Watching the English

THE AFTER-WORK DRINKS RULES

I was talking with my social-scientist sister recently about after-work drinks, and she started to tell me about a recent study she had seen on stress in English workplaces. 'Don't tell me,' I interrupted. 'It showed that employees who go to the pub for after-work drinks with their colleagues suffer less stress than those who don't, right?' 'Yes, of course it did,' she replied. 'I mean, duh, we knew that!' And pretty much any English worker familiar with the after-work drinks ritual could have told you the same thing - and would no doubt add that social scientists have a habit of stating the bloody obvious. But it is nonetheless nice, I think, to have our instinctive 'knowledge' of such matters properly measured and confirmed by objective research. Being a social scientist is a pretty thankless job, though, particularly among the ever-cynical English, who generally dismiss all of our findings as either obvious (when they accord with 'common knowledge') or rubbish (when they challenge some tenet of popular wisdom) or mumbo-jumbo (when it is not clear which sin has been committed, as the findings are couched in incomprehensible academic jargon). At the risk of falling into one or all of these categories, I will try to explain how the hidden rules of the after-work drinks ritual make it such an effective antidote to the stresses of the workplace.

First, there are some universal rules about alcohol and about drinking-places. In all cultures, alcohol is used as a symbolic punctuation-mark - to define, facilitate and enhance the transition from one social state or context to another. The transitional rituals in which alcohol plays a vital role range from major life-cycle 'rites of passage' such as birth, coming-of-age, marriage and death to far less momentous passages, such as the daily transition from work-time to play-time or home-time. In our culture, and a number of others, alcohol is a suitable symbolic vehicle for the work-to-play transition because it is associated exclusively with play - with recreation, fun, festivity, spontaneity and relaxation - and regarded as antithetical to work44.

There are also universal 'laws' about the social and symbolic functions of drinking-places. I mentioned these at the beginning of the chapter on pub-talk, but it is worth reminding ourselves here that all drinking-places, in all cultures, have their own 'social micro-climate'. They are 'liminal zones' in which there is a degree of 'cultural remission' - a temporary relaxation or suspension of normal social controls and restraints. They are also egalitarian environments, or at least places in which status distinctions are based on different criteria from those operating in the outside world. And, perhaps most important, both drinking and drinking-places are universally associated with social bonding.

So, the English after-work drinks ritual functions as an effective de-stressor partly because, by these universal 'laws', the hierarchies and pressures of the workplace are soluble in alcohol, particularly alcohol consumed in the sociable, egalitarian environment of the pub. The funny thing is that the after-work drinks ritual in the local pub has much the same stress-reduction effect even if one is drinking only Coke or fruit juice. The symbolic power of the pub itself is often enough to induce an immediate sense of relaxation and conviviality, even without the social lubricant of alcohol.

The specific, self-imposed rules of the English after-work drinks ritual are mainly designed to reinforce this effect. For example, discussion of work-related matters is permitted - indeed, after-work drinks sessions are often where the most important decisions get made - but both the anti-earnestness rules and the rules of polite egalitarianism are much more rigorously applied than they are in the workplace.

The anti-earnestness rules state that you can talk with colleagues or work-mates about an important project or problem in the pub, but pompous, self-important or boring speeches are not allowed. You may, if you are senior enough, get away with these in workplace meetings (although you will not be popular), but in the pub, if you become too long-winded, too serious or too 'up yourself', you will be summarily told to 'come off it'.

The polite-egalitarianism rules prescribe, not exactly a dissolution of workplace hierarchies, but a much more jocular, irreverent attitude to distinctions of rank. After-work drinks sessions are often conducted by small groups of colleagues of roughly the same status, but where a mixing of ranks does occur, any deference that might be shown in the workplace is replaced in the pub by ironic mock-deference. Managers who go for after-work drinks with their 'team' may be addressed as 'Boss', but in a jokey, slightly insolent way, as in 'Oi, Boss, it's your round!' We do not suddenly all become equals in the pub, but we have a license to poke fun at workplace hierarchies, to show that we do not take them too seriously.

The rules of after-work drinks, and of pub-talk generally, are deeply ingrained in the English psyche. If you ever find that a business discussion or interview you are conducting with an English person is somewhat stilted, over-formal or heavy going, ask the person to 'just talk as though we were in the pub,' or 'tell me about it as you would if we were in the pub.' Everyone will know exactly what you mean: pub-talk is relaxed, informal, friendly talk, not trying to impress, not taking things too seriously. Of course, if you can actually take the person to the nearest pub, so much the better, but I have found that even just 'invoking' the social micro-climate of the pub in this way can reduce tensions and inhibitions.