I like the idea of happy hour with other employees, presuming that I like the job that I do and my fellow coworkers (I have a general Only Drink With People You Like Policy). I particularly liked (ahem…needed…) happy hour when I taught high school.
Here’s some recent research that the Workplace Prof Blog found about Employee Happy Hour Tendencies:
Twenty-one percent of U.S. workers attend happy hours with their co-workers, according to survey results released June 24 by Careerbuilder.com, a job-search Web site. Among survey respondents who said they attended happy hours, nearly one-fourth said they do so at least once a month. A large majority of respondents who attended happy hours–85 percent–said doing so “did not help them get closer to someone higher up or land a better position in the company,” but 21 percent of happy hour attendees said the events were “good for networking.”
Asked why they attended happy hours, most workers reported going in order to “bond” with co-workers (82 percent), while 20 percent of respondents cited networking opportunities. Another 15 percent said they attend happy hour in order to “hear the latest office gossip,” and 13 percent said they go because they feel obligated to do so.
Do you attend? Do you feel pressured to attend? In any case, cheers! It’s almost Friday.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
When I was a teacher, I really enjoyed Happy Hour. We’d meet at an ancient neighborhood bar, play pinball, and drink cheap beer for a couple of hours, then swerve on home. I went because I liked my fellow teachers and felt it was a way to be in solidarity with them at a low-morale time of our careers (lots of pressure on teachers at the time).
Unfortunately, ministers don’t get a TGIF. We’re just gearing up for Sunday and madly trying to get the sermon figured out. That’d be kind of cool, though, if the ministers in a local area got together for a beer on a Friday afternoon. My group gets together on Fridays but it’s to do Bible study!
June 25th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
You too! Something about teaching (and ministry) can make it lonely work for adult-adult contact of equals.
I think ministers might need a Sunday night or Monday p.m. happy hour….
June 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Great idea! I might have to propose that to my lectionary group!
June 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I used to attend happy hour with some coworkers - did so for about two years, at least 2 Fridays a month. We did it because we couldn’t talk as much as we wanted during the day, and we needed time to decompress, share office gossip and news, and just relax. I always enjoyed those times, and I am still in touch with two of the three people that I used to go out with all the time. In fact, one of them became my best male friend.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I attended happy hour when I was a teacher–definitely needed unwind, vent, and get to know each other better time. When I worked in an office, though, we just had our own Friday happy hour…it was a young informal office (all under 30), and our boss bought the beer.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:00 am
I did when I was young and able to get up in the morning without pain. But that was in retail and it was just for fun.
Now, you can just shoot me dead before I’d go. I don’t want to socialize with my coworkers, as much as I love them. Work/life separation is much more important to me now.