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Socializing For The Win?
The Living Fractal notes: "Yahoo! Business has an article about workplace socializing. Apparently, those who drink alcohol and socialize make more money on average."
According to the article:
"Regular drinkers make 10% to 14% more money than those who do not drink, according to the study, conducted by the Journal of Labor Research, published quarterly by the Department of Economics at George Mason University, and the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank."
Fractal wonders: "This article spawns a few questions. Do those 'regular drinkers' end up spending that extra 10-14% on booze? Who here is a social drinker? Finally, have you noticed this in your workplace?"
Who in the company has the most opportunity to socialize and drink on the job? If you work in a normal office, most likely the managers and sales departments. It's part of their job to work with customers and engage them not only professionally but also socially. "Greasing the wheels" of business, so to speak.
So you, in your little basement office with the desk pushed all the way to the wall, get to churn out KLOCs until your fingers cramp up with CTS for a fixed salary. They, in their windowed corner offices with lovely assistants and fresh flowers, meet with customers and hammer out deals over a fifth of Wild Turkey and get paid a commission of their generated revenue. When you get to selling million dollar contracts, those margins add up really fast.
Yeah, no one told you life was going to be this way. Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA. Shoulda studied management, eh?
Perhaps theres just as much of a correlation between non drinking and making less money. As a college student who doesn't drink I also don't feel that much of a need to get the highest paying job available. Once I get all these loans payed off it doesn't matter to me whether my car is brand new or 10 years old. Perhaps it has to do with a desire for worldly things, whether it's good times while drunk, or lots of money to buy stuff.
Of course the boss' drinking buddy gets the corner office. You didn't actually think that people get promoted because of their good performance did you? If anything, it's the other way around, the bad performers get promoted so they can do less harm.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Well, the other night I got invited to a party, But I stayed home instead. Just me and my pal Johnny Walker, And his brothers Black and Red. And we drank alone, yeah, with nobody else. We drank alone, yeah, with nobody else. Yeah, you know when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself.
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.
I spend all day drinking and never make a cent.
Property is theft.
Ever notice how the kids who drank in high school tended to be the popular kids? Or was it that the popular kids tended to drink in high school...
Correlation is not causality. There's three factors here: drinking or not, being social or not, and making more or not.
Are you making more because you're being social? It would not be surprising - if you're social you have a greater contact network, and you make a better early impression, so you'll tend to end up in better (higher paying) positions over time.
Are you social because you make more money? Perhaps to a small degree (don't discount it entirely), but on the face of it it should not be nearly as strong an effect as the opposite - and you can argue that with money comes power and there's no need to be nice anymore so you'd be just as likely to become less social instead.
Do you drink because you're social? Quite probably. Being social means getting along with people, and that includes spending time with people and doing what they do. And not infrequently social gatherings include drinking.
On the hand, does drink promote sociality? Yes, it does. For most people, moderate amounts does loosen inhibitions and relax the mind, making alcohol the renowned social grease it is.
So you can argue that if you're more social you make more. And you become more social by drinking, and if you're more social you're more likely to drink as well.
I don't think anybody would seriously try to argue that alcohol directly is connected to earning power. I'd like to hear a coherent argument in favour though.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Yes. As a former smoker, I will hang out with the smokers anyday,
I have seen company's fold in the parking lot over cigarettes and seen people get rich on IPO's during the same. The big decisions are often made in the smoking room rather than the board room. It's a weird little club.
That's probably one of the most outdated bitter views I've ever read.
Most 'execs' these days don't have assistants anymore. That role was killed to save money and now the role falls between them and their line managers. In the rare case where a PA does still exist, she's normally shared among 4+ execs.
Just one last question - where would your job be without those deals and those sales? Ever think that maybe some people hate the whole sales process, but they do it anyway because it's their job? How much fun do you think it is for a woman being pawed by a customer and not being able to say anything because it would cost her the sale? How much fun do you think it is for a family man to have potential clients oggling women and behaving badly, and not be able to say anything about it because it would cost the sale?
On the flip side, I've noticed that since not just going to work and going home, but staying around once or twice a month to socialise, my salary has increased by 30%. Just making contacts and networking is far more than learning some new technology.
just one last question - where would your job be without those deals and those sales?
Where would their job be if they had nothing to sell?
Although I see your point, I think the main issue is to strike a balance between how rewards are distributed.
And - my highly subjective view - generally sales makes more than their fare share of it.
If, say, a coder makes something that has a high impact on company productivity he might go - probably - unnoticed. If a sales guy/gal makes a big sale, (s)he normally is a hero. That is, at least, what I tend to see.
Disclaimer: I'm in the academics "business".
Apparently, those who drink alcohol and socialize make more money on average.
Funny, I would have worded it differently:
Those who make more money on average drink alcohol and socialize more.
Getting your boss drunk tends to make them be more intimate with you (not in the sexual sense) and they feel they can trust you more. They trust you more, so they feel safe promoting you or giving you a raise.
People hate the guy who doesn't do squat at the office yet is very charismatic and sociable and rises to the top. But what they don't realize is that being that sociable can actually be a lot of work. Especially across your entire network. You have to go out to lunch all the time to catch up with people...go to bars at night...throw get togethers...etc.
For an introvert like me, that's a lot of friggin work. But you know what? I recognize that that is how the game is played, and I play it, and play it well. And it has rewarded me. So I guess there's that.
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