Socialising at work - getting the balance right

Fancy a drink after work?

Socialising with work colleagues might seem innocent enough but sometimes there are issues involved and sometimes socialising becomes an ‘issue’ that Human Resources personnel need to become aware of.

Being told by your boss to go out and have a glass of something with co-workers might sound like a dream to some people.

However that is not always the view of all staff. For those who have been told in an annual review that they need to socialise more with their peers, it can be more like a nightmare.

It is this sort of situation where Human Resource specialists need to talk with managers and ensure that individual managers are not stepping outside established organisational norms.

For reasons that can be seen as right or wrong, demands from managers to socialise more, are not uncommon.

Sometimes employees who do not consider themselves as anti-social or unapproachable, can resent being told how to use their time after work.

There are instances where managers have told subordinates not being social with people in the workplace is hurting their career. Rightly or wrongly, the reality is that in many situations, socialisation has everything to do with influence.

In many roles, it's not enough to just be good at your job. Part of what your job actually involves, includes not only to do a good job, but to be somebody whom people know and know well enough to trust.

Some managers may see the ability to socialise on a semi regular basis, as effecting group cohesiveness, and for that reason rate it as important. With that background, managers can justify including discussion about socialising within an employees annual review.

Of course, innocent socialising is one thing, but unfortunately, wherever alcohol is consumed, complications can so easily arise.

Numerous workers at all levels have suffered an embarrassing moment at an office Christmas party. One survey found that some 15 per cent of employees have kissed someone at an office social and regretted it later.

The drunken faux pas is just one of the reasons alcohol and work don't mix like they used to. Add longer working hours, decreasing job security and busier lives, and it seems that – except for the annual Christmas function – in many environments drinking with workmates is on the way out.

Of course, lawyers point out that this change is possibly being partly driven by fear of litigation. Some law firms are now finding it worth their while conducting seminars on how to hold responsible corporate functions.

Such seminars make it very clear that there are a great many legal issues arising around alcohol in the workplace; not just in occupational health and safety but sexual harassment as well. In many of the countless harassment cases that law firms now deal with, alcohol is involved and often a work function as well.

Apart from the legal side of things, in most industries there is now a greater level of professionalism and this change has brought a stop to much of the after-work or during work hours drinking.

Sales functions and business interactions aren't done over long lunches with lots of drinks so much now. Instead a meeting might be called, to get decisions made.

The UK company, DH Publishing Ltd, on its website, refers to a survey that reveals that it is the English and the Irish who top the poll when it comes to socialising with workmates. 

According to the poll, some 56% of Europeans are happy to go out with colleagues at least once every few weeks with 7% of them socialising after work several nights a week.

The “beer after work culture” of the UK and Ireland is reflected in the findings, as one in ten British and Irish workers said that they socialised with colleagues “several nights a week”.