The Death of Happy Hour

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Smoking lounges? How old are you? Actual question, I'm turning 40 next month and don't remember these.

Lucky you, the smoking lounges were an upgrade, used to be some offices were a wall of smoke.

I was born in 1986 and my first job, where i worked from 2000 to 2002, had a smoking lounge.

[Anonymous]

Happy Hour gatherings still occur sometimes in Clarendon or Ballston, mostly for a younger crowd.

Parents have to do child care pickup and such like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It happened when companies stopped caring about employees. They stopped being competitive with wages, didn't want to train, and outsourced more and more to maximize shareholder profits.

This.

It used to be you worked together for a while, developed friendships, did things together. Now everything is about shareholder value.

I've seen it happen during my career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It happened when companies stopped caring about employees. They stopped being competitive with wages, didn't want to train, and outsourced more and more to maximize shareholder profits.

This.

It used to be you worked together for a while, developed friendships, did things together. Now everything is about shareholder value.

I've seen it happen during my career.

Where I work we've all been there a long time, and the people who share a national origin are so tight that they even vacation together and we are expected to work around that. It's the American-borns who remain strangers to each other.

[Anonymous]

I’m playing golf with co-workers Monday morning on the company dime. We’ll definitely drink Transfusions while we play. I feel bad for the WFH drones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Smoking lounges? How old are you? Actual question, I'm turning 40 next month and don't remember these.

Lucky you, the smoking lounges were an upgrade, used to be some offices were a wall of smoke.

I was born in 1986 and my first job, where i worked from 2000 to 2002, had a smoking lounge.

GenZ just pop a zyn

[Anonymous]

I doubt kids and commute is real issue. Years ago we had kids and commutes.

At my current job we want to take everyone including family to a nationals game after work on a weekday. We pay for tickets, food drinks and people can expenses parking or metro. My old company did this on a Saturday in 2004 and was a big hit. All the families went tons of fun.

This year in 2025 HR got questions is this mandatory. We had to write in big letters voluntary event. Then since we WFH three days a week people ask does this count as an in person day. So we had to make it count as in person. Then we couldn’t even get everyone to RSVP yes or no. Will be last time we do it. Kinda sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt kids and commute is real issue. Years ago we had kids and commutes.

At my current job we want to take everyone including family to a nationals game after work on a weekday. We pay for tickets, food drinks and people can expenses parking or metro. My old company did this on a Saturday in 2004 and was a big hit. All the families went tons of fun.

This year in 2025 HR got questions is this mandatory. We had to write in big letters voluntary event. Then since we WFH three days a week people ask does this count as an in person day. So we had to make it count as in person. Then we couldn’t even get everyone to RSVP yes or no. Will be last time we do it. Kinda sad.

Boohoo. Of course people want to know if it’s mandatory and counts as in person. You shouldn’t have treated them like crap with the r to.

[Anonymous]

I made some of my best friends drinking after work in my 20s. It slowed down in my 30s but was still a thing. For me personally having kids and covid killed it. My kdis are old enough now that it's not a big deal, but working remotely killed the friend vibes at work. Id honestly just rather go home. I still show up a few times a year, but it really used to be 2 or 3x per week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I made some of my best friends drinking after work in my 20s. It slowed down in my 30s but was still a thing. For me personally having kids and covid killed it. My kdis are old enough now that it's not a big deal, but working remotely killed the friend vibes at work. Id honestly just rather go home. I still show up a few times a year, but it really used to be 2 or 3x per week.

me too, I also gained 2lbs in 3 month from drinking.
then I hired a trainer and never drank a single drop. 41 now and trying to convince my younger colleagues to do Barrys boot camp as the new hh.

[Anonymous]

Young employees don’t want to socialize with coworkers at all, ever. Apparently they don’t want holiday parties or work breakfasts or anything. They want to “WFH” full time and never be questioned on their work hours or productivity. And if you ask them to do a task in the middle of a workday they will invariably be “busy” or won’t be able to “get to it” for several days.

It is unclear to me who is going to run all these companies in 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt kids and commute is real issue. Years ago we had kids and commutes.

At my current job we want to take everyone including family to a nationals game after work on a weekday. We pay for tickets, food drinks and people can expenses parking or metro. My old company did this on a Saturday in 2004 and was a big hit. All the families went tons of fun.

This year in 2025 HR got questions is this mandatory. We had to write in big letters voluntary event. Then since we WFH three days a week people ask does this count as an in person day. So we had to make it count as in person. Then we couldn’t even get everyone to RSVP yes or no. Will be last time we do it. Kinda sad.

Kids and commute is a real issue. We want to work and be done with work, especially working moms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made some of my best friends drinking after work in my 20s. It slowed down in my 30s but was still a thing. For me personally having kids and covid killed it. My kdis are old enough now that it's not a big deal, but working remotely killed the friend vibes at work. Id honestly just rather go home. I still show up a few times a year, but it really used to be 2 or 3x per week.

me too, I also gained 2lbs in 3 month from drinking.
then I hired a trainer and never drank a single drop. 41 now and trying to convince my younger colleagues to do Barrys boot camp as the new hh.

2 lbs in 3 mos? And you hired a trainer because of 2 lbs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I made some of my best friends drinking after work in my 20s. It slowed down in my 30s but was still a thing. For me personally having kids and covid killed it. My kdis are old enough now that it's not a big deal, but working remotely killed the friend vibes at work. Id honestly just rather go home. I still show up a few times a year, but it really used to be 2 or 3x per week.

me too, I also gained 2lbs in 3 month from drinking.
then I hired a trainer and never drank a single drop. 41 now and trying to convince my younger colleagues to do Barrys boot camp as the new hh.

2 lbs in 3 mos? And you hired a trainer because of 2 lbs?

12lb, can’t type today.

[Anonymous]

Bc i can't stand most of my co-workers. I'm not at my job to find friends. I want a paycheck and leave me tf alone. And "forced fun" is not fun. The ones I get along with I see outside work at events of our choosing.

Female fed