There are all sorts of reasons why certain people receive invitations to social gatherings. The invitee could be a family member, friend, neighbor, client, boss, employee, vendor, or in any one of a number of other types of relationships with the host of a party. When someone is attending a party hosted by one’s client, it is never, ever, in a million trillion years, acceptable to become inebriated to the point one cannot leave the party at a reasonable hour (particularly if the ending time is specified on the invitation) and drive oneself home. Many business deals have been lost because of the conduct of someone during “off hours.” It is important to remember that, even though there is a festive atmosphere at a party, there is still the client/vendor relationship, in which the vendor can, and probably will, be replaced for any improper conduct. Even if others at the party or social event are conducting themselves without any fear or reprisal, it is only a fool who gets so completely trashed at the boss’, or client’s, home, to the point of having to spend the night there. Ick! A better solution would be to call a taxi, have a designated driver, or even better, curtail one’s drinking, so that, when Monday morning comes around and there is work that needs to be performed, one can meet the client’s expectations without the client having had to host the vendor overnight, placing everyone in a compromising situation.
I have read about this phenomenon both in academic publications as well as general news sources of particular events. However, it was only recently that I experienced it first hand. And, perhaps because it is, fortunately, an infrequent event, I perhaps missed an opportunity to step in and intervene and save people from themselves. The good news is no one was hurt, at least not physically. The ramifications, however, of allowing a substance to control one’s actions cause hurt otherwise. The message for employees, vendors, consultants, is to, as noted before, THINK. One night of fun is not worth the pain and damages which can occur. Sometimes these damages are only to oneself, a self inflicted injury. We have probably all read about co workers getting intoxicated and things getting out of hand. And what makes these worse than they would be if the same thing happened in non work scenario is that the damage can happen to one on BOTH a personal and work basis. It is just not worth the risks…
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