I think that if I am the generic able-bodied person with no other commitments then after work drinks are no problem. But maybe I have a history of alcoholism, and I can’t be around alcohol. Or maybe I have kids to pick up from daycare, so I can’t join. Or maybe I have an extra long commute and need to start heading home as soon as work ends. Or maybe it is as simply as having a small amount of hearing loss, such that even though office conversations are fine I literally can’t hear anything in a bar with loud music and a dozen background conversations.
If it were just some friends hanging out then I think it wouldn’t be so troublesome, but work relationships are often formed at “after work drinks,” and as a result some people are systematically (although unintentionally) excluded from the very events that make them more likely to get promotions, etc.
I wouldn’t go so far as to put some kind of a ban on “getting drinks,” but I think that there should be consideration to benefits, risks, who is being excluded (and if it is justified to exclude them), etc. A lot of it is context-dependent, so we can’t really make rules that apply to different organizations (what works for Org A might not work for Org B), but in general I am very much in agreement with you that I’d also “like to see a bit more nuance and thought.”
I think that if I am the generic able-bodied person with no other commitments then after work drinks are no problem. But maybe I have a history of alcoholism, and I can’t be around alcohol. Or maybe I have kids to pick up from daycare, so I can’t join. Or maybe I have an extra long commute and need to start heading home as soon as work ends. Or maybe it is as simply as having a small amount of hearing loss, such that even though office conversations are fine I literally can’t hear anything in a bar with loud music and a dozen background conversations.
If it were just some friends hanging out then I think it wouldn’t be so troublesome, but work relationships are often formed at “after work drinks,” and as a result some people are systematically (although unintentionally) excluded from the very events that make them more likely to get promotions, etc.
I wouldn’t go so far as to put some kind of a ban on “getting drinks,” but I think that there should be consideration to benefits, risks, who is being excluded (and if it is justified to exclude them), etc. A lot of it is context-dependent, so we can’t really make rules that apply to different organizations (what works for Org A might not work for Org B), but in general I am very much in agreement with you that I’d also “like to see a bit more nuance and thought.”