Only 52 Years Ago

In "Drunk On Sports" Cowlishaw tells a story about his dad, Willis.

Willis worked for Zales jewelry stores for 28 years. In 1961 the family had relocated to New Jersey, where he worked for an east coast Zales outlet.

Cowlishaw's dad was managing the store, a woman named Elvina (wow) was managing the costume jewelry and handbag department.

They had a dispute over an employee, and later on Willis called Elvina into his office after she had come back from lunch to lay down the law. As they were talking Willis told her she sounded like she had been drinking. She admitted that she always had a couple of martinis at lunch with her cheeseburger. (Martinis with a cheeseburger?) Willis told her she couldn't drink while she was working and she laughed in his face.

The next day Willis put a sign up on the bulletin board in the employees' break room saying that there was to be no drinking during store hours, including lunch breaks. Some employees were not happy about the new policy and went to the big boss, who called Willis into his office.

The big boss said to Willis: "I have a drink at lunch. You're in the East now, Willis. There are bars all over the place here. This isn't Oklahoma. I've got to tell you, you're not right about this. You cannot tell your people not to drink at lunch."

Ah, the good old days.

When our business went down the tubes I went to work for a book distributor. This was in 1999. The company had been family owned since  it's creation but it had just been sold to a huge corporation when I started.

 All I ever heard were stories of the good old days. On Friday afternoon the owner would buy beer and after the close of business, people would gather on the loading dock and have a couple.  I missed out on that.  That tradition was immediately killed by the new owners.

Who knows what's right?

Given the opportunity, some people would drink too much at lunch. Somewhat problematic for employees operating dangerous equipment.

Overall I think most people would not overdo it and it might do them some good to unwind a bit. By lunchtime most people are one step away from hitting that red nuclear launch button to destroy the world.

Or at least their job.

The truth is lots of people drink at lunch. And during working hours. We sell one hell of a lot of nips, in multiple quantities, to the same people every day at The Asylum.

A HUGE number of people smoke dope before and during work.

Bottom line: If the employer is going to ban drinking at lunch, then lunch break better be a paid break. Otherwise it is the employee's time and boss man don't own that.