Do Startups Have a Drinking Problem?

Previous discussion available here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11723133

I've worked at a couple of startups staffed with younger people that encouraged drinking onsite - in one example they even provided the beer and liquor for "Wind Down Fridays".

Shortly after I came aboard that particular place they had to put some restrictions on it, as people had been inviting friends to join in, and others were found passed out in stairwells and in the lounge. It was like living in a frat house.

I barely lasted three months in that toxic, cult-like environment because I am not a big drinker and I'm more interested in doing good work than pounding back brewskis with the bros. I just didn't fit in and knew I never would.

I'd say there is a serious problem out there.

You're a lot more likely to think starting a company is a good idea after a few beverages.

Seneca on Drunkenness: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Let...

FWIW, I don't think this kind of culture is by any means exclusive to startups. There are pretty hard-drinking (not-software) engineering departments within much larger companies.

The manager in the first story is absolutely egregious, passive aggressive and should probably be reported to HR

It's nice for the ability to fire anyone for just cause.... "They were drinking on the worksite."

Startups typically have a lower age average. Younger people have a different drinking culture. Startups reflect that culture.

When the founders themselves have just dropped out of college (or graduated from it) and most employees are of a similar age with a similar background, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone when those companies have a culture that strongly resembles that of college life.

External funding magnifies this phenomenon (because if you don't have to sustain the company by being profitable you can get away with behaviour that would otherwise seriously impact your profitability).

This is nothing new and it's not about drinking. Look at startups during the dot-com bubble: at Netscape some people actually lived in the office (at least during some critical periods of the company). Only a few years ago there was a large concern over "brogrammers" who introduced a sexualised, physical fitness oriented "bro" culture into programming communities (especially Ruby, because a lot of startups were heavily invested in Rails).

I'm not saying this is good or bad. I'm not saying excessive drinking (or sexism) isn't a problem. I just don't think looking at it as an isolated startup problem only gives an incomplete perspective.

And I'm saying that as someone from a country that considers America's frat and "spring break" tradition extremely weird (beer is 16+ in Germany and student loans don't exist to the same degree as in the US, so "spring break" usually just means working a lot).