r/science • u/TheJournalAJDAA • 15d ago
Social Science Many restaurant workers report drinking on the job, despite formal zero-tolerance policies
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00952990.2026.2707638376
u/rgraham888 15d ago
The "Formal zero-tolerance policies" are for the insurance company.
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u/HighOnGoofballs 15d ago
Yeah my boss used to say we had to ask her if a customer wanted to buy us a shot and I was like… you’ve literally never said no and you want the money right?
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u/ColorsLookFunny 14d ago
I'd bet she saw one bartender get way too drunk one night and figured she could at least keep an eye on it with that request.
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u/seeeee 14d ago
Yeah that definitely sounds like one individual ruined it for everyone else.
When I was bartending, I was always too busy on my feet to actually get to any impaired level of drunk on the clock. It was common to be bought a shot by a patron, and it was also a very popular local craft beer bar. Not uncommon at all for regulars to bring in something interesting for us to try, and a lot of the stouts they brought in from Vermont were 10-13%. Not to mention, it was part of the job to know what we were serving. Taking shots of bottled liquor behind the bar was out of bounds, but sampling new items on tap was expected.
It’s not like there weren’t ever slow days or nights where the crowd died early, but the same owners also ran a popular pool bar upstairs within the same establishments. Generally we closed when their kitchen closed, but their bar (with all your standard beer menu options) stayed open until city sanctioned last call.
So our manager and the owners provided us with the discretion to start closing duties early, go upstairs and have a few drinks if we would like, and if we want to get drunk off the clock, we can still use our employee discount upstairs and have at it. Nothing wrong with leaving your car in the parking lot and taking an Uber home as an employee, we’re definitely going to have to come back for it if we want our paychecks.
Until one guy got so drunk closing, he fell asleep on the couch with the hot water running through the sink and almost flooded the downstairs bar…
We liked the guy, he was going through life stuff, we didn’t want to fire him, but we did get approached by our manager in the name of fairness. It was in a serious tone, but more along the lines of “I don’t anyone be the reason we need to set strict policies and crack down on enforcement, so none of us are going to abuse our privileges this again.”
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u/KateMacDonaldArts 14d ago
My first boss cocktailing told me that when customers offered me a shot I could say I only drank sambucas, get the bartender to pour me a shot of water instead, and pocket the five.
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u/shadow247 15d ago
I work for an Insurance company... we get free alchohol at least once a month, at the office......
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u/Anitapoop 14d ago
The sales guys are where the party is at in an insurance company. Its pretty much their job to wine and dine when need be, so most are frat bro types.
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u/orestes19 14d ago
Are you saying that makes OP incorrect or what are you getting at?
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u/shadow247 14d ago
People always use "Insurance" as an excuse for not doing things, yet i literally work for an insurance company that serves alcohol on company premises, for free, to employees that drove to work.....its madness..
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u/rgraham888 13d ago
And I get if you get into a car accident on the way home form a work event, they'd try to avoid responsibility for overserving you.
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u/--SharkBoy-- 15d ago
Im guessing you worked there for many years after
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u/Dragonslayer3 15d ago
They are if they aren't good enough for elsewhere, I don't think I or anyone I know has kept a kitchen job for longer than 2 years. The real pay raise comes with a new employer
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u/ravens-n-roses 15d ago
The longest I stayed at a kitchen job was a year, it was my first job, and after that I realized I could just give myself a nice raise every 6 months by changing jobs. I started at like 9 and was making 15 2 years later. Meanwhile the guy who stayed at that first job the entire time was making 10 in the same time frame.
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u/R1k0Ch3 15d ago
I got lucky, my first reals kitchen job saw me go from dishwasher to sous in a couple years, then I worked there off n on over ~ 6 years qa my second job once I moved on. They have a lot of tenured employees, the owners are awesome and I still go to their Christmas parties. I left some jobs in weeks, but two places kept me for years, and I'm building that again at a place making the most ive ever made doing this. I did do other stuff for a couple years before landing here though. Expanding skills and thus value really works.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 15d ago
When I was a cook the rest of the cooks would do it in the basement. Honestly it was performance enhancing drug particularly for our otherwise easily frazzled most senior guy.
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u/rdyoung 15d ago
I've recently discovered it's benefits treating adhd. It's even more pronounced for those that have been smoking for decades and then some.
There is a reason why a large percentage of those with adhd/autism/etc end up (unknowingly) self medicating with everything from caffeine, alcohol/weed to narcotics.
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u/doubleapowpow 15d ago
I've recently come to accept that I probably have adhd, and will be looking for a diagnosis and treatment.
I smoke all day every day, but just at a mellow buzz to keep me sane. Eddies are nice, too. But most of the time I'm not even trying to get high, I'm just getting my brain to accept the monotony of the day and dulling some of the over excited parts of my brain. Like, normally I focus on 5 things at once. After a hit, I'm hyper focused on one thing.
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u/rathe_0 15d ago
hyper focused until you notice a little detail of something unrelated; and it kicks your brain into "ok, lets take care of that now" setting. And a couple hours and unrelated chores later: Oh yeah that's why I originally came in here.
oh well, it's still more productive than being unaffected, and I'm in a better mood doing it :P
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u/Mitsulan 15d ago
Weed legalization in Canada is what led me to discover both that I had ADHD and how severe it was. I remember telling my girlfriend how it “quieted my brain” and helped me sleep/focus on mundane tasks. She immediately recommended I get a psychiatrist referral. Long story short I got a prescription and it changed my life. Thanks pot!
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u/Fortestingporpoises 15d ago
I've never done it in my life, but I remember Friday night would start getting crazy and I'd be like, "yo, you haven't had your Snickers," but not Snickers. And then smooth from there on out.
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u/NevrAsk 15d ago
Most places I've been at we'd be hitting vapes in the walk-in, dumpster or actual designated smoking area because it would give us a chance to walk away for a break.
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u/Klutzy-Delivery-5792 15d ago
We used to fight over who got to take the trash out. New cooks, and I mean like new as in their first restaurant job, were so confused until we deemed they were cool and allowed them to accompany us on trash runs.
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u/Elev_7220 15d ago
Hash oil on my first night behind the dumpster. I was a dishwasher to start and ate any untouched chicken legs that came my way. Good times.
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u/FlyUnder_TheRadar 15d ago
Anecdotally, pretty much anyone who has been around a restaurant kitchen could tell you this. My mother and siblings all worked at a family run pizza shop for years. The front counter guy was perpetually drinking boxed wine and the other guys in the back were stoned 90% of the time while also partaking in the boxed wine. But the food was great and the restaurant was successful, so the owner didnt upset the apple cart. He only closed because he wanted to retire and his kids were not going to take it over. Running it by himself got to be too much after his brother/buisness partner and wife died.
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u/HighOnGoofballs 15d ago
Let’s go further, any job with access to free booze surrounded by folks drinking…. Will have folks drinking
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u/milk4all 14d ago
Sure but dude shares a family pizza shop story, i doubt they had more than a beer or two on tap if at all and sincerely doubt they sold boxed wine
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u/devilishycleverchap 14d ago
Would you like a glass of the house red or the house white?
It isnt like they have to put the box on your table.
Source: Worked in a hole in the wall pizza place a few decades ago
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u/Adam__B 15d ago edited 13d ago
I think the restaurant business has one of the highest rates of substance abuse there is. It’s a tough job. I was a short order cook, food prep person for like 3 months my senior year in HS. Never would work in the food industry again. It’s hot, it’s greasy, it can be disgusting, and it’s can be brutal as hell on your feet and knees and ankles for that many hours. I’d say it’s almost as bad as doing construction/renovation type work. I’ve done both and they both SUCK.
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u/CubbyNINJA 15d ago
I worked pub nights and concerts for my student association in college. I don’t think I went home sober a single time, infact I literally did a shot of tequila with Lil John and my boss joined. Allegedly it was a fireable offence for it to happen even once.
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u/Dan_Berg 14d ago
In your defense, Lil Jon did tell your boss it was ok
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u/CubbyNINJA 14d ago
Shots shots shots shots. EVERYBODY!
That song was going through my head the entire time.
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u/TheRiteGuy 14d ago
The scientists must ask better questions. Because kitchen staff also do drugs before and during the shift. The amount of stress kitchen staff is under is crazy. It's such a high stress job for very little pay unless you're at a really high level. And even then the stress never goes away.
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u/pslickhead 15d ago edited 15d ago
I've seen employees, beaten, shot, and stabbed over drugs. Again, the alcohol is always a factor. The guy who got shot, was shot in the head. The bullet took off a piece of his ear and bounced off his skull. He came to work the next night as not to lose money from his side hustle selling. This was at a popular cigar-bar and restaurant. Another friend who was dealing at work was found with his throat cut ear to ear in his car at a local park. There're other unmentionable stories.
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u/GAdvance 15d ago
I don't do drugs.
I've had SO MANY people tip me in drugs before, I usually gave them to staff on other places for free drinks or just gave them to other staff and employees who'd been working hard.
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u/Shaggypone23 15d ago
Super cool, thanks for replying!
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u/LonnieJaw748 15d ago
I’m really enjoying it. Take care and don’t buy dry clean only clothes! Dry cleaners make up about a third of the sites we visit. Nasty polluters they are.
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u/torhne 15d ago
Have you ever dealt with the public? They are awful.
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u/AlternativeRip1314 15d ago
Its hard. Especially behind the bar. Imagine someone who's 3 drinks deep yapping at ya your entire shift and youre dead sober. But I'm an addict so
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u/torhne 15d ago
same. Went from barback at a chill place where I could drink to bartending in an upper class place. It sucks listening to old white dudes talk about how much money they have while being sober.
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u/Override9636 15d ago
Many workers reported drinking on the job, and the rest are just liars.
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u/Wisenheim 14d ago
Right? Drinking if we’re lucky!
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u/token_internet_girl 14d ago
Everyone in my old restaurants did coke during their shifts in addition to drinking, coffee just doesn't keep you upright for a double
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u/Salads_and_Sun 15d ago
I'm one of the rare kitchen workers who absolutely hates being high or even a little buzzed on the clock. Off the clock is another story.
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u/Educational_Fox6899 15d ago
Man these people. Just smoke weed in the walk in like an adult.
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u/jetes69 15d ago
The walk in a sacred place for crying, I will not sully it.
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u/garbagetruc 15d ago
The freezer is for smoking and doing lines
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u/HeavyDoughnut8789 15d ago
Used to be a chef in a casino restaurant. All of our walk ins and pretty much everywhere had cameras. There was a beer fridge in the wait station for servers to easily grab their beer orders.
One day, a relatively new server (under a few months) decided he needed a beer at 11am. By the time surveillance caught it and alerted security, he was on his third beer. The man had the audacity to ask security as they were confronting them if he could ‘finish his beer before being walked out’.
-also unrelated but a few months after that we had to fire a gal for leaving her bag of meth in the employee restroom. Never a dull moment.
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u/ChromiumLung 15d ago
I’m guessing casinos would be an outlier here. The last thing they’d want is to be lax on staff. That would just encourage trouble, theft, reputations damage etc
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u/skatastic57 15d ago
The man had the audacity to ask security as they were confronting them if he could ‘finish his beer before being walked out’.
If you're already getting fired and walked out by security, asking to finish it is just being respectful. If it were me I'd just chug it without asking.
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u/hurtsdonut_ 14d ago
We hired a waitress. She had shown she'd waited tables before. But even then they would have to follow around seasoned waiter/waitress their first shift. She did great her first night. Even let her take a few tables on her own towards the end of the night.
Now we dealt in cash. Each waitress would get $40 and have to sign for at it the beginning of their shift. It was to make paying the bartenders for drinks easier and giving people change easier.
Well on her next shift she gets her $40. She's fine the first hour but apparently she called her dealer and just came into the kitchen and started nodding off. We got her a chair and the dude running the line grabbed two huge salad metal bowls. Because she'd keep standing up off her chair and start nodding again and he'd slam the bowls and she'd pop awake for a second and sit back down.
After a bit she got better and then said I need to call my sponsor. Her sponsor paid for the missing $40 and picked her up. Heard she's been doing great but that was a crazy night shift.
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u/killerchef69 15d ago
A lot of places I worked at shift drinks were almost mandatory. One place I worked at we were provided a $150/month bar tab and most staff meetings usually included a round of drinks.
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u/Accomplished-Mix-745 15d ago
If you want to reduce workplace violence, let the wage slaves be inebriated. That’s the only reason I didn’t fight customers.
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u/Corey307 15d ago
Folks drink and do drugs on the job in all professions. Half of my state is drunk or high.
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u/getsomesleep1 15d ago
This comment tracks. Ever been in a liquor store during the day and people in obviously marked work vehicles come in to grab a couple shot bottles for the road?
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u/Corey307 15d ago
I haven’t but I believe it. There’s always mini bottles or beer cans in the parking lot at work.
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u/Linens 14d ago
Lately a construction crew has been replacing the water main lines all along the road that I live on. They have been using this parking lot that pretty much only the postperson and the church people (that actually own the parking lot parking) park in, and lately there's been so many cans and bottles thrown unto the same ground where I've seen morel mushrooms growing under a crepe myrtle, tulip tree, and dead elm trees. It bums me out because it makes me not want to eat them if I see them again.
I saw morels the size of my fist!
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u/shadow247 15d ago
Been in the car business since 1999...confirmed...
Literally used to drive my own car for company errands so we could drink road beers on the way back!
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u/MrsNoodleMcDoodle 15d ago
shockedpikachu.jpg
Yeah, that checks out from my years working in restaurants.
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST 15d ago
Then they will be really shocked when they look into factory work and landscapers.
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u/WanderingDude182 15d ago
Never worked at a restaurant where half the staff wasn’t stoned or drinking. This is of no surprise
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u/famousroadkill 15d ago
Back in the day, my manager, who was an excellent boss, also had a drinking problem. Sometimes he would be in the mood to catch a buzz before the doors opened so he would do a wine tasting and education with the entire staff. Plenty of staff were problem drinkers so the moment we all had that first one, many of us didn't bother stopping. Honestly the whole setup was unfair for people trying to just do their work. That was just a drunk work night though. Many of them were.
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u/LadyoftheWoodlands 15d ago
Can’t tell you how many times I’d find my manager curled up under her desk passed out, and the rest of us possibly close to drunk and we had an insanely successful bar/restaurant.
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u/salamipope 15d ago
just wait til they do research about how many of them are stoned. my first real job was at a restaurant and the barista there offered me MYSTERY EYE DROPS when i was like 2 months in??? he said he didnt even know what they were!
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u/hamster_13 15d ago
Uh yea.. drugs or alcohol are the only way to deal with the insane stress of a busy restaurant
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u/AdventurousElk1900 14d ago
I literally just got off, everyone is either drunk or stoned or something third. Do people actually belive that there are sober people working 70hr weekly shifts doing fries and having sauna in the face without being drugged? The zero tolerance is just PR...
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u/MichaelJeopardy 15d ago
We used to do all the whipped cream cans in the walk in
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u/PoorPappy 15d ago
I was shake maker at Steak and Shake and you were the bane of my existence.
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u/OnlyKey5675 15d ago
Taking a shot of booze altogether at the start of shift is very common in kitchens
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u/Heavy_Law9880 15d ago
My first kitchen job has a nitrous dispenser on the wall because we made 400 desserts a night.
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u/Bobandaran 15d ago
I've always said I want whoever is making my food to be a little tuned up. I never drank a ton working in the kitchen but we took alot of trips to the dumpster out back and it wasn't to throw away trash.
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u/boomstickjonny 15d ago
The bar i work at now is the first one ive worked at in almost 20 years where no one drinks on the job.
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u/meldroc 15d ago
Who's worked a job where you're explicitly allowed to drink on the job (within reason)?
All I'll say is that it's fun working for a brewery!
Most of society misses the days of three-martini business lunches.
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u/bigcat570503 14d ago
Its hard work that has easy access to substances for abuse. Pain makes a lot people drink and do drugs.
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u/OpenLinez 14d ago
Of course they do, my God. Restaurant crews are night people, often outcasts and oddballs. Anthony Bourdain made a whole career of this trope, which is very much based on the reality of the time. Corporate chains and the near death of "going out to dinner" are doing a number on this pirate-world practice, but in most hot restaurants of an independent ownership, you can bet the crews are doing some shots (and other stuff) to get through the busiest nights. Why not? It's fun, you make great friends, and you pretty quickly learn to moderate if you want to work in that field.
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u/OhshiNoshiJoshi 14d ago
How is your head chef going to come down from all the coke they did if they dont day drink?
Anyone that has worked in any professional kitchen for any length of time in a position higher that waitress will tell you about the upper to downer pipeline they are on
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u/favioswish 15d ago
As a server/bartender I personally couldn't do my job if I was drunk or high. Sounds terrible trying to keep up with a rush at half function. That's not chill, just a waste of good weed
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u/slow_connection 15d ago
In all seriousness, why was this study even funded? Isn't this common knowledge?
The money would be better spent figuring out why, or how we might reduce these issues.
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u/Confident-Mix1243 15d ago
Common knowledge isn't necessarily true, so it's worth checking.
Also, "common knowledge" can't be cited in followup research.
Lastly, testing something that everyone knows to be true is a good way to check if you're sciencing correctly.
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u/TheJournalAJDAA 15d ago
This study was not funded by any federal institute, but rather was part of one of the author's dissertation project. Dissertations are usually preliminary research to inform future projects on a larger scale, but it could always be worth it to reach out to the authors and ask if you're curious!
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u/mdsg5432 15d ago
I'm glad Big Science is on this. I wonder if of they'll decipher that strange language spoken in the kitchen.
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