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The better question is: why would you have people on staff who you wouldn't trust to be mature enough to handle the situation?

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We're all human and we all mess things up. Most people most of the time are fine people. That's not really the question: the question is about costs and benefits when things go wrong.

I'm a mature, responsible, smart, amazing, blahblahblah person much of the time. And then other times I'm not, and my failures are largely non-malicious -- just stupid. I'd guess the same is true of all of us.

Yes, we all mess things up, but that remains true with or without alcohol. But the fact of the matter is that there will be alcohol present at some time with company events, be it a summer picnic event, holiday party, or dinners. Not to mention the fact that your employees are going to be going out for happy hours together, and just because it doesn't happen on company property doesn't make it any less a company issue if two employees have an incident.

So I ask again why you would want to have someone on staff that you would think twice about giving access to beer in the office?

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