KAD

Hi recoverynewbie! To be honest, I was surprised to learn that everyone here didn't do that! I drank before and during work hours, off and on, for about 23 years. Given that most of my work has involved sitting at a computer, it was easy to go undetected. If anyone ever was suspicious, no one ever said so. I never got into trouble or lost a job due to drinking until this past April. By then, I was drinking around the clock. The only way I could make it through the day without going into withdrawal was to always keep alcohol somewhere nearby. It was a horrible existence. So glad to be free of that! And also glad I have the sort of job now that, even though its still IT, I work closely with others all the time.

FLCamper

It's kind of funny that so many people drank before or at work - but I've never noticed any of my coworkers being drunk or showing signs of drinking. You'd think that at my age (let's go with 50 more or less!) I'd have encountered at least one or two. Maybe its not so noticeable to others. And that may be because they'd never expect it.

Maffers

Oh heck yeah! Get up early just to down a couple of vodka mixed with whatever before work. Even coming home for lunch and having a couple without actually eating a lunch. Course I thought no one knew what I was doing, or that I hid it so well. Yeah right... As soon as quitting time came the first thing I would do is bee-line to the bar for happy hour, every day. The only person I was fooling was myself. Worse yet I would drive home from the bar totally under the influence, thinking I was good to drive... Never got a DUI but I should have 100's of times. So happy I don't live that life anymore!!!

Utpe

You'd be surprised, just like my father, nobody could ever tell that he was a heavy drinker. He never slurred his speech, never stumbled around, and could recite the alphabet backwards, all while being moderately intoxicated.

Unfortunately, he did make a minor mistake by leaving his coffee mug mixed in with liquor (Kahlúa, I believe) on his desk while he momentarily went to the bathroom. A coworker could smell the booze from a mile away, that's how they caught onto him. As it turns out, they were a recovering alcoholic (so I was told by my father).

What a shame, he was only in his mid-40s at the time. This had taken place in the late 1990s. He wound up getting another job where he was the only sole employee.

When he eventually reached age 62, he quit and started collecting Social Security. It was then that his drinking became worse. He would drink his head off, go to sleep, get up, drink again, lather, rinse, repeat. One year later, his liver was shot. He passed away in his sleep due to chronic alcoholism.

scintillady

Yes, and luckily I never got caught, but I know if I continued to do it, it would only be a matter of time. I work 12.5 hour shifts and I usually am the only one here. I work in a group home, overnight, so everyone is usually asleep and all I have to do is stay awake in case someone needs something. I am at the end of a relapse right now, so I imagine I do have some alcohol in my system even now. I expect that I may be in withdrawal before the end of my shift, and I hope I have the courage to not drink in the morning.

Wastinglife

During the height of my alcoholism, I had a typical 9-5 job in a bank. I was drinking a 5th of vodka daily and eventually I was going through withdrawal by lunch time the next day so I would skip off at lunch to a pub and have 2 or 3 pints of beer to get me through the rest of the day until I could hit the vodka after work.