Working with alcoholics in the IT business

In the bygone era of the 1990s and early 2000s, the IT industry was a haven for functional alcoholics. It was not uncommon to stumble upon an inebriated engineer or project manager, but today, such encounters are few and far between.

I'm not drunk. I'm just not that sober. Those were the 1990s. People were still sane and you could have fun.

Working with these individuals was a nightmare. Broken promises, tardiness, and a general air of instability made it challenging to collaborate with them. Take, for instance, the sales engineer (not a real engineer, mind you) from a Japanese IT manufacturer. He would obsess over his private secret, an automation project that was downloading copyrighted content from the internet during work hours, and achieve little else.

Every evening, he'd drink excessively, and at company parties, he'd be the one guzzling booze with both hands. He'd get completely hammered, boisterously loud, and artificially ecstatic. Yet, beneath the façade, he was a troubled soul, often reminiscing about his Russian semi-prostitute ex-girlfriend from many years prior. It was clear that no woman would want to be with this 32-year-old drunk sales engineer.

Unsurprisingly, he lost his job in 2001 due to his drinking problem and lack of performance. He subsequently spiralled into full-blown alcoholism, drinking heavily every evening or morning, and passing out. His fate remains a mystery, but I suspect he met an early demise due to an alcohol-related issue.

My first corporate party with free booze was in 1997, attended by telecom company employees aged 40-60. They'd order shots and beer at an alarming rate, determined to get utterly smashed before the party ended. Within hours, they were vomiting, passing out, and being forced to leave. The next week, they'd fondly recall the evening as a "great party." Meanwhile, I took advantage of the free cigarettes on company expense and left relatively sober, my pockets overflowing with smokes.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, some parties would rage all night. When you arrived at work, bleary-eyed, and stumbled upon the company pool, you'd find a rowdy bunch still celebrating. I recall entering the sauna to warm up before swimming on one of such mornings - and being greeted by a 40-year-old secretary lady, her perky tits and nipples gleaming in the heat. It was evident she'd been the party favor, passed around among the revelers (willingly, she was strong-willed), so I maintained a casual demeanor before going to swim. Another time, I arrived at work at 7 AM to find a topless young art director sprawled out on the elevator floor, dried vomit encrusted on her feet – likely her own.

Fast-forward to the mid-2010s, and companies in creative fields like art direction began offering free alcohol to their employees. This was especially popular in regions like Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki. The ploy was simple: provide free booze after 5 PM, and the young, low-salaried, and hungry-to-prove-themselves crowd would stay late at work, socialize, play games, and foster a sense of "work spirit." Meanwhile, the business owners were laughing all the way to the bank, as these naive youngsters worked longer hours for the price of "free alcohol" – no extra pay required.

Perhaps I'm getting old, but I don't really miss those times.