Imagine Free Beer At Your Office, But You Are Recorded For How Much You Drink…

By on March 27, 2011 in News 36
Photo: Strom Carlson (CC)

Photo: Strom Carlson (CC)

Ryan Flinn reports for Bloomberg:

At Yelp Inc.’s San Francisco headquarters, a keg refrigerator provides a never-ending supply of beer to employees, letting them drink as much as they like.

They just have to be comfortable with full disclosure: Workers badge in to an iPad application attached to the keg that records every ounce they drink.

“If you’re at the top of the leader board consistently, I don’t know if that’s a place that you’d want to be,” said Eric Singley, director of Yelp consumer and mobile products. “Luckily, that hasn’t really even been an issue.”

In a contemporary version of “Mad Men” and its bibulous ad executives, more dot-coms are embracing the idea of drinking at work. That means keeping bars stocked at all hours, installing kegerators and letting programmers tip back a few while they code. It also raises questions about the effect of alcohol on productivity and the safety of employees.

[Continues at Bloomberg]

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  • Ned Netherwood

    it raises questions for me about how I can get one of these jobs.

  • Ned Netherwood

    it raises questions for me about how I can get one of these jobs.

  • hucksawyer

    More social control… If you want to booze at the workplace, you carry diluted vodka in a water bottle and some tic tacs. That’s all! No need to drink their stinking “free” beer. The corporations never give free stuff, there always are strings attached. This is axiomatic from the definition of the corporation.

    Here is some more advise from and to the wise:
    http://www.drunkard.com/issues/07_03/07-03-juicing-on-the-job.htm

  • Anonymous

    More social control… If you want to booze at the workplace, you carry diluted vodka in a water bottle and some tic tacs. That’s all! No need to drink their stinking “free” beer. The corporations never give free stuff, there always are strings attached. This is axiomatic from the definition of the corporation.

    Here is some more advise from and to the wise:
    http://www.drunkard.com/issues/07_03/07-03-juicing-on-the-job.htm

  • DeepCough

    You don’t have to be Akbar to know–”It’s a trap!”

  • DeepCough

    You don’t have to be Akbar to know–”It’s a trap!”

  • http://twitter.com/liverbashers Liver Bashers

    They should have this in every office.

  • http://twitter.com/liverbashers Liver Bashers

    They should have this in every office.

  • Sjpor

    Yeah, we should blindly trust the employer with anything personal, knowing that they’d fuck us in the ass for $2.00 increase in profits.

    Capitalist fucking assholes.

  • Sjpor

    Yeah, we should blindly trust the employer with anything personal, knowing that they’d fuck us in the ass for $2.00 increase in profits.

    Capitalist fucking assholes.

  • Sjpor

    Hell, I say take a job there, drink more than anyone else. Then when you’re fired you can put on your resume “fired for being drunk on corporation-supplied beer.”

  • Sjpor

    Hell, I say take a job there, drink more than anyone else. Then when you’re fired you can put on your resume “fired for being drunk on corporation-supplied beer.”

  • Grooveboss

    id rather they gave me free beer to take home and let me work naked. total freedom

  • Grooveboss

    id rather they gave me free beer to take home and let me work naked. total freedom

    • Bud Bundy

      You lost me with the naked part.

  • justagirl

    i would not remain at the top of the leaderboard… nor would i want to. however, every 6 to 12 (or so) months, managers would probably call me into their office to check my ipad for a pulse.

  • justagirl

    i would not remain at the top of the leaderboard… nor would i want to. however, every 6 to 12 (or so) months, managers would probably call me into their office to check my ipad for a pulse.

  • Anonymous

    I think they are just bribing their employees for loyalty with booze. “Seeeee how kewl we are to our employees?
    We’re the kewl place to work -Rah, rah, rah!!”

  • GoodDoktorBad

    I think they are just bribing their employees for loyalty with booze. “Seeeee how kewl we are to our employees?
    We’re the kewl place to work -Rah, rah, rah!!”

    • Grooveboss

      the beer is tainted with mind controlling nano bots designed by (Cr)apple

  • Grooveboss

    the beer is tainted with mind controlling nano bots designed by (Cr)apple

  • sob

    its a trick to see if anyone will actually do it & how much they will drink and if anything, it will eventually prove that alcohol is not a safe as everyone likes to (not) think about it. by safe i mean impairing your judgement and handicapping you, rendering you unable to work your job, no matter how you think you can control the poison you are putting into your body which is enough to make some ppl insane enough to keep doing it, despite the repetitive consequences. if you accept the koolaid, be prepared to deal with the consequences (i.e. getting fired and not having a case to sue because you made a clear and sound decision to decide to drink to begin with. you will be the only one to blame). with the limited number of jobs and with quality of jobs declining, they are now going to start acting as if they are rewarding ppl. its just to make having a lousy fucking job look more desirable to a bunch of idiots. if they really meant it, they should try the same experiment with marijuana.

  • sob

    its a trick to see if anyone will actually do it & how much they will drink and if anything, it will eventually prove that alcohol is not a safe as everyone likes to (not) think about it. by safe i mean impairing your judgement and handicapping you, rendering you unable to work your job, no matter how you think you can control the poison you are putting into your body which is enough to make some ppl insane enough to keep doing it, despite the repetitive consequences. if you accept the koolaid, be prepared to deal with the consequences (i.e. getting fired and not having a case to sue because you made a clear and sound decision to decide to drink to begin with. you will be the only one to blame). with the limited number of jobs and with quality of jobs declining, they are now going to start acting as if they are rewarding ppl. its just to make having a lousy fucking job look more desirable to a bunch of idiots. if they really meant it, they should try the same experiment with marijuana.

  • Johnk

    Sounds like a bad idea – not the beer part, but the drinking at work part, and being at work to drink. Drinking should be done away from work.

  • jk2001

    Sounds like a bad idea – not the beer part, but the drinking at work part, and being at work to drink. Drinking should be done away from work.

    • Haystack

      They’ll get sued out of existence the first time someone has a workplace injury while drunk at work.

    • grooveboss

      agreed. Or maybe this company should think about opening up a bar instead of getting programmers drunk. I don’t know about drunk nerds, all those years of repressed sexuality in service of the matrix would come out in unusual ways or maybe in the usual way as in the enjoyment of porn.

  • Bud Bundy

    You lost me with the naked part.

  • Bud Bundy

    I would love that job right up to the part where I’m fist fighting my boss in a drunk rage.

  • Bud Bundy

    I would love that job right up to the part where I’m fist fighting my boss in a drunk rage.

  • Haystack

    They’ll get sued out of existence the first time someone has a workplace injury while drunk at work.

  • http://thefirstchurchofmutterhals.blogspot.com/ mutterhals

    I stopped listening after ‘free beer’.

  • http://thefirstchurchofmutterhals.blogspot.com/ mutterhals

    I stopped listening after ‘free beer’.

  • grooveboss

    agreed. Or maybe this company should think about opening up a bar instead of getting programmers drunk. I don’t know about drunk nerds, all those years of repressed sexuality in service of the matrix would come out in unusual ways or maybe in the usual way as in the enjoyment of porn.

  • http://www.nickmeador.org/ ndmeador

    I’m sure the same company is revoking insurance coverage from cigarette smokers. Hypocrites.

  • http://www.nickmeador.org/ ndmeador

    I’m sure the same company is revoking insurance coverage from cigarette smokers. Hypocrites.