The End of the Shift Drink

The time-honored tradition of rewarding employees with an alcoholic beverage at the end of their shift has come to an end.  While there are restaurants all around the country that still permit their employees to enjoy an after-hours alcoholic beverage on the house, on-premise drinking has the real potential to create issues that can ruin employees’ careers and ultimately threaten a business. It’s sad to say but it’s just not worth it.

Some argue that an employee’s shift drink is actually a sacred part of the restaurant culture as it serves to bring a sense of reward and camaraderie to the staff.   Yet due to the industry’s long-overdue awakening—one that’s happening because restaurant owners everywhere have been flooded with complaints, investigations, lawsuits, and big settlement pay-outs, mostly on the basis of workplace harassment—how we think about this relic must change. Restaurants are finally taking appropriate action to take harassment out of the workplace…