Weekly blog: One drink too many? Do workplaces need to ban alcohol?

Hi all, Alexandra MacAskill here.

Hope you’re all ok and surviving (or thriving?) during the summer break. I must admit I have enjoyed a bit more of a slower pace in August so far, it’s nice not having to get up super early to sort uniforms, lunches and the school run before sitting down to a full day’s work, and even work itself isn’t too manic currently seeing as a lot of people take the opportunity to get away in the summer months.

My husband has been away in France on a fishing trip last week, and the kids had gone away on holiday with their Mum, so I had a free house and just me to think about, bliss, right?? Well, I’ve felt like a spare part to be honest and not really known what to do with myself. Never one to just sit and actually relax, I have washed the cushion covers of the sofas, re-organised my wardrobe, cleared out the loft and continued my couch to 5k (albeit I am doing this very slowly!), and now they’re all back and I’m wondering why I didn’t just enjoy the peace and quiet!

We are getting away again soon though as it's our first wedding anniversary on Monday next week and I’ve booked for us to go back to our venue for a meal and a night there so that will be really lovely, I’m looking forward to it so much, I can’t believe how fast this year has gone!

Anyway, onto what I’m here to actually talk about, and this week is about a report on multi – generational workplaces which was published a couple of weeks ago by the Work Foundation, which is a think tank set up by a Lancaster University. It found, amongst other things, that in order for a company to have “inclusive socialising at work”, employers should consider “the appropriateness of centering workplace social activities outside of working hours or around the consumption of alcohol”. Now, this isn’t the first time this has been mentioned in regards to alcohol, towards the end of last year the Chartered Management Institute warned companies against creating environments where inappropriate behaviour is a higher risk, such as where there is drinking involved. Some of these bodies have even gone as far to urge employers to give up alcohol-oriented work events all together.

So, does this mean the end of drinking with colleagues at the Christmas or summer parties, or even being able to go for after work pints?

Well, as always in employment law, I suppose it depends and I don’t think an outright ban of drinking is going to work, your employees are adults and will make their own decisions, and they should be able to as well! Responsible drinking at work-related events shouldn’t cause you any headaches, it’s when individuals take it too far that it becomes an issue and we’ve all heard the horror stories.

The Christmas period cases of sexual harassment claims and aggressive arguments which have made their way to the employment tribunal are prime examples of the headaches that drinking can cause HR and business owners. People drinking to excess and speaking their mind to managers or colleagues or taking it too far with a work colleague they find attractive are all recipes for disaster which alcohol can be a massive factor of.

Remember from our lovely Precept training: you can still take action against staff who misbehave at work events! Conduct outside of work can, where connected to work, lead to disciplinary processes starting and work social events are a prime example of the sort of situation where that can happen.

As well as the potential for misconduct concerns, there is now a growing trend of the younger generation who aren’t drinking Studies have shown that the younger generation are significantly more likely to avoid alcohol than their older colleagues. ?There’s also a variety of reasons why people decide not drink, be that for religious reasons or health reasons. ?If you focus work events on drink this may lead to those people feeling isolated, or not wanting to attend drink fueled parties or after work socials. That can be really really unpleasant for those colleagues and, at worst, it could even lead to complaints of discrimination.

Something which also comes into play here when considering this issue is the new Worker Protection Act which is due to come into force in October 2024, this new act will mean that employers will have to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees from other staff – keep your eyes peeled for a video on just this and what to do about it starring yours truly coming your way soon!

Obviously, every workplace will be different, what I would recommend is that when you plan your next social that you need to have a look at your employees as a whole and see what event could be planned to cater to all. Banning drinking at work events would, I imagine, go down like a lead balloon in some cases and so having something where all employees feel included (such as a nice lunch focused on food, breakfast team meetings, or get outside like we did recently for our team building day!). You could even involve employees in the process so that they feel included in the decision making too or do an Emma Tice and sign your team up for abseiling without informing them of this (ahem).

If you are going to have a work event that does include alcohol then we would always suggest setting the ground rules early – send out a very clear message ahead of the event reminding everybody of the appropriate behaviour and referring back to your internal policies and procedures.

Is it too soon to start planning Christmas parties?! Seeing as how Sainsburys have got Christmas chocolate and other goodies in their aisles, I say no!

Precept are prepared for these issues year round so if you want advice on dealing with issues ahead of or at work social events, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help!