Startups usually have fridge full of booze. We usually use it on fridays or during certain major milestones. Not a big deal
That's not startup normal. Maybe having beer and liquor bottles in the kitchen or snack room or whatever but half empty bottles littering the CEO's desk and every employee or even every team having their own mini-fridge is odd.
I've worked at startups with a "drinking culture" and startups with a "board game culture" and I'll take the board game culture every time. Doesn't mean you can't let loose and drink, too - but drinking as the central activity quickly turns a business into a frat house. I do have some great memories celebrating milestones, new hires, etc with early stage coworkers :D
Alcohol use among high school seniors in the US is on the decline, so is use of any “illicit” drug. [1]
I’m no square, but this should be encouraged.
Young people already deal with stress of fitting in at a high-velocity workplace.
Modeling conspicuous substance consumption at work seems pretty backward to me.
Perhaps the most irresponsible illustration of this is Elon Musk who has made his substance use so overt I think it wrongly and perhaps dangerously couples using to entrepreneurial success.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/26/the-concern...
Sounds wholesome, but is probably just the symptom of people going out and socializing less, resulting in increased isolation and loneliness.
oh come off it, what substance abuse? he toked on a blunt on JRE once (clearly barely inhaled and even then, so what) and has a few bourbons with his brother on yearly retreats? please provide more info about this, because i've never, ever taken musk to be that sort of guy.
It becomes less and less cool as you age and realize you really gotta be careful not to go the same route.
That being said, a mini-fridge of booze _per-employee_ is pretty unusual.