...and skipping through the grass on a sunny day on your way to work.
No smoke breaks, 15 min lunch 'hour', compulsory drug testing, unpaid 'overtime'....
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Last orders for the lunchtime pint
Is the lunchtime pint facing extinction? Only a minority of companies now allow staff to drink during the working day.
It's a sunny Friday lunchtime, the kind of weather that brings on a thirst for a long, cold drink.
After a week spent hunched over a computer monitor, it's easy to feel like the dust-encrusted, thirst-crazed soldier who's driven across the desert in the classic film Ice Cold in Alex.
You can almost see the condensation running down the curves of a pint, the sun glinting on a wine glass...
But hold on. Re-wind the tape, because that lunchtime pint - a cultural tradition in its own right - is disappearing. A survey from law firm, Browne Jacobson, says that 57% of businesses now ban drinking during the working day.
There have always been drinking restrictions on safety-sensitive jobs, such as anyone driving or operating machinery, but now the booze ban is being extended much more widely.
In many parts of the country, particularly outside London, an even higher proportion of companies don't allow staff to drink. In the West Midlands, the survey says that 75% of businesses don't allow drinking during the working day.
Liquid lunch "If you'd carried out such a survey 10 years ago or more, it would have been a much lower figure," says employment lawyer at Browne Jacobson, Peter Jones. The trend has been driven by a combination of changing attitudes to alcohol - and a fear of litigation among employers.
"If you went out for a business lunch, it would once have been unusual if you didn't have a drink. Now it's more likely to be a round of fizzy water and fruit juice," says Mr Jones.
Drinking no longer seems to fit with a professional image.
"Would you want to pay good money to speak to a lawyer who is reeking of ale?"
And companies have also become increasingly concerned about the risk of litigation if their staff have been drinking.
Booze blues Among the employers that has switched to a non-drinking policy is Brighton and Hove Council.
"It was quite simple really - the council didn't want front-line staff smelling of alcohol when they met the public," says council spokesperson, Alan Stone.
And within council departments, they didn't want managers to deal with staff after they had been drinking.
The ban, which extends to staff attending council functions in the evenings, has not met with opposition, he says, as few staff would have wanted to drink during working time.
But isn't this too Big Brother-ish - with an employer intruding onto the private life of staff? Not really, says the council, because the effects of drinking alcohol will spill over into work time.
And employees cannot refuse to comply with contracts which include such a ban, says Mr Jones. "There is no human right to alcohol." And in future, smokers could face employers who will make clear that there is no "right" to a cigarette break.
"It's not about a draconian measure. It's just that society is changing - and it creates different pressures at work and it changes people's behaviour."
'I'm in a meeting' But there are signs of a more interventionist approach towards how employees behave outside work; the survey shows that 28% of employers use contracts requiring staff to take drug tests if requested.
Those wanting to stop daytime drinking can point to the health and economic costs. The Medical Council on Alcohol says that alcohol misuse costs industry £3bn a year through accidents, impaired productivity and absenteeism.
But lunchtime drinking isn't just about consuming alcohol, it's about the social side of working together, says the Campaign for Real Ale.
"There should be nothing to stop colleagues from being able to go to a pub and enjoy a meal out of the office, particularly as in many cases this is the only opportunity staff from different departments get to chat," says Camra spokesman, Owen Morris.
And he rejects the implication that a lunchtime swifty is somehow the same thing as drinking at work. "There is a distinct difference between visiting the pub at lunchtime and drinking during working hours."
Crumbs on the keyboard But adding to the pressure on the long, lugubrious lunchtime drink is the threat to lunchtime itself.
The traditional 60-minute break has shrunk to an average of 19 minutes, according to a survey in January, so that lunchtime is more likely to be the grim prospect of sandwich crumbs on a keyboard than a relaxed glass of wine.
The TUC says that employees in the UK have the longest working hours in Europe - and have warned of the high levels of ill-health and stress from this long-hours culture. Binge working as well as binge drinking can be bad for your health.
But what about the other losses from the disappearing lunchtime drink? All that creative thinking, team bonding and backstabbing? There must be more to work than working.
There are below-the-radar indications that not all office workers are impressed by the alcohol equivalent of the hosepipe ban.
There's an internet page doing the rounds which lists the benefits of workplace drinking, including "more honest communication", "making colleagues look more attractive" and "giving you a reason to show up at work". Long hours, corporate claptrap, stuck at a computer screen all day, it's enough to drive you to ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4758941.stm
No smoke breaks, 15 min lunch 'hour', compulsory drug testing, unpaid 'overtime'....
------------------------------------------------------
Last orders for the lunchtime pint
Is the lunchtime pint facing extinction? Only a minority of companies now allow staff to drink during the working day.
It's a sunny Friday lunchtime, the kind of weather that brings on a thirst for a long, cold drink.
After a week spent hunched over a computer monitor, it's easy to feel like the dust-encrusted, thirst-crazed soldier who's driven across the desert in the classic film Ice Cold in Alex.
You can almost see the condensation running down the curves of a pint, the sun glinting on a wine glass...
But hold on. Re-wind the tape, because that lunchtime pint - a cultural tradition in its own right - is disappearing. A survey from law firm, Browne Jacobson, says that 57% of businesses now ban drinking during the working day.
There have always been drinking restrictions on safety-sensitive jobs, such as anyone driving or operating machinery, but now the booze ban is being extended much more widely.
In many parts of the country, particularly outside London, an even higher proportion of companies don't allow staff to drink. In the West Midlands, the survey says that 75% of businesses don't allow drinking during the working day.
Liquid lunch "If you'd carried out such a survey 10 years ago or more, it would have been a much lower figure," says employment lawyer at Browne Jacobson, Peter Jones. The trend has been driven by a combination of changing attitudes to alcohol - and a fear of litigation among employers.
"If you went out for a business lunch, it would once have been unusual if you didn't have a drink. Now it's more likely to be a round of fizzy water and fruit juice," says Mr Jones.
Drinking no longer seems to fit with a professional image.
"Would you want to pay good money to speak to a lawyer who is reeking of ale?"
And companies have also become increasingly concerned about the risk of litigation if their staff have been drinking.
Booze blues Among the employers that has switched to a non-drinking policy is Brighton and Hove Council.
"It was quite simple really - the council didn't want front-line staff smelling of alcohol when they met the public," says council spokesperson, Alan Stone.
And within council departments, they didn't want managers to deal with staff after they had been drinking.
The ban, which extends to staff attending council functions in the evenings, has not met with opposition, he says, as few staff would have wanted to drink during working time.
But isn't this too Big Brother-ish - with an employer intruding onto the private life of staff? Not really, says the council, because the effects of drinking alcohol will spill over into work time.
And employees cannot refuse to comply with contracts which include such a ban, says Mr Jones. "There is no human right to alcohol." And in future, smokers could face employers who will make clear that there is no "right" to a cigarette break.
"It's not about a draconian measure. It's just that society is changing - and it creates different pressures at work and it changes people's behaviour."
'I'm in a meeting' But there are signs of a more interventionist approach towards how employees behave outside work; the survey shows that 28% of employers use contracts requiring staff to take drug tests if requested.
Those wanting to stop daytime drinking can point to the health and economic costs. The Medical Council on Alcohol says that alcohol misuse costs industry £3bn a year through accidents, impaired productivity and absenteeism.
But lunchtime drinking isn't just about consuming alcohol, it's about the social side of working together, says the Campaign for Real Ale.
"There should be nothing to stop colleagues from being able to go to a pub and enjoy a meal out of the office, particularly as in many cases this is the only opportunity staff from different departments get to chat," says Camra spokesman, Owen Morris.
And he rejects the implication that a lunchtime swifty is somehow the same thing as drinking at work. "There is a distinct difference between visiting the pub at lunchtime and drinking during working hours."
Crumbs on the keyboard But adding to the pressure on the long, lugubrious lunchtime drink is the threat to lunchtime itself.
The traditional 60-minute break has shrunk to an average of 19 minutes, according to a survey in January, so that lunchtime is more likely to be the grim prospect of sandwich crumbs on a keyboard than a relaxed glass of wine.
The TUC says that employees in the UK have the longest working hours in Europe - and have warned of the high levels of ill-health and stress from this long-hours culture. Binge working as well as binge drinking can be bad for your health.
But what about the other losses from the disappearing lunchtime drink? All that creative thinking, team bonding and backstabbing? There must be more to work than working.
There are below-the-radar indications that not all office workers are impressed by the alcohol equivalent of the hosepipe ban.
There's an internet page doing the rounds which lists the benefits of workplace drinking, including "more honest communication", "making colleagues look more attractive" and "giving you a reason to show up at work". Long hours, corporate claptrap, stuck at a computer screen all day, it's enough to drive you to ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4758941.stm
