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

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.

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.

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.

Work from home, drink as much as I like

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'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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Yes, I drink almost exclusively at lunch.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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

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.

No. Work is giant liability now days.

I'd regularly have a pint or two (no more than three) with my boss on Wednesday lunchtimes! And, in another workplace, while I was a young'un throwing an almighty tantrum, I spent a month having four double vodkas for lunch most days. Stunned I wasn't fired, honestly. (UK)

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.

Depends on what the boss does, but if I'm the most senior person, and especially if it's a conference or lunch meeting with someone I know well, and the itemized bill isn't required for reimbursement, sure thing. Have many times.

Some older companies have policies in place that define appropriate circumstances under which staff can have 1 drink during duty hours and it not be an actionable offense.

In the UK people will definitely have a pint on a Friday lunchtime. Sometimes two in my experience. I haven’t seen it as much in Oz but it’s definitely a thing here.

Don't drink.
Sometimes the colleagues crack open a cold one near the end on a Friday or we chill in an office corner as a sort of after-work "party"

Used to work in marketing, UK. There was a frew beer fridge, with instructions to only help yourselves after 1630 on a Friday. Beers at lunch were fairly standard on a Friday, less so on other days but not unheard of.

In my previous job I had to travel very often to customer's sites or or other offices

The ones in Germany drank regularly during lunch time. I never felt comfortable to do it since my job was very technical. In one office they even had a fridge full of beers and wines that you could grab freely. I never saw anybody drinking at the office tho

I personally don't drink, but my team is all WFH, so I don't doubt at all that there are some that have a beer or two with lunch. Or a glass of wine.

When we have in person events, there's a pretty strict no drinking culture, but once the event is over, usually people will shuffle off to the nearest pub or bar or we've done a board game cafe with booze before.

At a professional office in the American South, I wouldn't drink alcohol for lunch, but if a coworker brought some into the office, I'd have some.

In the US at a white collar job. 1 (2 max) drinks every once in a long while for a work lunch is acceptable. Depends on how comfortable you are with your coworkers and if anyone else seems willing to drink a beer or two.

Depends on what drink it is, I think that a beer would be acceptable in most places, hard liquor brobably not.

Pretty much everwhere I've worked; there's a no alcohol or drugs clause in the employment contract/policies. So officially it's not permitted; but one beer, or a couple hits from a dab pen (weed vape) hasn't been uncommon in most places either; just don't let management see it.

Since I work from home... this is totally acceptable.

I had a bottle of hot saki at a restaurant that we walked to last month.

In my past life, I worked as Data Manager in a movie, at the lunch break, everyone would smoke pot as if nothing. I couldn't do it because I can't use computers while high.

I've had white collar jobs where champagne breakfast was a thing, and blue collar jobs with heavy equipment where driving with any degree of intoxication had serious consequences but, surprisingly enough, not necessarily dismissal.

Also, decades ago, I worked with skilled laborers who would have a beer over lunch, and with concrete finishers who would drink a case of beer between 2 or 3 people while working. I feel like concrete finishers used to work for a flat dollar rate plus beer. If there was enough beer, they would stay all night long.

Forbidden by company policy. Zero tolerance for drugs or alcohol. Federally regulated manufacturing in the US.

I have worked in 6 different manufacturing companies in the US and none of them allow it. Must be a safety and liability thing.

no.

My current job is WFH, so no one would know or care. But I previously had a safety sensitive job that held us to either the same or higher standards as the federal Dept of Transportation. They were so strict that we had posters advising against drinking kombucha at lunch or using pure CBD products at all. My SO at the time had a CBD balm that I would put gloves on to help apply because I didn't want to risk it. The company said that while these products were likely fine, if an accident or something happened and we had to then take a drug test, any registerable amount would be grounds for immediate dismissal with no recourse.

Years ago, I was working on a house where there were several nests of these wicked looking red wasps. I had been working around them all morning quite safely. At lunch, I drank half a beer, and was almost immediately stung twice when I went back to work. I don't know if it affected my timing or my scent, or something else.

When I worked for a startup we'd sometimes go out for lunch and everyone would have a drink or two. We also kept beer in the office fridge but that was reserved for more Friday afternoons.

US Freelance Video Editor. Extremely common, some of us even had mini bars in their offices. WFH changed all that though.

We have alcohol at my workplace so this happens sometimes. Just be responsible.

Product designer/engineer in the US

If the team is going out to lunch to celebrate a special occasion, then a single drink has always been fine in the teams I worked with. I don't partake anymore because it makes me really sleepy in the afternoon.

I worked at one company that hosted a weekly happy hour. I was one of the employees who took turns setting up the kegs in the common room, and pouring drinks during the event. That was a fun place. The extra social time really improved some working relationships. And we got a surprising amount of productive work done just by talking for an hour or two while standing around sipping microbrews and wine.

Lol, no. I don't drink at all anymore considering how bad it is for your health, but having a drink before returning to work seems like an insanely bad idea.

Just one?

Alcohol is bad for you health. Workplaces should be better so folks don’t feel the need to injest poison to tolerate it.