The Momentum of the Office Bar

Recently, we told you all about how people have forgotten how to people. Companies are looking for ways to restore a sense of workplace community as employees slowly return to the office.

One surefire way to do that? Drinking on the job. Sure, liquid courage has been around as an office perk for quite some time, but what we’re seeing now is different from the beer-on-tap amenities popularized in the 2010s. From financial advisors to law firms and everything in between, workplaces everywhere are getting boozier.

WHAT’S UP ⬆️:
Socializing with coworkers is back — thanks in large part to alcohol. Whether it’s the return of to-go cocktails in New York, the ability to leverage hybrid/remote schedules for boozy work lunches, or employers having entire bars built into their office spaces, drinking on the clock is the latest perk companies are offering to foster workplace community and enhance employee relationships. 


Interior Architects, a San Francisco-based firm, reports that the majority of their corporate clients are requesting bar installations for cocktail and happy hours. Examples abound: QualComm hosted a happy hour for thousands of employees on their first week back, while companies like Microsoft and Wpromote marked their reopenings with wine and beer-tasting events.


And the return to office has led to the rise of “the off-site” — corporate gatherings hosted at hotels, Airbnb mansions, spas and (you guessed it!) bars and breweries. Cloudflare is even considering developing an internal tool to help managers plan off-site gatherings.

WHAT’S DOWN ⬇️:
The Zoom Happy Hour is dead, and we’re all better off for it. Now, coworkers can socialize in-person whenever they want to grab a drink together — even within their office itself. 

WHAT’S NEXT ➡️:

D Disruption	It remains to be seen whether in-office bars and work-sanctioned drinking outlasts the push to bring folks back into offices. But it’s unquestionably part of a larger shift we’re seeing in how employers treat employees: prioritizing non-traditional work environments meant to foster socializing and get people excited, even happy, to be there.
I Innovation	Fogarty Finger, an architecture firm, is responding to clients’ demands for in-office bars by expanding the idea of what an office building can provide to workers. Their renovation of Newport Tower, a Jersey City skyscraper, this year incorporated glass-walled conference rooms overlooking a huge Art Deco-inspired bar and billiards room. An office building they designed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Dock72, features a bar opening onto a waterfront patio — all directly underneath conference rooms.
P Polarization	Where do we begin? Mixing alcohol and offices can be a slippery slope to your company getting featured on one of the 10,000 new shows about toxic workplace cultures. Getting harassed by hammered colleagues isn’t a great way to build community. Plus, it’s worth considering who gets left out, like pregnant mothers and people who are sober or in addiction recovery. Lastly, there’s the question of whether these perks exist just to keep people working even longer.
S Stickiness	You don’t have to be in the office to drink on the job. Hybrid and remote workers are bringing back the boozy work lunch — sometimes behind their employers’ backs. That can be a problem when your supervisor asks for a meeting without notice while you’re at a weekday brunch spot without WiFi.
S Social Impact	According to a recent survey, what employees want more than anything else is the freedom to choose when and how to work. A bar in the office can be a nice perk, but let’s be real: it’s a consolation prize to workers for being ripped from their homes. Whether drinking in the office is a fad or something that reshapes the workplace depends on how these perks are centered within a larger, more inclusive and receptive approach to meeting employees’ needs.