norm, and not just the norm, actually expected behaviour - Iām mid/late 30s.
Iām now a manager, and when I do go to the office perhaps once a quarter, I try encourage my team that we should knock off early to go to the pub. I do have a social budget, but even still they seem to think itās a joke and will stay until the bitter end. After work hours, theyāre absolutely up for pub but not so much during. Itās a shame, because I miss it!
ZanzibarGuy@reddit
Between 2000 and 2010 I used to work in big pharma. We all had flex time, but core hours where you absolutely had to be in the office were 10-12 and 2-4.
That just meant the majority made sure they had all their hours logged so that you could have a 4 or 5 hour Friday, with 2 hours in the pub at lunchtime. And for the pub, you either went off-site and controlled yourself (because: driving) or instead went to one of the on-site bars.
LikeEveryoneSheKnows@reddit
Used to back in the day. We all used to decamp to a truck stop over the road from the office, get a drink, a big fried lunch and then doze through the rest of the afternoon. Changed days.
notanadultyadult@reddit
My old job gave us 10 POETS a year which we could use to finish at 3pm. Good for appointments and could be used any day of the week.
Acceptable_Hope_6475@reddit
Yes but never went back it was called poets day and still is for a reason - nothing about going back rot he desk
Affectionate_You_858@reddit
I'm a millenial and this was my office culture for the 1st 10-15 years of my career. Some of the best times, when people actually seemed happy and sociable. Covid killed it off and it never came back, now beryone seems miserable
Educational-Angle717@reddit
I read somewhere that the influx of US companies killed off this culture sadly.
ThereIWasDigging@reddit
Early 2010s and first job after coming back from uni on a small farm. Safe to say pub lunch fridays were par for the course :D
BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit
Well, reserving my judgment about getting pissed on council time for one moment my OH works for a large local authority and has a largely WFH structure bar audits and site visits etc.Ā
Iām thinking this might have cancelled out the trip to the pub that used to be much more common for office workers and while this is still very common among blue collar workers, itās died of death in your standard office environmentā¦Ā
Affectionate_You_858@reddit
These were the days! Such good times and memories. People are bloody miserable these days
dinkidoo7693@reddit
Most of the offices round here are on specific built complexes on the outskirts of town not really close to the nearest pub. When i worked in a food hall we would get a few in from nearby businesses on Friday afternoons from 10pm onwards but I noticed that some were mainly being polite and would make excuses to leave instead of staying longer than one drink
monkeymidd@reddit
Oh the early 2000ās were a blast , at pub for 12.30 , back for 2.30 , work until 5.30 and then back to the pub. A few lads didnāt always come back but we all covered.
oldpunk57@reddit
Back in the day I worked construction Friday afternoon most of us were in the pub for the rest of the day had some Irishmen on site lunchtime they would go to burtons or Austen reed for a suit wear it all weekend while drinking then wear it to work all week next Friday do the same again good times
ZoltanGertrude@reddit
Ah. Those were the days. Lasagne and chips, four pints of bitter followed by some light cheque signing in the afternoon.
hdhxuxufxufufiffif@reddit
We used to go to a pub that made 3 massive pots of beef and ale stew, chilli and veggie chilli every Friday for the lunchtime office crowd. Take your pick, 3 quid with chips, rice or half and half. One of them and two pints of pale ale for about Ā£6.50, then back to work to tidy my desk and work through my inbox for a couple of hours. What a time to be alive.
inevitable_dave@reddit
Poets day is still a tradition in most of the engineering world, but people either just slope off at midday ne'er to be seen again or are working from home and were never seen in the first place.
emimagique@reddit
Ugh I wish, we aren't even allowed to take a shorter lunch and leave early to go to the dentist or whateverĀ
LostHumanFishPerson@reddit
I did today. Three pointed Although mostly because all the big bosses were out of office
Zealousideal-Low3388@reddit
We have WFH/hybrid + Flex Time, so thereās not really a knocking off time like that.
But nobody pays too much attention if you vanish on a Friday at 3pm
emimagique@reddit
Are you hiring?!
Zealousideal-Low3388@reddit
Quite the opposite, sadly
Bonar_Ballsington@reddit
The older guys definitely do. Weāll go to the pub at lunch for some pool and a bite to eat and some of the seniors will head down there as weāre leaving - weād go back after work for a few pints and theyād still be down there. Thereās generally a gentlemanās agreement not to mention pub shenanigans between all the age groups though otherwise both young and old would be getting sacked the following week
CiderChugger@reddit
Yes and not just Fridays
lesloid@reddit
Nah mate Iām 47 and never heard of this. It would be straight to disciplinary if that happened in any organisation Iāve ever worked for
Dry_Action1734@reddit
To be fair even in 2018 at my work, half the floor had cleared out just after midday on a Friday. Whether they were all at the pub or not, I couldnāt say. But some were. It died with Covid.
Emergency-Aardvark-6@reddit
Not now, 20 years ago but I did love friday lunchtimes when I worked in an office. Neck 3 pints, occasionally 4 down the pub at lunch. Get back spend the rest of the arvo on facebook or talking shit. Hadn't heard of poets and i'm mid 40s.
Side note, the was one lunch I took very early. Id been up all night with mate, not just partaking in alcohol. Did make it to work, vommed 3 times and got to lunch. It was a small office staff but large old house that had been converted. There was a toilet specifically for clients (posh). That lunch I coiled up in a ball on the floor my head on my coat and slept. Had set an alarm on my phone for the hour. Dragged myself up and got back to my office. Didnt feel much better ans rhe arvo dragged but got away with it. I obviously went straight down the pub after work.
Oh the shit we do when we're younger.
nanomeister@reddit
Back in the day, the Barclays Radbroke Hall campus had a boozer on site
Sam-Lowry27B-6@reddit
Haha in this economy!
BlakeC16@reddit
About 20 years ago when I worked in an office, that culture wasn't there for most people but I do remember getting seconded to the IT department and finally discovering why I could never get hold of them on a Friday afternoon. I got a lot better at pool during the months I was with them.
AwareCash8389@reddit
We do it every so often, but agreed years ago it was weekly
Ill_Refrigerator_593@reddit
Used to go the pub every lunch time in my twenties. Beer, pub grub, game or two of pool.
It did mean I had to work a bit longer in the afternoon & spent most of it feeling sleepy.
Monkeyboogaloo@reddit
You certainly see people in the City doing it but its mainly people who work in a particular sector.
I still do it but Iām old! And work from home so it tends to be occasionly.
Back in late 80ās/early 90s it was 2 pint lunches except on Fridays when it would be 3-4.
I used to work in a pub for a bit in the early 90s, it was just off oxford street. It was pretty par for the course then.
By the late 90s far less so but I did work for a company 99-2003 where drinking culture was very much the norm.
Krismusic1@reddit
Then wonder why you are made redundant.
BobbyB52@reddit
Nah, my office doesnāt because of drug and alcohol policies (safety-critical industry).
Spottyjamie@reddit
Not like i used to 10 years ago but still try and manage one every few months
Gothywinelady@reddit
We were allowed to buy booze with petty cash, to drink in the office on a Friday. It was the late 1980s.
JustGhostin@reddit
Used to at my old company because my boss, though he wad a massive cunt, at least he was a bit of a laugh when he wanted to be.
New company is much better working environment but they are boring bastards lol
Expensive-Concept-93@reddit
I remember skipping eating lunch to have cider in the pub at lunchtime and being a little merry during the afternoon. This was in the 00s. Always blows the minds of my younger colleagues when I tell them about those days š¤£
G-reeper66@reddit
My first posting in the military (UK) RAF we all went to the naafi bar Friday lunchtime, our Warrant Officer bought the first round and we got the rest in, he would stay in the bar, we would go back and secure everything then get straight back on the beer!
kunstlich@reddit
4pm finish definitely, but any semblance of booze during the workday is verboten. Even after-work pub is fairly rare midweek.
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