The Death of Happy Hour

[Anonymous]

I work in a tight office and we don’t do happy hour. Schedules in the evening are tight for everyone, not just parents, and we actually don’t want to exclude people or create uncomfortable obligations or pressure.

We pick a quarterly lunch or dinner and work covers the tab (which is, the directors split it). We do some as-hoc socializing on weekends. But we think a culture where your job is impacted by your ability to shove domestic responsibilities onto your spouse isn’t one we want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would I want to spend a couple hours with people I've been working with for the last 10 hours? I'm tired, miserable, and I want to go home.

Agree. Don't understand those people who want to go out and drink with the same people they've just spent 8+ hours with.

If you want me to go to happy hour, pay me overtime.

I'm confused. We used to do company sponsore lunches, the happy hours were always informal. People who didn't want to go weren't wanted.

[Anonymous]

I am late 40s. I never went to work happy hours ever. I am an introvert.

[Anonymous]

I LOVED a work happy hour in the 2000s. Mostly with my grad school friends and dh's work friends. He worked in international aid and there were always interesting people in town. Now my company (that we own) is fully remote, so no happy hours. Oh well. I prefer meeting up with friends for morning coffee or walks, or tennis, or anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tons of networking happy hours in DC. And venues have gotten better at having non-alcoholic drinks, which is great.

I WFH, I've got kids, and I cut out the drinking, but I used to be a shark at happy hours. They were the perfect time to have a chat with people up the management chain. Even better was using happy hours to undermine management. I never smoked, but visiting smoking lounges used to be the other great place to hear and spread gossip and to get into the ear of certain bigwigs.

You're my kind of person! And we all smoked, and with our bosses. It was pretty great. No one judged and many couples were formed that way.