Asklemmy

School bus driver here. Drinks at lunch would not be a good idea.

Canadian IT worker.

I refuse to drink at work parties. Everyone else does and I get some peer pressure to drink but I don't care. Its normal to see people get super drunk and embarrass themselves which is why I don't even start.

Specifically at lunch, if I'm not driving and others are having a beer I will but only one. If I'm driving, it depends on how I'm feeling.

Working from home I've been known to have a beer or two on a Friday afternoon by my self.

When I left my last job we had a meeting at the end of the day with the guys I got along with and anyone they wanted to invite. There was about 15 people from different departments with their cameras on having a drink or smoking (pot) if they didn't drink as a goodbye. Was a nice goodbye. Lol

Part of my job involves operate hoists that are lifting several tonnes over the general public. Anything that is even impairment adjacent, like being tired, will get you removed from that position. If you are actually impaired you’re fired no questions.

UK/Astronaut

We take a fifth of gin everytime our home country whizzes by, so that's a full glass over the entire workday, and it tends to make the job go faster.

US/Engineer

At my first job, a fairly large firm with a few hundred people, I remember the furtive glances around the table as everyone didn't want to be the first one to order a beer. Once a single person ordered one, several others would too. The boss was fine with it, but nobody did it in front of the boss's boss. We never had more than one, though.

At my second job, a small, new company with 12ish people, it was pretty common. Sometimes someone would bring a six pack to share into the office on a Friday afternoon. Usually, the owners would join in.

At my current job in the public sector, the culture just isn't there. Nobody drinks at all during work hours. I don't drink as much anymore, anyway.

Work from home, drink as much as I like

Switzerland, IT

Depends on the team. It's not that uncommon in some occasions, for example on a friday, to have a beer when eating lunch in a restaurant.

Very common is the "Apero"-culture. Small festivities after work to celebrate something. Snacks, beer and wine are part of it. Sometimes this can also be during the day and people will continue to work after.

Bartender. I don't get a lunch break so I just drink on the clock.

I'm a welder, and no I would not. It's not allowed on the shipyard. But even if I could, I wouldn't. I'm a professional and I'm working with high power tools & equipment. I need to have a clear head.

I went back to work once (programming) after a couple of beers at the bar. Turns out not a job I can do while drinking.

I am a winemaker in the Pacific Northwest. I sample wines a lot throughout the day but mostly I spit, I still catch a bit of a buzz sometimes though. Sometimes during harvest when we're working long days outside I'll have a beer or two. We celebrate the start and end of harvest with champagne. When I work wine tasting events I look forward to trying wines from other local wineries, I usually have a fair number of tastes throughout the event. I think I actually drink more at work than I do at home.

I work in healthcare in the UK. I don't even drink on week nights let alone over lunch. I agree over here drinking at lunch would probably be seen as a problem.

I think a big part of that is the UK binge drink culture. Most people over here drink a lot in one go to get drunk as the goal.

I see no problem with a single drink at lunch, specially with your team. It helps you relax and build rapport imo.

At my previous job, my manager would take our 5-6 people team out for lunch and a beer for anyone's birthday and at the end of the year. I miss that.

My current job doesn't allow it, so going out for lunch with co workers is a little more stiff, and so is my relationship with my manager.

Last christmas I had to work during the break with only 1 co-worker, we snuck out and had pizza with a berr. It was great.

Why wait till lunch?

UK IT dev here. When I started working in the field back in 2000ish it was perfectly fine for IT staff to pop to the pub. Did for many years. Then in my 20s it became normal to have drinks after work rather than during work. Then when marriage etc came along, it became neither.

Software guy. Most productive/distraction free time of the day is mid-afternoon. Drinking at lunch would just take that zone away and push everything to the next day.

Happy to wait till 5pm, or whenever feels like a good time to do a git push.

I used to think it was unprofessional. But once I had a few jobs where employees were treated like crap, I changed my mind.

Sure, if I'm meeting a vendor for lunch it would be normal. If I'm just sitting at my desk working through lunch like I typically do, it would be really strange to have a drink and I'd probably be reprimanded.

USA, IT worker

I'm in the UK. I worked at a couple of places in the '90s - sysadmin and IT trainer - where this was considered perfectly acceptable at the time, but I definitely wouldn't now. I'm no longer in IT at all, but I don't think that it is seen as acceptable very widely anywhere now.

I work in manufacturing in America. There's NO FUCKING WAY. You'd be fired immediately if caught. I don't even think the union would try to back you up. It's simply too dangerous of an environment. However, reeking of booze from the night before? Apparently totally fine.

US IT. They provide us with drinks at lunch anytime there’s a company wide meeting.

Used to work for a company that started out as a US startup for IT Services, later it was purchased by a large German company.

During its startup days, you did not dare drink alcohol at lunch time.

After being bought by the German company, you did not dare NOT to drink alcohol at lunch time. Especially if someone from Germany was visiting. They viewed it odd that we had an aversion to drinking beer at lunch.

yeah I like to have around 7 at lunch and then puke and shit and piss all over my desk

When I worked in kitchens and bars? Regularly

Now, driving a forklift and using a nail gun every day.. I’ll wait till I get home

I work in corporate retail in the USA. It's generally acceptable if you're out of the office on a business lunch. Cracking open a beer in the kitchen at lunch probably wouldn't have any immediate consequences but you're probably looking outside of the company for a promotion.

Yes, I drink almost exclusively at lunch.

In the U.S. this has changed a bit over the years. I believe, based on watching Mad Men, that it used to be super common for people to drink and have alcohol at work, let alone at lunch. A friend of my dad used to take his Playboy subscription at work because he didn't want it to be available to his kids. Try that these days!

In the 90s, I worked at a job were it wasn't uncommon to have a drink with lunch, especially when we were out with our Managing Director.

In the 2000s it was essentially something you'd get fired for.

Now? My current job (IT in the aviation industry) wouldn't allow it but there are apparently a lot of start ups that bring beer around to people's desks on Friday afternoons.

I worked in 3 different European countries, in both academia and industry,

While not being common, it's not that rare to take a glass of wine or beer when doing a real-restaurant for lunch break at work. At least for people working in office.

Most places have an alcohol restriction on premises. But lunch time is your own time. Bars near the auto plants used to have 30+ beers already opened so the workers could come in slap their money down and get right to drinking at 12:05. I worked at one place where boss bought beer and pizza for the whole company for doing well that week. I think shop guys had 1 beer restrictions, for "safety". Us office guys could have more. 2 beer and pizza makes it hard to stay awake at the computer though.

If my boss gets a drink and I want a drink, it's fair game. Otherwise no.

US, audit & tax

Once in a blue moon, on a really nice day, we would get a patio table and have a margarita with lunch. Only if it was a slow work day, like with nothing but webinars scheduled for the afternoon (as attendees, not presenters).

It was not uncommon to see beer in the office fridge during tax season because those folks would be pulling 15+ hour days for pretty much 3 months straight.

IT related to ships and geophysical surveys.

For larger projects, as long as the heavy duty work is out of the way, grabbing a beer or two with the meal is pretty common.

Related story:
We were mobilizing for a project, and I had a real headscratcher of a problem. Work day was over, and we all headed back to the hotel for the evening. We all met at dinner, and I called it "a night" early as I excused myself after a few beers to head back ip to my room.

Project manager, who knew of the issues I was having with the system said something along the lines of the issues being serious when it caused me to be the first to leave the bar. "Nah, I'm gonna VPN in and try something I just thought of"

Yup, turns out it was abgood idea: Misconfigured soanning tree was the root cause, and the fix took 5 minutes. It was fun rejoining the others and Announce that the system would be ready the next day after some cleanup, and all that was missing was a few beers. The Ballmer Peak is real.

I'm currently in a production support role in the US, and I'd never consider it: I work too closely with production operatives that they'd smell it on me. My last couple of role involved programming automated forklifts, so it was strictly forbidden.

Ten years ago I was doing an internship an engineering firm in the UK, and a few times we went out for a beer with lunch. It wasn't exactly common, but it did happen.

When I go lunch I go home for the day. I only work in the morning.

So, no need of alcohol to cope with overwork.

IT worker in system analysis and design in the public service in Canberra, Australia.

There's no official policy though many of my co workers believe a lunch time drink is not allowed. I have often enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine or a beer at lunch, have never made a secret of it, and have never been told off or warned by anyone above me

Where I work, it's a non issue. As long as it doesn't impact your work and nobody notices it (foul odor or behaviour), nobody could care less.