serving alcohol at office events
Caroliso
352 Posts
Do any of you have written guidelines on when alcohol (wine & beer) can be served at office events or meetings?
We historically have not made alcohol available for any events except our annual holiday party, which we used to host. For the past few years we've held it at a local restaurant so none of our in-house events have had alcohol served.
For other events in the office, ranging from celebrations for various achievements to going away parties, we don't do alcoholic beverages, lean toward sparkling cider if we want to toast. The reasons have to do with cost (we are project based and our funders don't reimburse, obviously), liability, exposure to staff with objections to or intolerance for alcohol, etc.
We don't have anything in writing, though. Any suggestions? This came up because I just learned that a senior staff member brought in a bottle of wine to serve at a lunchtime small meeting, and I'm thinking I should remind everyone of what our policy is.. or at least follow up with this one person.. except we don't exactly have one! So I guess I'm asking you to weigh in on policy or practice, and your rationale.
Thanks.
We historically have not made alcohol available for any events except our annual holiday party, which we used to host. For the past few years we've held it at a local restaurant so none of our in-house events have had alcohol served.
For other events in the office, ranging from celebrations for various achievements to going away parties, we don't do alcoholic beverages, lean toward sparkling cider if we want to toast. The reasons have to do with cost (we are project based and our funders don't reimburse, obviously), liability, exposure to staff with objections to or intolerance for alcohol, etc.
We don't have anything in writing, though. Any suggestions? This came up because I just learned that a senior staff member brought in a bottle of wine to serve at a lunchtime small meeting, and I'm thinking I should remind everyone of what our policy is.. or at least follow up with this one person.. except we don't exactly have one! So I guess I'm asking you to weigh in on policy or practice, and your rationale.
Thanks.
Comments
On a side note, we used to have alcohol at most all of our all company events, however in recent years have moved away from it. We found that it often created a safety liablity when our employees drove home. In addition, without alcohol, we tend to have fewer harassment claims after events now.
If you e-mail me at [email]lisa.wolf@iwireless.com[/email], I would be more than happy to e-mail you the entire policy.
Hope that helps!